My old Edge 810 had the ability to turn off VP. My Edge 830 does not have the ability to turn off VP. I've been asking Garmin to bring the capability to turn off VP forward from the 810 with no response from Garmin. I have had a lot of folks chime in to my thread saying that they would like to be able to disable VP too. I recommend that you start a therad on your device forum whe Garmin gets back on line.
I also tested if Garmun had some secret to hide the arrow if you didn't set a goal. They don't. Even if you create a route in Garmin Connect with 'no goal', it put default time stamps in file (5 min/km in my test) and show the grey arrow.
I found workaround: set the timer/VP pace to be the slowest or fastest possible. This way that annoying grey arrow disappears from the map screen quickly :)
Virtual Partner is a Garmin device feature, so not something we can control. It works by using the timestamps attached to the track points included in the exported file as a pacing guide. As Peter said below, we have to include timestamps when exporting in order to create a valid file. It might be worth asking about the Virtual Partner features for your device on the Garmin forums.
The virtual partner data screen is off in my watch (Garmin F6 Pro) but still seeing the grey virtual partner arrow on the map. So there is no way to turn off the timer/VP calculations before export?
You would need to turn of the Virtual Partner in your Garmin device settings if you don't want to use the virtual partner features.
I've never seen that a tool or site have an option to turn that off. I think you have to save time stamps for every GPS point that is saved in fit file. Garmin device use those time stamps to show the grey virtual partner arrow.
But John or other that know better can chime in.
How can I turn off the timer feature?
1) With just 4 clicks I created new simple route (see this screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1wad8ra2bap8ot/Screenshot%202020-07-17%20at%2013.21.48.jpg?dl=0)
2) Than I clicked the "download" button to export the route to .FIT (or .TCX) file. I did not touch the timer settings when plotting my route at all and still can see that "virtual partner" settings in the export dialogue (see: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vxyafdi47nmanuc/Screenshot%202020-07-17%20at%2013.21.58.jpg?dl=0) which adds an annoying grey arrow to my map when using Garmin device.
3) I cannot see any button/checkbox to turn the virtual partner off upon export and when I click that "change" button next to the VP time I am taken to the route timer settings but still there is no option to turn it off completely (see: https://www.dropbox.com/s/eonrov0q8e49dla/Screenshot%202020-07-17%20at%2013.22.05.jpg?dl=0)
What am I doing wrong? Thanks for your help!