When an ageing fitness tracker finally needs to be replaced, sometimes you’re tempted to switch brands — for example, trading in your ageing slim Fitbit for a bigger running watch. You might be getting a new running watch in the Black Friday sales, or hoping for one under your tree — but a new tracker sometimes that means losing years of data about your workouts, sleep, heart rate, and general activity.
Your historical health data is useful for more than just flexing on your Strava contacts or keeping those fitness rings closed. Changes in your resting heart rate or sleep pattern, for example, can contribute to a fuller picture of your health. That’s why in 2026, many of the best options like the Apple Watch, Google‘s Fitbit lineup and the best Garmin models have made transferring your data remarkably simple – or at least easier than ever.
To help you upgrade to a newer model or switch brands entirely, we’ve broken down the data transfer processes for the major fitness tracker makers.
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Check what you can transfer before switching
Not every move is tricky: going between different Garmin versions, or upgrading your Apple Watch, is a generally straightforward process that can take moments, due to operating from the same account.
Switching manufacturers, however, is where things can become a little more complicated. Going from a Garmin Forerunner to a COROS Pace 4 can require manually exporting your data and then importing it into a new platform.
Think of it as three distinct processes: backing up your data, syncing new activities between apps, and importing historical records, each with their own requirements.
Before we continue, it’s worth noting that while common activity data (think…