Export a GPX from Garmin Connect, and analyse it properly

I.Why pull the raw file out

Garmin Connect stores hundreds of activities, but the interface shows summaries — not the file your watch actually wrote. The .gpx is the raw data: positions, elevations, timestamps, heart rate if your sensor caught it. This data is yours before any Garmin processing, and getting it out is trivial once you know where to look.

Possible reasons: analyse it elsewhere (high-end Garmin watches record very clean barometric elevation, which lends itself particularly well to a fine computation of positive elevation gain), share with a non-Garmin friend, or simply archive a track before Connect changes anything about its interface.

II.On desktop, in four clicks

1. Open connect.garmin.com in a browser and sign in (the mobile path isn't the same direct one).
2. In the left sidebar, click Activities → All Activities.
3. Click the activity you want to export to open its detail page.
4. At the top right of the page, click the gear icon (settings; on some versions it's a three-dot vertical menu). Select « Export to GPX ».

The .gpx file downloads immediately, usually named after the date and activity type. It contains the GPS track, the barometric elevation if your watch has one, and the heart rate from the sensor. It does not contain cadence, power, or the effort zones Connect computes — those require a TCX or FIT export, which are not GPX.

III.On mobile, the workaround

The Garmin Connect mobile app does not offer direct GPX export in every version or region. Two simple workarounds:

• The most reliable: open connect.garmin.com in your phone's browser (Safari, Chrome…) and follow the desktop method. The page is responsive and works fine.
• Native sharing: in the app, open the activity, tap the share button. On some versions, the « Export to GPX » option appears after a long-press or under « More options ».

IV.And then?

You have your .gpx. To read the long climb in the middle, the closing sprint or any precise portion without recreating a Strava segment or uploading the file to a server, GPXchunk does exactly that — in the browser, no account. Drop your file, drop two handles, read the figures for that portion alone.

Once the track is open, the meaning of the figures shown — D+, V.A.M., net gradient, HR — isn't always obvious. The glossary of the 12 measures of a GPX track walks through each one.