Open GPX files

GPX Explore opens GPX files, version 1.1 and the older 1.0: tracks with any number of segments, routes and waypoints, with or without elevation, times or sensor data, in any combination. It reads the file’s metadata and the extensions other apps add (heart rate, cadence, power, temperature, Garmin’s track colours) and keeps them when it saves. It does not open other formats such as KML, FIT or TCX; export GPX from the app or service that made them.

A file with nothing on the map (no tracks, routes or waypoints) opens with Nothing on the map yet and, if you have Pro, a Draw a Track button.

On the Mac

Double-click a .gpx file in Finder, or drop it on the app’s icon in the Dock.
File ▸ Open… (⌘O), or File ▸ Open from Files App (⇧⌘O), which shows an Open panel for GPX files.
File ▸ New (⌘N) starts an empty document to draw on.

Each document is a window. Several can be open at once; the Track menu acts on the front one.

The welcome window

On macOS 15 and later, GPX Explore opens with a welcome window instead of a bare Open panel:

Draw a New Track: a new document on a blank map, ready to draw (marked Pro until you have it).
Open a GPX File…: the Open panel.
Open the Sample Run: a 3 km run with heart rate, to try things on. It opens as a copy, so editing it never changes the one inside the app.
Recent Files: the files you opened lately; double-click one, or right-click for Show in Finder.

Turn off Show this window when GPX Explore opens to skip it. Window ▸ Welcome to GPX Explore (⇧⌘1) brings it back.

Quick Look and icons in Finder

Select a GPX file in Finder and press Space: Quick Look draws the tracks, coloured by grade, with the start, the end and the waypoints, and lists the tracks, segments and waypoints with the distance, duration and elevation gain. The preview draws on a plain topographic pattern rather than a map, because Quick Look gives previews no map tiles. Quick Look needs macOS 15.4 or later.

Finder’s icons for GPX files show the file’s own tracks on a small Apple map.

On iPhone and iPad

From the app: GPX Explore opens to a file browser. Tap a GPX file to open it, or Draw a New Track to start an empty one.
From another app: tap a GPX file in Files, Mail, Messages or any app that shares one, and choose GPX Explore. The app keeps its own copy of the file in its Documents folder and opens that copy, ready to edit; Close goes back. The original where it came from is not changed. If a different file with the same name is already there, the new one is kept as “name 2.gpx”.

In Files and the document browser, GPX files get icons with their own tracks on a small map, the topographic pattern when offline.