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GPX to Computer

One of the benefits of the 935 is its GPS tracking ability. This is useful for geocoding photos. I use a renamed 'Walk' activity to capture GPS locations which I can later use for geocoding. Other methods include: using a camera with built-in GPS or an accessory GPS unit (such as I use on my full-frame Nikon); a stand-alone GPS tracker; or a smartphone app that records GPX tracks (and of course smartphones record GPS coordinates in their own camera photos). The particular advantage of the 935 is that it's always with me, so recording a GPS track for use with a non-GPS camera is fairly convenient. I should mention that my mobile phone uses the Google Fi network, which has transparent access both in the US and in other countries, so I don't have any issues with communication between my watch, the connect app and connect.garmin.com.

However, getting the track to the laptop I use for organizing and processing my photos isn't as simple as recording the track. I currently wait until the activity is fully synced and then access the track via connect.garmin.com, which itself takes several steps.

Is there a simple/convenient way to transfer a 935 track to my laptop or desktop as a GPX file? Ideally, this is something that would need only a couple of steps, and that could be partly or fully automated (for a situation where, for example, one records multiple tracks over a number of days while traveling).
  • All activities are stored in /Garmin/Activities on the watch. They are FIT files though. Would that do?
  • Maybe you could give Foxrunner a try (but only if you are using a windows PC) which automatically copies all new FIT activity files to your computer as soon as you connect your watch. If you need to have GPX files my tool is also able to convert the files on the fly.

    Some more information about this tool could be found here: >Click<

  • Thanks. I downloaded the Foxrunner tool; it did indeed copy the FIT files from my watch to my laptop. However, I don't see anything about converting FIT files to GPX. Did I miss something?

    @ChunkyWizard: FIT files aren't useful to me by themselves, as I need the data in GPX format for the geocoding tools I use.
    GPSBabel does seem to convert FIT to GPX but I need to test to see if it succeeds in my workflow.
  • Sorry corvid, updated the file now which should do the conversion for you. Please do a right click on the systray icon for enabling "Auto conversion" in the program menu...
  • I installed the updated version of Foxrunner and Windows blocked it; see attached screenshot. I think the message was triggered after I set the conversion option in the program and tried to drag and drop a FIT file to the target icon.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    @ChunkyWizard: FIT files aren't useful to me by themselves, as I need the data in GPX format for the geocoding tools I use.
    GPSBabel does seem to convert FIT to GPX but I need to test to see if it succeeds in my workflow.


    I'm not sure this is helpful—depends on your background—but I've found Python a pretty easy solution to get anything I need done with fit files:

    This package can read them easily (so you could get all the coordinates)
    http://dtcooper.github.io/python-fitparse/

    And this package can write GPX files (you could pass it the coordinates read out by fitparse)
    https://github.com/tkrajina/gpxpy

    I'm sorry, I know this will likely only be useful to those with a bit of programming background but its a very effective and efficient way to get your data in to any format you might need.
  • I installed the updated version of Foxrunner and Windows blocked it [...]


    Sorry about that - there's no virus inside, but some antivirus programs are doing false alarms because of the compiler signature. I never understood why different virus scanners are using just simple patterns to "detect" malicous programs.

    You can check the files by https://www.virustotal.com to see the results - virus scanner checking the program calls are doing fine - the 64 bit version (which is done with the identical source code) seems to be "cleaner", so maybe your system won't doing a false alarm here.

    If you still want to give it a try, here's a special 32 and 64 bit compilation: Download

  • Thanks; I downloaded the 64 bit version; aside from the initial complaint from Windows Defender (apparently based on lack of a certificate), no problems, and a sample FIT file converted to GPX w/o issues. I'll need to test with one of my photo logs when I have a little time.
  • Usually we come here to complain but I just want to add a small note that is by far not meant as a complain :-)

    As you can see from my signature I'm a bit of a running-gear addict. Last year I had to take the decision between my Spartan Ultra and the 935 which I already owned since it's availability in Germany.
    I went for the 935 and one the reasons was that I ran into the situation that I could not access my OWN data in the Suunto world because Movescount stopped working. This actually showed me how much I'm tied to the functionality of that service.

    Yes, Garmin Connect also had sync-problems or maintenance-windows but at least I could plug my 630/935 in the USB port and just copy the files to upload it to Strava or do whatever I needed to do.

    So, the next time I'll consider a new watch: this possibility (access to my data without the NEED to use a CloudService) is a point that must be fulfilled.
    So thumbs up to Garmin, please go on with that policy :-)
  • Nice to see there are other users who are more selective in deciding when to use internet services. I really love to be able to control (all) personal data for my own - and will buy future Garmin's product as long I am able to choose how all data is collected and where it will be stored.

    Actually, all my activities are transferred automatically to my notebook and are imported to Garmin's ancient Training Center software. The resulting SQL database is used by a selfwritten program to do statistics, reports ans more...


    PS: here's a new (beta) version of the Foxrunnertool, which adds an option to include extended information (heartrate) to GPX files