What can you do with GPX files?
What are they? For you technical types, they are XML files which will give you some ideas about manipulating them directly. If that does not mean anything to you, don't worry about it. You do not need to know it.
GPS files are the current standard for exporting and importing GPS tracks and routes to and from your device. After you have been recording a track all day, you will want to finish the track (explicitly tell the device you are done for the day). Soon after you will want to save this somewhere so that you can...
- Save it to your computer for later use
- Share it with someone
- Use it on a different device
- Display it on a map to see your route in context
To do this you want to export the track from your device. On Gaia GPS
- Go to Tracks from the main menu
- Select the track you want
- Choose Export, the options you have will depend on what apps you have on your phone
The easiest and most common option is to email it to yourself. You will get a GPX file as an attachment. I have OneNote installed on my phone and that becomes an option for me. I like this option because my OneNote notebooks are stored in the cloud. This immediately backs the file to my OneDrive cloud storage and then replicates it to OneNote on my computer. Unfortunately, I do not see a way to send a route to my phone via OneNote. So it has to be emailed to an account accessible on your smartphone (at least that is how you do it with an iPhone)
- Open the attachment in email
- Tap on the attachment
- Tap "send this to" (the box with the upward arrow icon in the upper right)
- Scroll to find and then tap the GaiaGPS icon
- The route/track now shows up in "Folders" in GaiaGPS
Additionally, most or all of this can be done using gaiagps.com. That may have to be the subject of another page. There are other applications and websites that can open and do stuff with a GPX file. For instance, you can import a GPX file into caltopo.com and print off a map with the track on it.