Files: GPX, FIT and TCX 4 MIN READ
How to upload a GPX, FIT or TCX file to Strava
Strava accepts GPX, FIT and TCX files, on the website. Where the upload button is, what happens to a zipped FIT, why the app cannot do it, and what a file needs before Strava will make an activity of it.
Strava takes files. Anything a watch or an app wrote — GPX, FIT or TCX — becomes an activity on your profile, with the map and the numbers, as if the watch had synced it. Here is where the button is and what the file needs.
Where the upload is
On strava.com, signed in: the plus button top right, Upload activity, then File. Choose one file or several. Each becomes an activity you can name and set the sport for before saving.
The app cannot do it. There is no file upload in the Strava app on iPhone or Android. On a phone, open strava.com in the browser, request the desktop site, and the upload page works; or move the file to a computer.
Which file
- FIT — the device's own recording, with every sensor. The best upload. A FIT downloaded from Garmin Connect arrives zipped, and Strava's help says to unzip it before uploading; the same goes for a `.fit.gz` from a Strava export. What a FIT file is.
- TCX — laps, heart rate, cadence and totals. Fine. What a TCX file is.
- GPX — the route, elevation and time, plus heart rate if the extension is there. Fine for a normal run or ride. What a GPX file is.
The activity looks the same on Strava whichever you upload. The difference is what analysis is possible afterwards: power and laps need the FIT or the TCX.
What the file needs
Timestamps. Strava makes an activity out of a recording, and a recording has times. A GPX exported from a route planner has none, and Strava will not accept it as an activity; that is the most common refusal. Track vs route explains the difference, and GPX not uploading to Strava lists the other reasons.
Positions, unless it is an indoor session, in which case the activity uploads without a map.
Not already there. Strava recognises an activity it already has, from the same start time, and refuses the duplicate. If the watch synced it already, the file is not needed.
Old workouts, in bulk
Several files can go in one upload. For a whole history from another service, export it there first — Garmin Connect, Polar, Suunto and the rest all have an export — and upload in batches. The device guides show where each export is. An activity uploaded this way keeps its original date, so it lands in the right place on your calendar.
Going the other way
Getting a file *out* of Strava is the export guide — Export Original returns exactly the file you uploaded.
Questions people actually ask
- Can I upload a GPX file to Strava?
- Yes. On strava.com, the plus button, Upload activity, File. GPX, FIT and TCX all work. The GPX needs timestamps on its points — a planned route without them is not an activity.
- Can I upload a FIT file to Strava?
- Yes, and it is the best file to upload: everything the device recorded. Strava's own help notes that a FIT downloaded from Garmin Connect arrives zipped and must be unzipped first.
- Can I upload a file from the Strava app on my phone?
- No. The upload lives on the website. On a phone, open strava.com in the browser and request the desktop site, or send the file to a computer.
- To upload past workouts, is GPX, TCX or FIT best?
- FIT if you have it, TCX for laps and heart rate if you do not, GPX for the route. The activity looks the same afterwards; the difference is how much of the recording comes with it.
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