Help & FAQ

On iPhone, open the Routes tab and tap the folder button in the top right to pick a file from Files.

You can also open a .gpx file from anywhere iOS offers it: AirDrop, Mail, Messages, Safari downloads, or Share → GPX Mate in another app. It lands in your routes straight away.

GPX Mate recognizes a file it already has by its contents, not its name, and tells you it's already in your routes instead of making a duplicate.

One GPX file can hold several separate paths, such as each day of a multi-day trek. Tap the file to see them, and pick the one to follow. GPX Mate never guesses.

When the paths are parts of one longer route, meeting end to end, the file shows how many parts it has and the total distance. Tap the file to open its list, and choose Joined Route at the top to follow them in one go. A short stray recording elsewhere is left out, and the file says so, for example "5 of 6 parts". Paths that are separate walks in the same area are never joined.

Some apps and cloud services label .gpx files in a way iOS doesn't recognize. Try AirDropping the file to your iPhone, or open it from Mail or Files and choose Share → GPX Mate.

In the route list, swipe right to favorite and swipe left to delete. Open a route's details to rename it, or to edit or remove a single route inside a file.

Deleting removes the route from every device it syncs to, along with its offline map.

Download the route's map before you set off, while you still have a connection. Open the route and tap the download button in its Offline Map section. GPX Mate downloads the ground on either side of the route too, so you still have a map if you stray.

Prepare it close to the day you leave. Before a long trip, open the route once while you have signal and check it still shows as ready.

Yes. The route comes from your GPX file, not from the map, so the route line, your position and off-course warnings all work with no signal. Without a downloaded map there is just no map underneath.

There is a limit shared across all your routes. GPX Mate tells you how many more routes like the current one will fit. If you run out, remove the offline map from a route you no longer need. Nothing is ever deleted on your behalf.

Removing an offline map keeps the route. Only the downloaded map goes.

Part of the download probably didn't finish. Remove the offline map and download it again on a good connection.

Yes, and that's the normal way to use it: phone in your pocket, a buzz and a notification if you leave the route. Your progress also shows on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island.

Inside GPX Mate you can browse other routes while one is being followed. A bar at the bottom takes you back to it. Done closes the navigation screen but keeps navigating; End stops it.

When you're further from the route than the distance set in Settings → Off Course. It waits to be sure first, so a single bad GPS reading under a cliff or in a forest won't set it off, and it widens the distance on its own when GPS is less precise. It also notices when you're back on the route.

On a wide, well-marked path a larger distance is calmer. On a faint trail a smaller one is more useful.

If you turn around and walk the route the other way, GPX Mate notices and asks whether to count the distance to the other end instead. Answer either way. You can also walk any route in reverse from the start, and GPX Mate works out the direction by itself.

Check that GPX Mate may use your location in your iPhone's Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services, and that Precise Location is on. Without it GPX Mate can't tell whether you're on the route, and it says so instead of guessing.

Your progress is saved as you go. When you open GPX Mate again, it picks up where you left off on the same route. If you'd rather not carry on, tap End on the navigation screen.

Avoid swiping GPX Mate away in the app switcher during a walk. iOS then stops it completely, so the stretch until you reopen it isn't followed. Just lock your phone instead.

On a route's map or the navigation screen, choose My Position. You can copy your coordinates or share them with a map link by message or email. This is not an emergency service. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.

Open the Record tab and tap Start Recording. Pause and resume as you like, from the app or from the Lock Screen. When you save, the walk becomes an ordinary GPX route in your list, ready to follow again or to open on your Mac.

Turn on Settings → Recording → Hold to pause. Pause and Save then need a press and hold, so a brush of the hand can't stop a recording.

You haven't moved in a while and the recording is still running. It's a reminder in case you finished and forgot to stop. Keep recording or pause, whichever fits.

Nothing recorded is lost. When you open GPX Mate again, the recording is waiting for you, paused, ready to resume or save.

Through iCloud, on their own. Sign in to the same Apple Account with iCloud on both devices, and routes you draw, import, rename or delete on one appear on the other.

Offline maps don't sync. Each iPhone downloads its own.

Check that both devices are signed in to the same Apple Account, that iCloud is on, and that both are online. Then open GPX Mate on both and give it a minute.

Neither change is lost. If both devices changed the same route before syncing, GPX Mate keeps one version and saves the other as a separate copy marked with when it was edited, so you can choose.

It's where you plan. Draw new routes on the map, edit routes you've imported, and add waypoints. Navigating, recording and offline maps are on iPhone.

• Choose New Route (⌘N), then click on the map to add points.
• Drag a point to move it. Select points and press Delete to remove them; the points on either side are joined up.
• Use the Select tool to look around the map without adding points, and the Waypoint tool to drop waypoints.
• Reverse, Close Loop and Add Return in the side panel reshape the whole route.
• Undo with ⌘Z, redo with ⇧⌘Z, and save with ⌘S.

Choose Import GPX (⌘O), or drag .gpx files onto the GPX Mate window.

On your devices, and in your own iCloud account for syncing. They are never sent to us. Your location is used on your iPhone to follow the route and is not shared with us.

Usage statistics are anonymous counts of which features are used, which help us improve GPX Mate. They never include your location, routes or anything you type.

Map usage data is anonymous data that helps the map provider, Mapbox, improve its maps. Turning either off doesn't affect any feature. See the Privacy Policy for details.