Get your data out of other apps

Every app hides its export in a different place. This page shows where to find it for each source Dawarich can import, and which file to upload once you have it.

You don't need to tell Dawarich what kind of file you're uploading. Go to Imports → New import, select one or more files and submit the form — the format is detected automatically from the file itself.

Which file do I need?

Source	File to upload	Guide
Google Maps Timeline (phone)	Timeline.json / location-history.json	Google Maps app export
Google Takeout (old Location History)	Records.json, Semantic Location History .json	Google Takeout
Google Photos	Takeout .zip	Google Photos
Strava	.gpx, .fit, .tcx	Strava
Garmin Connect	.fit, .gpx, .tcx	Garmin Connect
Other fitness apps and watches	.gpx, .fit, .tcx	Other fitness apps
Polarsteps	locations.json of each trip	Polarsteps
Google Earth and other KML tools	.kml, .kmz	KML and KMZ
Spreadsheets and logger apps	.csv	CSV
OwnTracks	.rec	OwnTracks
Any GPX track	.gpx	GPX routes
Foursquare Swarm	checkins*.json	Foursquare Swarm
Immich, PhotoPrism	No file — connected by API	Immich and PhotoPrism
Photos on your computer	.gpx built with exiftool	GPS coordinates from photos
Another Dawarich instance	Dawarich account export	User data import

Uploading a ZIP archive

You can upload a .zip instead of individual files. Dawarich unpacks it and creates one import for every supported file inside (.gpx, .json, .geojson, .kml, .kmz, .csv, .tcx, .fit, .rec).

Two things are not unpacked for you:

• Gzipped files (.gz, such as .fit.gz or .gpx.gz). Decompress them first.
• ZIP files inside the ZIP. Extract them first and upload their contents.

Each import is named after its file name, without the folder. If two files in one archive share a name (for example locations.json in two different folders), only the first one is imported — rename them first.

An archive may hold at most 25,000 files and unpack to at most 2 GB. On a self-hosted instance, the size limit can be raised with the ZIP_MAX_EXTRACTED_SIZE environment variable (in bytes).

Google Photos

Google Photos keeps the place and time of each photo in a separate .json file next to it in a Google Takeout export. Dawarich reads those files and adds one point for every photo that has a location.

1. Go to Google Takeout.
2. Click Deselect all, then select only Google Photos.
3. Choose .zip as the file type. Pick the smallest archive size offered, so each archive stays under the 2 GB unpack limit above.
4. Wait for Google's email and download every archive.
5. Upload the .zip files to Dawarich as they are. Dawarich picks out the .json files and ignores the photos themselves.

Google sometimes puts a photo and its .json file in different archives. That doesn't matter here: each .json file is read on its own.

Photos without a location (or with 0, 0 as their location) are skipped.

Strava

Strava exports work from the website only, not from the app.

Your whole history

1. On strava.com, hover over your name in the top-right corner and choose Settings.
2. Open My Account in the left menu.
3. Under Download your account, click Get Started, then Request download.
4. Strava emails you a link. This can take a few hours.

The archive contains an activities folder with one file per activity, in the format it was recorded in: .gpx, .fit or .tcx. Many of them are gzipped (.fit.gz, .gpx.gz), and Dawarich can't read gzipped files. Before uploading:

1. Unzip the archive.
2. Decompress every .gz file in the activities folder. On macOS and Linux, run gunzip activities/*.gz. On Windows, use a tool such as 7-Zip.
3. Upload the files from the activities folder, or zip that folder and upload the zip.

Don't upload the whole Strava archive as is: the gzipped activities would be skipped, and its other .csv and .json files aren't location history.

A single activity

1. Open the activity on strava.com.
2. Open the ⋯ (more) menu.
3. Choose Export GPX, or Export Original to get the file as it was recorded (often .fit).

Activities recorded without GPS have no location data and import nothing.

Garmin Connect

A single activity

1. Open the activity on connect.garmin.com in a web browser.
2. Click the gear icon at the top right of the activity page.
3. Choose Export Original for the .fit file, or export to GPX or TCX.

