Devices and apps 3 MIN READ
Google Fit: get a workout route out with Takeout
Google Fit has no GPX export in the app. Google Takeout exports the whole Fit account, and the activities folder holds one TCX file per session, with the route in the ones recorded with GPS. How to request it, find the right files and convert them.
Google Fit will not export a route from the app. It will export your entire account through Google Takeout, and inside that archive is a TCX file for every session, routes included. That is the way.
Request the archive
Open Google Takeout, sign in, Deselect all, then tick Fit and confirm. Choose a delivery — a link by mail is the default — and request it. Small accounts arrive in minutes; large ones can take hours. You can choose activities, daily summaries or both; for routes you want the activities.
Find the routes
Unzip the archive. Inside the Fit folder is an activities subfolder with one `.tcx` per session. The sessions recorded with GPS are the large files — a point per second makes them many times the size of a session counted from steps. Sort by size, open the big ones in the viewer, and the route is there with time and distance. What a TCX file is.
Convert if needed
Strava, Garmin Connect and the editor here read TCX directly. For a tool that wants GPX, TCX to GPX converts in the browser.
Fit and Strava
Strava can connect to Google Fit, but the traffic goes one way: Strava activities into Fit. Fit sessions do not show up on Strava. To get them there, it is Takeout, the TCX, and an upload on strava.com — how.
The Fitbit case
Google has been folding Fitbit into its health products; if your data lives in the Fitbit app rather than Fit, the per-exercise export is different and easier — Fitbit: export a run as TCX.
Then what
Any GPX, FIT or TCX opens in the viewer to check it, uploads to Strava (how), and goes into the editor to become a print of the route with the numbers from the file. The other watches and apps are in the device guides.
Questions people actually ask
- Can I export a GPX from Google Fit?
- Not from the app. Google Takeout exports the Fit account, and the activities folder inside holds a TCX per session; the ones recorded with GPS carry the route. A TCX converts to GPX in seconds.
- How do I get my Google Fit workouts as files?
- Go to Google Takeout, deselect everything, select Fit, and request the export. The archive arrives by mail; unzip it and look in the Fit folder's activities subfolder for the TCX files.
- Which Takeout files have the GPS route?
- The larger ones. A session recorded with GPS has a point per second and is many times the size of a session recorded from steps alone. Open the big ones in the viewer to see the route.
- Does Google Fit sync to Strava?
- Strava can be connected to Google Fit, but the sync is one-way into Fit — Fit sessions do not appear on Strava. For Strava, export the TCX with Takeout and upload it on strava.com.
YOURS, FROM A FILE, IN 90 SECONDS
One effort. One sheet of paper.
Bring the file and every choice is yours: paper, treatment, colour, which numbers come along. Uncoated matte in 250 or 170 gsm, made to order at the facility nearest you, rolled in a tube.
Print it. FROM 319 kr