How to get a FIT file from an Apple Watch workout

Garmin, Wahoo, and COROS devices save each activity as a .fit file you can download. The Apple Watch doesn't. Workouts from Apple's Workout app go into the Health app as data, and Apple has no button to export a single workout as a file. You can still get one, edit it, and upload it to Strava, Garmin Connect, or TrainingPeaks. It takes one extra step at the start.

Step 1: get a file out

With an app that exports from Apple Health. Apps such as HealthFit read your workouts from the Health app and save them as .fit files, including the route and heart rate when Health has them. Give the app permission to read your workouts, open the workout, and export it as FIT to the Files app or to your computer. HealthFit is a paid app; check the App Store for current pricing.

From Strava. If your Apple Watch workouts already sync to Strava, the website can give you a file back:

1. Open the activity on the Strava website (export isn't available in the mobile app).
2. Click the three-dot menu and choose Export Original.
3. Check what downloaded. If it's a .fit, .gpx, or .tcx file, you're set. If not, use Export GPX from the same menu, which gives you the GPS track.

The editor opens .gpx and .tcx as well as .fit, and always exports a .fit. A GPX file from Strava may not carry everything the workout had, so a FIT from an export app is the better starting point when you have the choice.

Not the Health app's own export. Export All Health Data in the Health app gives you your entire history as XML in one large archive, not a workout file you can upload. It's for backups and data analysis, not this.

For future workouts. If you'd rather have a file every time, record with a watch app that saves its own files. For example, workouts recorded with the Wahoo app on Apple Watch land in the Wahoo app's history on your phone, where you can download a .fit from the activity's three-dot menu under Share activity.

Step 2: fix it

Open the file in FIT File Editor.

• Forgot to end the workout. Drag across the part after you stopped and press Cut. A section in the middle, like a bus ride or a long stop, cuts out the same way. See crop a FIT file.
• Heart rate that locked onto your cadence. Wrist sensors sometimes read your step rate, around 170 to 180, instead of your pulse. Select the stretch and cap, smooth, or fill it with the fix tool. The heart rate spike guide covers which to pick.
• Apple Watch for heart rate, bike computer for everything else. A common setup on the bike. Open the bike computer's file and add the Apple Watch file. If the bike computer recorded no heart rate, it's filled in from the watch over the time they overlap, and the power, speed, and GPS the bike computer recorded stay as they were. One activity instead of two.
• The battery died and you started again. Open the first file, press the plus button, and add the second. They join into one workout. See the merge guide.
• Wrong workout type. Started an outdoor walk and went for a run, or picked outdoor when you were on a treadmill. Set the sport and sub-type in the details panel. See change the sport.
• Filed under the wrong device. If you want the activity to show as recorded on a particular watch or bike computer, the device tool changes the manufacturer and model and leaves the data alone.

Press Export to save the edited .fit. The file is read and written in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

Step 3: upload it

Delete the original activity on each platform first, then upload the edited file. Strava, Garmin Connect, and TrainingPeaks reject a file that overlaps an activity they already have. The duplicate activity guide covers the order that works.

• Strava: delete the activity, then upload the edited file from the plus menu on the website. If you combined the watch with a bike computer, delete both originals.
• Garmin Connect: import the file on the Garmin Connect website. If an earlier copy of the workout is already there, delete it first.
• TrainingPeaks: delete any copy that arrived from another app, then upload the file.

The workout in Apple's Health and Fitness apps stays as it was recorded. Editing the exported file doesn't change it.

Worth knowing

• Strava only syncs Workout app activities. Strava's help says only workouts recorded with Apple's own Workout app in the past 30 days sync to Strava, and workouts other apps write into Health don't. Automatic uploads are a toggle in the Strava app under Settings, Manage Apps and Devices, Health. If it's on, check after uploading the edited file that the original didn't come back.
• Don't record in two apps at once. Running Apple's Workout app and another tracking app for the same session puts two workouts into Health. If both reach Strava or another platform, keep the better one and delete the other.
• Indoor workouts have no route. A treadmill run or indoor ride has no GPS, so Strava's Export GPX has nothing to give. Use an export app for those.