Field notes 4 MIN READ
How to export a GPX file from Strava
Two clicks on a desktop, a workaround on the phone, and one case where the file comes out empty. Everything you need to get a route out of Strava and onto paper.
Everything starts with the file. Here is how to get it, and the two places people get stuck.
On a desktop, it is two clicks
Open the activity on strava.com. Find the more menu — the three dots near the top right of the activity, next to the edit and share controls. Choose Export GPX.
The file lands in your downloads folder with a `.gpx` extension. That is it. There is no setting to change first, no format to pick, and no plan to upgrade.
On a phone, ask for the desktop site
The Strava app does not offer the export. This is not a bug you can work around inside the app, but the web version works fine on a phone: open strava.com in Safari or Chrome, log in, and request the desktop site. In Safari that is the aA menu in the address bar; in Chrome it is under the three dots. Then follow the desktop steps above.
If that sounds like more work than it is worth, connect the account instead — it skips the file entirely.
What is actually in the file
A GPX file is XML. Opened in a text editor it is a long list of points, each with a latitude, a longitude and a timestamp, and often an elevation. That is all a print needs: the shape comes from the coordinates, the numbers come from the metadata.
It also means the file is readable by anyone you send it to — including the first and last coordinate, which for most people is their home. That is worth knowing before you email it around, and it is why we trim a radius off both ends by default.
The one case where it fails
If the activity has no GPS, the export produces a file with no points in it. Treadmill runs, indoor trainer sessions, rowing machines and gym workouts all record plenty of data — time, heart rate, power, cadence — but none of it is position.
There is nothing to fix here. An indoor effort has no shape, and no service can draw one that is not there.
Then what
Bring the file to the configurator and it is drawn immediately, in your browser. Nothing is uploaded while you are choosing, and only the finished route travels with the order.
Questions people actually ask
- Do I need Strava Premium to export a GPX file?
- No. Export is available on the free plan. Nothing about the export changes if you subscribe.
- Can I export a GPX file from the Strava app on my phone?
- Not directly. The export option lives on the web version, but you can open strava.com in your phone's browser, request the desktop site, and the option appears.
- Why is my exported file empty?
- The activity has no GPS data. Treadmill runs, turbo sessions and most indoor workouts record time, heart rate and power but no position — so there is nothing to draw.
- Can I export somebody else's activity?
- No. Export is only available on your own activities, whether or not the other person's activity is public.
YOURS, FROM A FILE, IN 90 SECONDS
One effort. One sheet of paper.
Bring the file and every choice is yours: treatment, colour, which numbers come along. Museum-grade 250 gsm matte, printed in Denmark, shipped in a tube with a nail taped inside.
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