How to Download a GPX File from Strava, Garmin, Komoot, AllTrails and Apple Watch
By Roy Lachica on . Last updated .
Almost every fix, comparison or repair starts with the same step: getting the file out of the app it is locked in. Every platform hides the export in a different place, several of them give you a format other than the GPX you asked for, and a few do not offer it at all. Here is where to find it, platform by platform, and what to do with whatever you end up with. Menus move around, so treat the exact wording as a hint rather than gospel.
A note on what you will actually get
Many of these exports come in two flavours. An export labelled GPX gives you a converted track. An export labelled original gives you the file as the device wrote it, which is usually a FIT file and sometimes a TCX file. The original is the richer record and the one worth keeping, and both formats can be loaded directly into GpxFix, so you do not need to hunt for a GPX specifically.
Strava
Use the website, the mobile app does not offer file export. Open one of your own activities, open the actions menu on the activity page, and choose the export option. Strava offers both a GPX export and Export Original, which returns exactly the file that was uploaded, so a watch that synced a FIT file gives you a FIT file back. For your whole history at once, request a bulk export of your account data from your account settings, it arrives as an archive of all your activity files.
You can only export your own activities. Someone else activity, even a public one, cannot be downloaded, and activities hidden by privacy zones export with those sections removed.
Garmin Connect
On the website, open the activity and use the settings menu in the top corner of the activity page, which offers Export to GPX and Export Original. Export Original gives you the device FIT file. In the mobile app, the same options sit behind the menu on the activity detail screen. For everything at once, Garmin account management has a full data export request. Pushing a file the other way, onto the watch, is covered in getting a GPX file onto your Garmin.
Komoot
Open the tour you recorded or the route you planned, and look for the export or download option on the tour page. Komoot exports GPX, and also offers a TCX option for some tours. A planned route exports as a route rather than an activity, which means it has geometry but no timestamps, that is normal and matters when you try to analyse it, see restoring missing data. Some export options on Komoot depend on your subscription.
AllTrails
Open your recording or a saved trail, and use the download or export option to get a GPX of the route or of your own recorded activity. Downloading trail route files is one of the features AllTrails ties to a paid plan, your own recordings are the straightforward case.
Apple Watch and the Apple Health app
This is the awkward one. Apple Fitness and the Health app have no per-workout GPX export button. There are two ways around it:
- Export all health data. In the Health app, open your profile and choose the option to export all health data. You get a zip archive, and inside it a folder of workout route files in GPX format, one per outdoor workout. It is a blunt instrument, the archive can be large, but it is free and it is a genuine GPX.
- Use a third-party app. Several apps on the App Store read your workouts from Health and export or share individual GPX, TCX or FIT files, which is far more convenient if you do this regularly.
If your Apple Watch workouts already sync to Strava, the simplest route is often to export from Strava instead.
Polar, Suunto and COROS
All three offer per-activity export from their web portals, typically with a choice of GPX, TCX or the original FIT. Polar Flow has the export menu on the training session page, the Suunto app exports from the activity detail screen, and the COROS training hub exports from the activity page. If you cannot find GPX specifically, take whatever is offered and convert it, which takes no extra effort.
Wahoo, Zwift and indoor trainer apps
These write FIT files. Zwift activities can be downloaded from your Zwift account online, and on a computer the Zwift activities folder holds the FIT files directly. Wahoo devices and apps similarly deal in FIT. Indoor sessions often have no GPS coordinates at all, which is not a problem for loading them, but it does change what can be fixed, see reconstructing indoor track runs.
Runkeeper, Nike Run Club and other phone apps
Runkeeper exports from the website, per activity, and also offers a full data export from account settings. Nike Run Club has no export button, the practical options are a data request through Nike privacy settings, which returns an archive of your activity data, or syncing future runs to a platform that does export. Smaller apps vary wildly, if there is no export in the activity screen, check the account or privacy settings for a data download, that route exists more often than people expect because data protection rules require it.
Straight off the device over USB
Plug a Garmin or similar into a computer and it mounts as a drive. The activity folder contains the raw FIT files, named by date and time. This is the fastest route when an activity failed to sync, and often the only route when the sync itself is what broke.
What to do with the file once you have it
- Drop the file into GpxFix, GPX, FIT and TCX are all accepted and converted automatically.
- Check the map, chart and summary to see what the file actually contains before you change anything.
- Apply the repairs you need, then download a clean GPX.
- If you are going to share the file publicly, consider anonymising it first, since a raw file usually starts and ends at your front door.
Frequently asked questions
Can I download someone else activity as a GPX?
Not from Strava, and generally not from the other platforms either, exports are limited to your own activities. For a route, the usual legitimate source is the organiser or route author publishing a GPX themselves.
Why did I get a .fit or .tcx when I asked for a GPX?
Because you used the export original option, or because the platform only stores what the device wrote. Both formats convert cleanly, see FIT to GPX and TCX to GPX.
Does exporting lose my heart rate data?
A GPX export keeps heart rate if the platform writes the standard trackpoint extension, and most do. The original file always keeps it. If heart rate matters to you, prefer the original export.
What if the exported file will not upload anywhere?
Load it into GpxFix first, malformed XML, missing timestamps and other structural problems are common in exports from smaller apps, and they are usually repairable. See fixing common Strava upload errors.
Once you have the file, open it in GpxFix to see what is in it. Related reading: getting a GPX file onto your Garmin and comparing activities.
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