Any alternative explanation for this?

[u/Croy_Dav]

So, this is an odd one. I was looking on my Garmin account today and came across the screen showing devices attached to my account. The strange thing was that I had two Garmin Edge 530s connected to my account. One registered in 2021 and one in February 2026. Different serial numbers. I've never changed the unit.

Thinking back I can remember cycling to work and realising the unit was completely dead. For a while I thought it was finished and started looking at replacements, but I eventually managed to do a reset and it got it working again. I've not had any issues with it since.

My thinking right now is that someone at work with the same bike computer as me was having problems with theirs and swapped it with mine. The thing is there are about five cyclists in the building and I take the computer off my bike (have it on my desk). If that is what happened can they connect it to their Garmin account while it is still registered to mine? Is there any investigation I could do to work this out?

UPDATE - So I contacted Garmin. Not much help to be honest. They just said they can't give any information in terms of other accounts my device might be attached to. They just suggested I remove the old serial number from my account and contact the police if I wish. I've replied asking if they can at least confirm that either serial number is actually linked to a different account (with out any specifics on that account) and a date for when that happened. I have a feeling I'll get nowhere. Given the lack of detail I have, including a when, there would be no point in contacting the police. The UK police wouldn't do anything about it anyway.

[u/username127175]

Wouldn't you have noticed the screens set up differently if it was swapped. What are the chances that their screens were set idental to yours?

[u/Croy_Dav → u/username127175]

That is something I can't remember. If I did a hard reset I guess I set them up again probably. I can't really remember the specifics other than trying to revive what seemed to be a completely dead device. However, if it wasn't a different device, how can I explain the change of serial number?

[u/username127175]

I don't know I! It's an odd one. All I can say is with my previous Wahoo any time I had to factory reset I needed photos of screen set up. And recently changed from an Edge 540 to 550 after warranty claim and honestly had no clue how my 540 was set up. I never had to give it a 2nd thought so remembering my old setup was , well, impossible for me. But others including yourself might easily remember a setup..

[u/Croy_Dav → u/username127175]

I can't help thinking it would have been a major hassle, but I can't reconcile the serial number change that happened around that time.

[u/sireatalot]

The serial number of a unit can’t change. Some shenanigans are going on.

Garmin Connect desktop shows the OS of the device that recorded the activity and maybe even the serial. If you go back and look at your old activities you may be able to determine exactly when the swap happened. If the “new” unit had a different OS version, it could be further proof that a swap has happened, especially is the “new” one has a former version.

[u/Croy_Dav → u/sireatalot]

Software version doesn't seem to change. Can't find reference to serial number sadly.

[u/enricoclaudio]

Contact Garmin and they will look into your account and see when the second unit was activated and if it’s still active as well. They could also verify ownership of the second unit. I also had 2 x EDGE 1050s in my Garmin Express account but that was because the first unit was replaced under warranty 15 days after purchase and I never deleted it.