Audio File Type Support for Garmin Music Watches

Watches that feature a music player support several common media file types, such as mp3 (standard music format) and m4b (audiobooks), and can store up to 500 files if memory allows. 

NOTE: Garmin® watches that support music playback need meta data to be present on the music/podcast files in order to properly sort and categorize the music. The specific meta data needed is known as ID3 tags. If a podcast creator or music source chooses to leave these tags out of their files when publishing them, a Garmin watch may display the affected episodes or songs with alpha-numeric strings or not display the audio content at all. This can only be resolved if the ID3 tags are added to the music/podcast file.

List of Compatible Audio Formats

• .aac Advanced Audio Coding files¹

• .adts Audio Data Transport Stream file

• .m3u Multimedia playlist file

• .m3u8 Multimedia playlist file

• .m4a An audio-only .mp4 file used by Apple (The ALAC encoding is not supported.)

• .m4b Audiobook/podcast files²

• .mp3 Standard non-DRM file format

• .pls Multimedia playlist file³

• .wav Lossless, uncompressed, CD quality music files

• .wpl Windows Media Player playlist file³

• .zpl Multimedia music or playlist file³

Use your preferred media management program to create and edit playlists, and then sync them using the Garmin Express™ software. For help see: Manage Music Content on My Watch with Garmin Express.

Some media management programs will require you to remove any special characters and extra spaces from folders, playlists, and song titles as these will not display on your watch. 

Media files must be stored on the hard drive of the computer. External drives and Cloud Storage (Home Network, Google Drive, etc.) cannot be detected by Garmin Express.

Garmin has partnered with select third party music providers to download playlists to your watch seamlessly. If the music provider you are using has not partnered with Garmin, you may experience problems with some songs or playlists transferring to your watch.

¹ Protected AAC audio files cannot be transferred to a watch without removing the DRM (Digital Rights Management) designation from the file.  For help with identifying and converting these files see: Does My Garmin Music Watch Support DRM Restricted Audio Files?

² If you are using macOS Catalina 10.15 or Big Sur 11.0 and are having trouble accessing audiobooks in Garmin Express see Garmin Express Isn't Finding My Audiobooks

³ .wpl, .zpl, and .pls files are not supported natively and must be synced over to the watch using Garmin Express.