How to export a GPX from Garmin Connect

1. 01In a web browser, sign in at connect.garmin.com.
2. 02Choose Activities in the menu on the left, then All Activities.
3. 03Click the name of the run.
4. 04Click the gear icon in the top right corner of the activity.
5. 05Choose Export to GPX. The file downloads straight away.

The same menu has Export to TCX, and Export File (called Export Original in older versions), which gives you the file exactly as your watch recorded it, usually a FIT. If a very long activity is too large to export as GPX, Garmin points you to that original file instead.

The Garmin Connect app doesn't export activity files. Open connect.garmin.com in your phone's browser, sign in, and follow the same steps. If the layout is cramped, switch the browser to the desktop version of the site.

Your watch keeps its own copy of each run as a FIT file.

1. 01Plug the watch into a computer with its charging cable.
2. 02On Windows, open File Explorer, select the watch under This PC, then Primary (if shown), Garmin, Activity. On a Mac, open the Garmin drive in Finder, then Garmin, Activity.
3. 03Copy the .fit files you want. They are named by date and time, like 2026-11-01-09-45-12.fit.

Watches with music storage don't appear as a drive on a Mac; Garmin says to use a Windows computer for those.

To turn a FIT into a GPX, upload it to Garmin Connect on the web (the cloud icon in the top right, then Import Data) and export it as above. The free tool GPSBabel can also convert FIT to GPX.

1. 01Go to Garmin's account data management page (garmin.com/account/datamanagement) and sign in.
2. 02Choose Export Your Data, then Request Data Export.
3. 03Wait for the email with the download link. Garmin says it usually arrives within 48 hours but can take up to 30 days.

Inside the download, your runs are in the DI_CONNECT folder as FIT files, not GPX. The Export CSV button on the All Activities list is different: it gives a summary spreadsheet, with no routes.

Privacy zones don't protect the file. Garmin's privacy zones hide your start and finish on activities other people see; you always see your full route. Assume your own export includes the stretch near your home, and trim it before posting the file anywhere public.

Treadmill and indoor runs have no route. Garmin removes location data from indoor activities, so there is no track to export.

What a GPX keeps. Garmin's GPX carries the track, timestamps, and heart rate and temperature where recorded. It can't carry power or every sensor stream; the FIT keeps everything.

A blank GPX is rare but has happened. If your file comes out empty, download the original FIT instead and convert that.

A GPX is the shape of the run as your watch saw it. Laurels draws from exactly that: shorts embroidered with the route, the time and the weeks behind it. The free tools (Race Wrapped, Run Receipts, Run Song) will take a GPX when they open.