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Import existing data

Dawarich supports importing data from various sources. You can import data from Google Takeout, OwnTracks, GPX routes, Foursquare Swarm, and Dawarich.

tip

Looking for Strava, Garmin, Polarsteps, Google Photos, KML, CSV or PhotoPrism? See Get your data out of other apps for step-by-step export guides for every source Dawarich supports.

note

Importing process also starts reverse geocoding process for each point imported. This process can take a while, depending on the number of points imported. For more info on reverse geocoding, refer to the Reverse geocoding guide.

One important thing is that Google Takeout might have at least 3 (three) different formats of location history data: Semantic location history, Records.json, and data from a mobile device. Both Semantic location history and Records.json can usually be found in the Google Takeout archive created on the web version of Google Takeout. Data from a mobile device can be found in the Google Takeout archive created on a mobile device and usually the file we're interested in is called location-history.json.

To import your data, visit Imports -> New import page of your Dawarich instance. Select one or multiple files to upload and submit the form — the format of each file is detected automatically. The import process will start and you will be redirected to the Imports page. The import process will run in the background and you can check the status of the import on the Imports page No status indication is yet implemented.

Imports

Sources of data​

Google Maps app export​

The following steps describe how to export your timeline data after the Timeline update. If this update has not rolled out to you yet, see the Google Takeout (legacy/outdated) section below.

Android​

  1. Open the Settings app (the system settings app of your OS, not the settings within the Maps app)
  2. Look for the category Location
  3. Tap Location services
  4. Tap Timeline
  5. (if you have multiple) Select the Google account you want to export data from Note: If you're redirected to the Activity Controls page of your Google account settings, the update hasn't rolled out to you yet.
  6. Tap Export Timeline data
  7. Select a location in your storage. This is where your Timeline.json will be saved to.

iOS​

  1. Open the Maps app
  2. Tap your profile picture in the top right
  3. Tap Personal content
  4. Tap Export timeline data

Google Takeout (legacy/outdated)​

Important information: After Google's change to how Timeline data is stored, the following method will not work for all users where this update has been rolled out to. When trying to use Takeout, you will only receive a txt file that tells you there is encrypted data present, but no way to decrypt it. See the Google Maps app export section if this applies to you.

Google allows you to download your data from their services using Google Takeout. Extract your Takeout archive, go to the Takeout directory, then to the Location History directory. There you will find the following files: Records.json and Semantic location history directory.

Records.json​

This file contains your location history in a JSON format. This is usually a big (hundreds of MBs, up to gigabytes) file with all your location history data. Due to the size of this file, its import must be done in manual steps.

Select Google records as the source of your data and select one or more JSON files to upload. The file is usually named Records.json.

Hit "Create Import" and your data will be imported in the background.

Semantic location history​

This directory contains your location history in JSON files split by months in directories named by the year.

Select Google Semantic History as the source of your data and select one or more JSON files to upload. They usually named as 2013_APRIL.json, 2013_MAY.json, etc.

Hit "Create Import" and your data will be imported in the background.

Phone Takeout (location-history.json)​

This file contains your location history in a JSON format. This is usually around a 100-200MB file with all your location history data.

Select Google Phone Takeout as the source of your data and select the location-history.json file to upload.

Hit "Create Import" and your data will be imported in the background.

OwnTracks and Dawarich​

OwnTracks is a mobile application and also a server application that allows you to visualize your location history. Dawarich can import data from OwnTracks in .rec format.

Select OwnTracks as the source of your data and select the .rec file to upload.

Hit "Create Import" and your data will be imported in the background.

GPX routes​

GPX is a common format for storing GPS data. You can import your GPX routes to Dawarich. Important: Dawarich imports recorded routes, not planned ones — a route you plotted in advance (<rte>) is ignored. Saved waypoints are imported as places; see Waypoints and favourites below.

Select GPX as the source of your data and select the GPX file to upload.

Hit "Create Import" and your data will be imported in the background.

Waypoints and favourites​

A GPX file can hold two different kinds of data: a recorded track (<trkpt>) and individual waypoints (<wpt>). Apps such as OsmAnd+ export your saved favourites as a waypoint-only file, usually named favourites.gpx.

Dawarich imports both:

  • Trackpoints become location points on your timeline, and count towards your distance and statistics.
  • Waypoints become places, and are shown on the map. They never become timeline points, so a favourite you saved while browsing the map at home will not invent a visit or add distance you never travelled.

If a waypoint has a category, that category becomes a tag on the place, so you can show and hide groups of favourites on the map. Colours set in the source app are carried over to newly created tags; a tag you already styled yourself is never repainted. Favourites are never added to a tag that has a privacy zone radius — an imported file cannot widen a privacy zone, so your existing shared links keep showing what they showed before. You can attach such a tag yourself afterwards if you want to.

