Skip to content

Help

Jump to bottom
Harald Hoyer edited this page Oct 21, 2026 · 3 revisions

gexporter sends GPX and FIT tracks and places from your Android phone to your Garmin device. It works together with gimporter on the device:

gexporter talks to the device through the Bluetooth connection of the Garmin Connect app. No cable, no upload to Garmin Connect.

Getting started

  1. Install gimporter on your Garmin device from the Connect IQ store, and gexporter on the phone.
  2. Open gexporter. The card at the top shows your device and whether gimporter is installed.
  3. Give gexporter something to send:
    • Choose folder and pick a folder with your GPX and FIT files, or
    • share GPX or FIT files to gexporter from any app (file manager, Locus Map, OsmAnd, Komoot export, OneDrive, …), or
    • share a place (see below).

Send a track

Tap a track in the list. gexporter opens gimporter on the device and sends the track; the status line follows along:

  • Opening gimporter… "…" follows once it answers: gimporter is starting on the device.
  • The watch is loading "…": the device downloads and imports the course.
  • "…" is on the watch, press Start there: done. On the device, the track name is shown with "Press Start"; Start opens it as a course, ready to go.

Until you press Start, you can send more tracks; the last one is offered. If the device is still busy, gexporter waits and sends the next track when it is ready.

A watch icon next to an entry means it is already on the device. The ⋮ button of an entry sends it, deletes it from the device or removes it from the list; swiping an entry deletes it from the device.

You can also do it the classic way: open gimporter on the device and pick the track from the list of tracks on the phone. gexporter must be running.

Navigate to a place

Found the trailhead, the car park or a meeting point on your phone? Share it to gexporter:

  • from Google Maps (place links, including short maps.app.goo.gl links; for a shared route, its destination is used (gexporter 20.3.2 and newer)),
  • from Organic Maps (omaps.app links),
  • from any app that shares a geo: link,
  • or as plain coordinates in shared text, like 47.42122, 10.98526 from a chat message.

The place arrives on the device: press Start, choose navigation and off you go. Devices with maps calculate the route there themselves.

Manage the watch

Manage on the device card lists the tracks and places gimporter has put on the device, and deletes them. Tracks the gimporter widget downloaded appear once you open the widget on the device.

Sending the same track again does not store a second copy.

Settings

Open them with the ⚙ button.

Speed

  • Default speed: used if the GPX file has no times. The course then runs at this pace on the device (virtual partner).
  • Force Speed: use the default speed even if the GPX file has times.

Conversion (GPX is converted to a FIT course on the phone; FIT files are sent as they are)

  • Use 3D Distance: include the elevation in the distance.
  • Inject Course Points: besides start and end, insert up to 48 course points along the track, at least 1000 m apart. Waypoints of the GPX file always become course points, at their distance along the track.
  • Use Walking Grade Factor: slow down or speed up the default speed depending on the grade, following the energy cost of walking at slopes (Minetti et al., 2002, Journal of Applied Physiology 93, 1039–1046).
  • Reduce Points to: limit the number of points in the course. Some devices have an upper limit, which also depends on the courses already on the device.

Oregon, Rino, GPSMAP and eTrex devices receive the GPX file unchanged; these settings do not apply there.

Troubleshooting

"Connection failed" with Wi-Fi on (Edge and some watches) With Wi-Fi on, the device sends its requests over Wi-Fi to the internet instead of through the phone, so it cannot reach gexporter. Switch off Wi-Fi on the device while transferring.

"Connection failed" without mobile data or Wi-Fi on the phone The Garmin Connect app forwards the device's requests only while the phone has a network connection, even though they go to the phone itself. This is a Garmin limitation.

"gimporter is not installed" although it is Update gexporter: with several Garmin devices connected, older versions showed the result of whichever device answered last.

The watch does not answer, or only the track list works Open gimporter on the device and try again. gimporter versions before 7.4.0 do not understand the new messages: pick the track from the list on the device, or update gimporter in the Connect IQ store.

"Invalid course" after saving a course on the device Fixed in gexporter 20.3.1 (route times from Locus Map were written before the FIT epoch). Update gexporter.

Waypoints all at the end of the course in "Up Ahead" Fixed in gexporter 20.3.1. Update gexporter.

More

Clone this wiki locally