How to get your GPX file

What is a GPX file?

A GPX file is a recording of where you went. Nearly every sports watch and tracking app makes one while you move: a list of GPS points, in order, saved in a small standard file.

Upload one and we draw that exact track. We never smooth or simplify it, so every switchback (and wrong turn) you made will be on the poster.

Find your app below, export the file, then upload it in the activity designer under Upload GPX. Use Strava? You can skip the file and connect your account instead.

What prints, what it costs and what happens to your file: how a GPX file becomes a poster.

How to connect

If your activity is on Strava, you do not need a file. Open the activity designer, choose Connect with Strava, sign in, and pick the activity from your list. We read that one activity, and our access is revoked when you add the poster to your cart or leave the page.

Recorded with something else, or want the file itself? The rest of this page covers every app.

Phone apps and websites

Strava

The quickest way needs no file at all: open the activity designer, choose Connect with Strava, and pick the activity from your list. If you would rather have the file, here is how to get it.

On your phone

  1. The Strava app cannot export files, so open Safari or Chrome instead, go to strava.com and sign in.
  2. Open the activity you want to print.
  3. Tap the ••• (more) button on the activity page and choose Export GPX.
  4. The file saves to Files on an iPhone or to Downloads on Android. Upload it in the activity designer.

On a computer

  1. Go to strava.com and open the activity.
  2. Click the ••• (more) menu on the activity page.
  3. Choose Export GPX. The file downloads to your computer.

A shortcut that works in any browser: open the activity and add /export_gpx to the end of its web address, and the file downloads straight away. Exporting is free for your own activities. It needs a GPS recording, so an indoor activity produces an empty file.

Strava’s full guide › · Our step-by-step article ›

Garmin Connect

  1. Open the activity at connect.garmin.com.
  2. Click the gear icon at the top right.
  3. Choose Export to GPX.

Use the website; the Garmin Connect phone app can’t export GPX. The website works fine in a phone browser too.

Garmin Connect’s full guide › · Our step-by-step article ›

Komoot

  1. In the app or on the website, go to your Profile, then Completed activities.
  2. Open the activity you recorded.
  3. Tap Download GPX file.

Komoot only exports a GPX when the region the activity starts in is unlocked; if it isn’t, komoot tells you which region. On iPhone you may be asked where to save the file.

Komoot’s full guide › · Our step-by-step article ›

AllTrails

  1. On the AllTrails website, click your profile icon at the top right, then Show profile, then the Activities tab.
  2. Open the activity and click the ••• menu just above its title.
  3. Click Download route, pick GPX Track, then OK.

Downloading an activity needs an AllTrails membership and works on the website only. The phone app exports saved custom routes and trail maps; your recorded activities export from the website.

AllTrails’ full guide ›

Ride with GPS

  1. Open the ride.
  2. On the website click More; in the app tap the ••• menu.
  3. Choose Export as file, then GPX Track (in the app, Export GPX).

Free accounts can export their own rides.

Ride with GPS’ full guide ›

Watches

Apple Watch and Apple Fitness

Apple’s own Workout and Fitness apps keep your GPS track but give you no way to save it as a file. A small third-party app reads the workout from Apple Health and saves the GPX for you. Two do this well, and both are on the App Store:

RunGap is free to install, and exporting files needs its “Swag Bag” in-app purchase, which costs A$7.99 for three months.

  1. Install RunGap on your iPhone and open it.
  2. Open Accounts & Settings, turn on Health, and allow RunGap to read your workouts when your iPhone asks.
  3. Your Apple Watch workouts appear in the Activities list. Open the one you want.
  4. Tap the ••• button in the top right corner, choose Share, then Export, and pick GPX.
  5. Save the file to Files on your phone, then upload it in the activity designer.

HealthFit is a one-time purchase (A$9.99) with no subscription.

  1. Install HealthFit and allow it to read Apple Health when it asks.
  2. Your workouts are listed on the main screen. Open the one you want.
  3. Tap the share icon, choose GPX, and save the file to Files.
  4. Upload that file in the activity designer.

For next time: if you record with the Strava app on your watch instead of Apple’s Workout app, you can connect Strava in the activity designer and skip files entirely.

Our step-by-step article, with what to do when a workout has no route ›

COROS

  1. Open the workout in the COROS app.
  2. Tap the icon in the top right corner, then Export Data.
  3. Choose GPX.

COROS’ full guide ›

Suunto

  1. Open your workout in the Suunto app.
  2. Tap the ••• menu.
  3. Choose GPX Workout. GPX Route is navigation only.

Suunto’s full guide ›

Bike computers

Wahoo and Hammerhead units save rides in a format called FIT rather than GPX, so the simplest path is the app they already sync to.

Wahoo (ELEMNT)

  1. Your rides upload to Strava automatically.
  2. Open the ride on strava.com.
  3. Choose Export GPX (see Strava above).

Komoot or Ride with GPS work the same way if you use those.

Wahoo’s full guide ›

Hammerhead Karoo

  1. Your Karoo rides sync to Ride with GPS automatically.
  2. Open the ride there.
  3. Export it as GPX (see Ride with GPS above).

The Karoo itself hands you a FIT file, so the GPX comes from Ride with GPS.

Hammerhead Karoo’s full guide ›

Didn’t track it?

If it was a famous route, we have probably drawn it already. The famous routes collection holds 35 ready-made posters, from the Great Ocean Road to the Camino and the Pacific Crest Trail, each on the exact road or trail. Pick yours, choose a style and colour, add your own title, and order.

For a trip that isn’t there, you still don’t need a file. Open the Road Trip designer, type the places you passed through in order, and we draw the route between them live, before you buy. Every drive, train ride or road trip works this way.

Want a map of a place rather than a route? The City Map designer needs no file either: search the place, frame the area, and choose a style.

What we do with your file

We use it to draw your poster and nothing else: never sold or shared, and never used to train anything. Our printer only ever receives the finished image. Your file is stored privately, read once to print your poster, and deleted as soon as your order is fulfilled, or after 30 days if you don’t order.

Stuck, or the file won’t upload?

Email it to us and we’ll sort it out. Send your .gpx file (it should hold a single trip) to hello@youwentthere.com as an attachment and we’ll take a look. For anything else, use the contact form.