Export Apple Watch Workouts as GPX or FIT

By Josep Mampel Marques, updated November 11, 2026

Your Apple Health export already contains GPX files: one per outdoor workout, in the workout-routes folder. They hold the GPS track only, with no heart rate, sport type or workout totals. A FIT file is an activity file that can hold all of that together, which is why Garmin Connect, Strava and most training apps prefer it for importing workouts. Use GPX if you only want a route on a map; use FIT if you want the workout itself. FitMigrate builds a FIT file for each Apple Watch workout by joining the GPX route with the heart rate and details stored in export.xml.

GPX and FIT compared

• What it is. GPX (GPS Exchange Format) is a light-weight XML format for GPS data: waypoints, routes and tracks. FIT (Flexible and Interoperable Data Transfer) is a protocol Garmin designed for storing and sharing data from sport, fitness and health devices, including activities, courses and workouts.
• Readable by people. GPX is plain text you can open in any editor. FIT is a compact binary format.
• Apple's route files. Each point has latitude, longitude, elevation and time. No heart rate.
• FitMigrate's FIT files. GPS points with elevation, heart rate samples, distance, sport type, start time, duration and calories when Apple stored them.
• Where it works. GPX opens in mapping and route apps. FIT is the native activity format of Garmin devices, and Strava accepts FIT, GPX and TCX uploads.

Where the GPX files come from

When you use Export All Health Data in the Health app, the zip includes a workout-routes folder. Files are named by date and time, such as route_2021-02-10_4.54pm.gpx, not by sport, so it is hard to tell a run from a bike ride by the file name alone. The workout they belong to is described in export.xml.

Route files can be missing or empty. In an Apple Community thread from 2020, users found GPX files with no coordinates after updating to iOS 14, and one export had no workout-routes folder at all. FitMigrate shows a Route column so you can see which workouts have a usable track.

How to get each format

GPX routes

1. Export your data: Health app, Summary, your picture or initials, Export All Health Data. See how to export all Apple Health data.
2. Unzip export.zip and open apple_health_export/workout-routes.
3. Match a file to its workout by date and time, then open it in the map or route app you use.

FIT activities

1. Open FitMigrate and choose your export.zip. No need to unzip.
2. In Workouts to FIT, each row shows date, type, minutes, kilometres and whether there is a route.
3. Click FIT on a row for one workout, or Download all workouts as FIT (zip) for all workouts with a route or heart rate.

Which one should you use?

• Moving workouts to Garmin Connect: FIT. A GPX route would give a map without pulse. See Apple Watch workouts to Garmin Connect.
• Uploading old workouts to Strava: FIT, for the same reason. See Apple Health to Strava.
• Plotting a route on a map, sharing a path or planning to ride it again: GPX is enough and opens almost anywhere.
• Indoor workouts: there is no route, so only FIT makes sense, with time and heart rate.

What a converted FIT file does not include

Apple keeps some workout details in ways that do not map neatly onto a simple activity file. FitMigrate writes each workout as one lap, so splits and intervals are not kept, and it does not add running power, cadence or pool swim lengths. If you need those details, apps that read Apple Health directly may keep more of them. HealthFit, for example, exports workouts as FIT and GPX and says it supports multisport and interval workouts.