How to import dives from a Garmin dive computer

Worth knowing

• Garmin runs two separate but linked apps and you need to know which does what: the Garmin Dive app is the dive-specific client (dive logs, buddies, sites, per-dive FIT export) while Garmin Connect is the general fitness account underneath it. Dives sync from the watch into Dive, and Dive syncs up into the Connect account. A Garmin account is required for anything beyond the phone-local view.
• CSV export is web-only. The Garmin Connect website can emit both CSV (a summary of many dives) and FIT (one dive, full profile); the Garmin Dive phone app can only emit FIT, one dive at a time. There is no bulk per-dive FIT export short of the full account-archive request.
• There is no UDDF or DL7 export anywhere in Garmin's stack. Everything comes out as FIT (or a flat CSV summary), so any importer has to parse Garmin's FIT dive messages.
• No serial driver exists or is needed. This is the single biggest difference from the legacy cable brands: Garmin's own toolchain talks to the watch over Bluetooth (phone) or native USB (desktop). Third-party desktop tools that read the device directly do hit the MTP layer, and on Windows those tools typically need a generic WinUSB/libusb shim installed against the MTP interface. But that is a third-party requirement, not a Garmin-supplied driver.
• MTP allows only one connection at a time. If another MTP-aware application has the Descent open, a second tool will fail to enumerate it. This is a common cause of 'device not found' reports on Mk2 and later.
• The Descent Mk1 is the odd one out on the desktop: being USB mass storage rather than MTP, it simply mounts as a drive, and its FIT files can be copied straight off GARMIN/Activity with no software at all.
• Garmin Express is a firmware-and-sync utility, not a logbook. Divers looking for a desktop dive-log application from Garmin will not find one. The web Garmin Connect interface is the only desktop-class viewer.
• CATALOGUE DATA ERROR: our dive_computers.json lists 'Descent X10' and 'Descent X10i' under garmin. Neither exists as a Garmin product. Garmin's large-format X line is only the Descent X50i (announced Nov 2024) and the Descent X30 (announced Sep 2025); there is no X10 or X10i on garmin.com, in Garmin's support manual index, or in libdivecomputer's descriptor table. Those two rows should be removed or corrected, leaving 11 real models.
• Garmin's support-site FAQ URLs rot. The widely-cited 'Learn More About the Devices Compatible With the Garmin Dive App' article (faq=LPTn92Mw434Jn4RkxvlJZ7) is dead and returns Garmin's 404 page despite still being indexed by search engines. It was verified and dropped rather than listed here.
• The Garmin Dive app itself has a fairly aggressive phone-OS floor: iOS 17.0 or later, or Android 9.0 or later with native Google Play support. Android Go edition devices are explicitly excluded. An older phone can therefore strand an otherwise perfectly good Descent.
• Descent S1 is a surface smart buoy accessory, not a wrist dive computer, so its manual is deliberately excluded from the model mapping below even though it shares the Descent name and the Garmin Dive app.