Select the Right Device: Garmin Device Storage Test
Mar 4, 2023
Pretty much all research projects ask the same question – “how many days of data can be stored on a Garmin device before it needs to be synchronized?”
You may have expected this, the answer is – “it depends!“
Let’s get first started on the basics. Each Garmin device comes with an internal storage that varies in size by each model ranging from just a few MB to several GB.
Once the device storage is full, it will start to overwrite the oldest data. Some but not all device models may warn users if device storage is full. However, this warning message depends on the firmware utilized on the device and cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, it is advised to plan out the data synchronization schedule for each research project. Synchronizing the Garmin device with Fitrockr transfers the data from the device and clears up the storage.
The frequency that users should synchronize their device depends on the data types collected, the level of activity of each user and the storage capacity of the device model.
Accurately predicting the exact storage need is very difficult but we ran a few tests that will help to get a ballpark estimate on required storage.
We have tested with a Vivosmart 5 device that comes with a total storage of 28 MB where 50% are already occupied by its firmware. This leaves approx. 14 MB of storage for data collection.
Data Collection Test #1 – base data collection profile
We used the base data collection profile which is the minimum data a Garmin device is providing. This data collection profile is representative for research projects that focus on activity and sleep data only.
During the test, the device was worn for 14 hrs with a low activity level which consumed 0.1 MB of storage. This results in the following data consumption.
| Duration | Data Consumption* |
|---|---|
|
Hourly |
7.14 KB |
|
Daily |
171,36 KB |
|
Weekly |
1.2 MB |
* medium and high activity levels may consume more.
In this example, Vivosmart 5 model with 14 MB storage could hold several weeks of data before it needs to be synced.
Data Collection Test #2 – extended data collection profile
We configured the following data collection profile which is quite representative for many research projects.
During the test, the device was worn for 2 hrs with a low activity level which consumed 0.1 MB of storage. This results in the following data consumption.
| Duration | Data Consumption* |
|---|---|
|
Hourly |
0.05 MB |
|
Daily |
1.2 MB |
|
Weekly |
8.4 MB |
* medium and high activity levels may consume more.
In this example, Vivosmart 5 model with 14 MB storage could hold slightly more than a week of data before it needs to be synced. If data subjects cannot sync every other day or every week, it is recommended to utilize a different Garmin model such as Venu Sq Music or Venu Sq2 with 4 GB data storage, Fenix 7 with 16 GB data storage, or Fenix 7 Sapphire with a whopping 32 GB data storage.
Data Collection Test #3 – extreme data collection profile
We configured the following data collection profile which is extreme in its demands (particularly the Accelerometer setting) and may only be relevant for selected research projects.
The device was worn for 6 hrs with a low activity level which consumed 3 MB of storage. This results in the following data consumption.
| Duration | Data Consumption* |
|---|---|
|
Hourly |
0.5 MB |
|
Daily |
12 MB |
|
Weekly |
84 MB |
* medium and high activity levels may consume more.
In this example, Vivosmart 5 model with 14 MB storage could only hold a day of data before it needs to be synced. If data subjects cannot sync every day, it is recommended to utilize a different Garmin model such as Venu Sq Music or Venu Sq2 with 4 GB data storage, Fenix 7 with 16 GB data storage, or Fenix 7 Sapphire with a whopping 32 GB data storage.
We recommend that research projects align their data collection needs with Garmin and us to ensure that the right model is chosen. Our free Trial period also allows to test out data collection demands before purchasing high volumes of Garmin devices.
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