Waypoints are matched on re-import by name and position, so importing an updated favourites.gpx adds only what is new instead of duplicating everything. This means you can point the import watcher at a favourites file and let it stay in sync as you add favourites on your phone.

note

A GPX file that contains only waypoints imports 0 points, which is expected — look for the results under Places rather than on your timeline.

Foursquare Swarm​

Dawarich imports your check-in history from a Foursquare data export. The export covers both Swarm and the old Foursquare City Guide app.

Request the export​

You need to be able to log in to your Foursquare account. If you can't, reset your password through Foursquare's support center first.

In the Swarm app:

  1. Open your profile in the upper left corner.
  2. Tap the gear icon, then Privacy Settings.
  3. Scroll down and tap Initiate Data Download Request.

On the web:

  1. Log in at foursquare.com with your Swarm credentials.
  2. Click your name in the upper right corner and open Settings.
  3. Click Privacy Settings, then Initiate Data Download Request.

You'll get an email from [email protected] confirming the request. When the export is ready, a second email arrives with a download link. Foursquare says this takes up to 7 days. The download is a ZIP archive.

Import it​

Upload the ZIP archive as it is on the Imports → New Import page; you don't need to unpack it. Dawarich finds the checkins1.json, checkins2.json, … files inside and creates one import per file. Everything else in the archive (tips, ratings, photos, account details) is skipped. You can also upload the checkins*.json files on their own.

What you get:

  • Points. Every check-in becomes a location point at the spot where you checked in.
  • Visits and places. Every check-in at a venue becomes a visit at a place named after that venue. Check-ins at the same venue share one place.
  • Visit length. The export only records when you checked in, not when you left. Dawarich ends each visit at your next check-in, and after at most two hours.

Check-ins without a venue (a text-only check-in) become points but not visits. Photos and the passive visits Swarm recorded in the background are not imported.

Importing the same export twice doesn't create duplicates.

Immich​

Immich is a self-hosted Self-hosted photo and video management solution. But more importantly, it provides access to photos and videos EXIF data. Dawarich can import location history data from Immich. To import data from Immich, you need to provide a URL to your Immich instance and an API key. Then just click "Import Immich data" button on the Imports page of your Dawarich instance and your data will be imported in the background.

Importing GPS coordinates from photos​

This guide was originally written by Andrei Ivnitskii

This process is useful for adding points of interest from memorable locations into Dawarich, especially when Google Location History is unavailable or was not initially enabled.

Requirements:

  • Mac OS operating system
  • exiftool software installed
  • exiftool template created

Steps to Import GPS Coordinates into Dawarich:

  1. Download and install exiftool from the official website.
  2. Create an empty template text file, name it as gpx.fmt and paste the code provided below into it.
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# File:         gpx.fmt
#
# Description:  Example ExifTool print format file to generate a GPX track log
#
# Usage:        exiftool -p gpx.fmt -ee3 FILE [...] > out.gpx
#
# Requires:     ExifTool version 10.49 or later
#
# Revisions:    2010/02/05 - P. Harvey created
#               2018/01/04 - PH Added IF to be sure position exists
#               2018/01/06 - PH Use DateFmt function instead of -d option
#               2019/10/24 - PH Preserve sub-seconds in GPSDateTime value
#
# Notes:     1) Input file(s) must contain GPSLatitude and GPSLongitude.
#            2) The -ee3 option is to extract the full track from video files.
#            3) The -fileOrder option may be used to control the order of the
#               generated track points when processing multiple files.
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#[HEAD]<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
#[HEAD]<gpx version="1.0"
#[HEAD] creator="ExifTool $ExifToolVersion"
#[HEAD] xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
#[HEAD] xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0"
#[HEAD] xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0 http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0/gpx.xsd">
#[HEAD]<trk>
#[HEAD]<number>1</number>
#[HEAD]<trkseg>
#[IF]  $gpslatitude $gpslongitude
#[BODY]<trkpt lat="$gpslatitude#" lon="$gpslongitude#">
#[BODY]  <ele>$gpsaltitude#</ele>
#[BODY]  <time>${gpsdatetime#;my ($ss)=/\.\d+/g;DateFmt("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ");s/Z/${ss}Z/ if $ss}</time>
#[BODY]</trkpt>
#[TAIL]</trkseg>
#[TAIL]</trk>
#[TAIL]</gpx>
  1. Create a separate directory for the photos from which you want to extract coordinates.
  2. Move the necessary photos and gpx.fmt template to this directory.
  3. Open Terminal and navigate to the directory containing the photos.

Command to Execute:

exiftool -if '$gpsdatetime' -fileOrder gpsdatetime -p ./gpx.fmt -d %Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ *JPG > output.gpx

Note: Ensure that exiftool is properly installed on your system, and the file 'gpx.fmt' is located in the same directory as the photos.

  1. GPX-track based on photo's GPS-coordinates and dates will be placed as output.gpx file into the same directory.
  2. Go to Dawarich webpage, select Imports, click "New Import" button, select source — gpx and choose output.gpx file.
  3. After the import processed all GPX-points will be added to Dawarich map.