Import a GPX file

You may have data from a GPS stored in GPS Exchange (GPX) format that you want to add to a map, so you can combine it with other datasets, and share it with other users. You can do this by uploading the data to ArcGIS Online.

See an overview of adding content to ArcGIS Online

Explorer Online also allows you to upload Esri shapefiles, and tabular geographical data that is stored in comma separated value (CSV) format.

Learn more about importing shapefiles

Learn more about importing CSV data

To import a GPX file

1. Open the map that you want to import the data into.
2. On the Mapping toolbar, click the Add Content button , click Import, then click GPX.

   

3. In the Open dialog box, browse for the GPX file you wish to import, then click Open.
4. In the Import GPX File dialog box, check the types of GPX information you want to import into layers in the map, and click OK.

   

   Disabled check boxes indicate that the type of data is not present in the selected GPX file.

After the import is complete, new layers are created for each selected type of GPX information. If the waypoints have symbols specified, those symbols are used to draw the features in the layer.

Configuring imported data

After you have imported your data, you can configure it to display and behave the way that you would like.

• Decide how the features should be displayed
• Configure pop-up windows for the layer
• Share a map or service with other users
• Edit the features of the layer

Tips on importing GPX files

• There is a 1000 feature limit on features imported to the map. If your ArcGIS Online account is part of an organization, and your organization administrator has granted you permissions for publishing, note that creating a feature service from a GPX file is not currently supported.
• Lots of different programs create or export GPX files, and some write out the information differently to others. If you have problems importing data, check the contents of the GPX file (you can open it in any text editor, for example Windows Notepad) to see if the file contains the correct information. The file should be structured as standard XML, so check there are no strange characters written to the output.
• If your data contains non-English characters, for example characters specific to the French, Russian, Greek, Japanese, or Arabic alphabets, the file you import must be encoded as Unicode or UTF-8, and not ASCII. If you import an ASCII encoded file containing non-English characters, it may display attribute values using unexpected characters. You can simply save a text file as UTF-8 or Unicode in Windows. Open the file in Notepad and choose File, then Save As, and choose UTF-8 or Unicode from the Encoding drop-down list shown at the bottom of the Save As dialog box. Additionally, ensure that the encoding attribute of the XML declaration at the beginning of the file correctly identifies the encoding used.