Export Original downloads a .zip with the .fit file inside. You can upload that zip directly.

Your whole history

Garmin lets you request a full copy of your account from its Account Data Management page, under Export Your Data. Garmin emails you a download link when the archive is ready, which can take a while.

Your activities are inside that archive as .zip files nested within other folders. Dawarich doesn't open nested zips, so extract them first and upload the .fit files they contain.

Other fitness apps and devices

Most sports watches, bike computers and workout apps can export an activity as GPX, FIT or TCX. Dawarich imports all three. Look for an "Export" or "Download" option on the activity in the app's website or desktop software.

• GPX — a recorded track. Planned routes are ignored, see GPX routes.
• FIT — the binary file most devices record natively. Dawarich imports the position, time, altitude, speed and sport of every record.
• TCX — Garmin's Training Center format. Dawarich imports trackpoints with position, time, altitude and speed.

When an app offers several formats, any of them works. Pick the original format if you want the sport type to carry over.

Polarsteps

Polarsteps exports work from a desktop browser, not from the app.

1. Log in at polarsteps.com on a computer.
2. Click your name in the top-right corner and open Account settings.
3. In the privacy section, find Download my data and request your data.
4. Polarsteps emails you a download link. You'll be asked to confirm your identity before downloading.

Unzip the download. Each trip has its own folder with a locations.json (your route) and a trip.json (your steps and texts).

Upload the locations.json file of every trip you want to import. Don't upload trip.json or the whole archive — only locations.json holds the route Dawarich imports.

Every trip's file has the same name, so rename each one before uploading — for example iceland-2024-locations.json. Dawarich recognises the file by its content, not its name.

KML and KMZ

KML is the format of Google Earth and many GPS logging apps. KMZ is a zipped KML. Dawarich imports both.

Dawarich builds your timeline from points that have a time. In a KML file, that means:

• tracks with a time for each position (<gx:Track> with <when> elements),
• placemarks with a <TimeStamp> or <TimeSpan>,
• placemarks named like 2024-05-01 08:00 - 2024-05-01 09:30, whose line is spread evenly over that time range.

Placemarks without any time are skipped. Most maps you draw by hand in Google My Maps or Google Earth have no times, so they import 0 points.

To save a KML from Google Earth Pro, right-click the place or folder in the Places panel, choose Save Place As, and pick KML or KMZ.

If an app can export both KML and GPX, choose GPX: it is better supported.

CSV

A CSV file works if it has a header row with at least a latitude, a longitude and a time column. Dawarich recognises common column names:

Field	Accepted column names
Latitude	lat, latitude, y
Longitude	lon, lng, long, longitude, x
Time	timestamp, time, date, datetime, when, created_at, recorded_at, fixTime, tst — or separate date and time columns
Altitude (optional)	altitude, alt, ele, elevation, height
Speed (optional)	speed, velocity, vel
Accuracy (optional)	accuracy, acc, horizontal_accuracy, hdop
Battery (optional)	battery, batt, bat, battery_level
Heading (optional)	heading, bearing, course
Device (optional)	tracker_id, tid, device_id, device

Column names are case-insensitive. Also accepted:

• Separators: comma, semicolon or tab. Semicolon-separated files may use a decimal comma (52,5200).
• Coordinates: decimal degrees (52.52), degrees with a direction letter (52.52N, 13.40E), or E7 integers (525200000).
• Times: ISO 8601 (2024-05-01T08:00:00Z), Unix seconds or Unix milliseconds.

Times without a time zone are read in your Dawarich instance's time zone. Include an offset or Z to be safe.

latitude,longitude,timestamp,altitude
52.5200,13.4050,2024-05-01T08:00:00Z,34
52.5210,13.4070,2024-05-01T08:01:00Z,35

The file name must end in .csv.

Immich and PhotoPrism

Immich and PhotoPrism don't need an export: Dawarich connects to them and reads the location of your photos directly.

1. Add your instance's URL and API key in Dawarich's settings — see Photos for where to find the key.
2. On the Imports page, click Import from Immich or Import from Photoprism.

Every photo with a location becomes a point on your map.