← Back to all guidesUpdated Sep 30, 2026
Your sleep stages, your runs, your body composition, your food diary. Years of training and a daily calorie log that took discipline to keep. All of it sits inside a fitness account you do not really own.
Fitness apps are more locked-in than most consumer software. None of them are built around portability. The export exists because regulation or platform policy made it exist, and the depth varies wildly. Garmin gives you everything in gold-standard FIT files. Apple Health has no CSV button, and Apple contradicts itself about whether the account export includes it. Whoop takes a week. MyFitnessPal's in-app button has been unreliable for years.
This page is the comparison piece for the health-and-fitness cluster. Seven platforms, the same axes: format, delivery time, what is included, what is not. Use it to decide which export to prioritise, then follow the link to the per-platform guide for the steps.
Two things worth knowing before you read. First, sleep stages and HRV are not portable in the way step counts are. If you are comparing Oura to Whoop, you cannot just import the numbers. Second, fitness companies get acquired. Google bought Fitbit. Under Armour sold MyFitnessPal. An export you took last year is the only version of your data nobody else controls.
Written by Charles
Start here
Pick the platforms you actually use, not all seven. Run the export from each. Save the files to one folder named fitness-2026-05 (or whichever date) so the year stays clear later. Repeat annually, and twice a year if you can.
The order matters. Start with the slowest exports first: Garmin, Samsung, Whoop. They take days. Then the rest, which are mostly same-day.
Once the files are on your drive, treat them as you would any other backup. Encrypted local copy, encrypted cloud copy, one copy somewhere else. The backup guide covers the storage side.
- <a href="/guides/backup-your-exports">Backup guide</a>: where to store the exports once you have them
- <a href="/guides/why-backup-your-health-data">Why back up health data</a>: the case for keeping medical-adjacent records yourself
At a glance
Here is the quick comparison. Detailed breakdowns follow.
- <a href="/guides/how-to-export-garmin-connect-data">Garmin Connect</a>: full activity archive as FIT files, plus sleep, HRV, Body Battery and body composition. 24h to 30d
- <a href="/guides/fitbit-data-export">Fitbit</a>: full archive through Google Takeout or the native export. JSON and CSV, about 24h
- Apple Health: two routes, both manual. The Health app exports XML, or Apple says it comes with the account data request. Either way you convert it yourself
- <a href="/guides/how-to-export-strava-data">Strava</a>: full activity archive as GPX / FIT / TCX, plus per-activity exports. Few hours
- <a href="/guides/how-to-export-myfitnesspal-data">MyFitnessPal</a>: food diary, measurements and exercise log as CSVs. Web only, 24 to 48h
- Oura: CSV export of all sleep, readiness and activity data from the web app. Instant download
- Whoop: manual data request through the web app. 7 days or more
- Samsung Health: JSON and CSV from Settings, then Download your data. 24 to 48h
Garmin Connect
Garmin's bulk export is the deepest of any consumer fitness platform. Every activity you have ever recorded comes back as an individual FIT file, the binary format that Strava, TrainingPeaks, COROS and Wahoo all read natively.
The wait is the catch. Garmin emails the link within a day or two usually, but very large accounts have been known to take up to 30.
- FIT files for activities, CSV for daily summaries, JSON for your profile and devices
- Wait time: 24 to 48 hours is typical, up to 30 days in the worst case
- Best for: long-term athletes, anyone who cares about FIT portability, and the sleep, HRV and Body Battery data the others do not have
- Full guide: <a href="/guides/how-to-export-garmin-connect-data">how-to-export-garmin-connect-data</a>
Fitbit
Fitbit has two export paths since the Google acquisition: the native Fitbit export, and Google Takeout, which gives you the whole archive. For most people Takeout is the right answer, and it is the one that goes back to the beginning of your account.
- JSON through Takeout, or CSV and JSON from the native export
- Wait time: same day to a few days through Takeout
- Best for: sleep stages, HRV and weight, and a complete account archive in one go
- Limitation: the native export is fiddly; Takeout is the route to the full archive
- Full guide: <a href="/guides/fitbit-data-export">fitbit-data-export</a>
Apple Health
Apple Health holds more personal health data than any other consumer platform, and has the worst export story of the lot. There is no Download my data button. What you do instead is take an encrypted iPhone backup, where the health data lives, then run it through Health Auto Export or similar to get CSV.
It is by a distance the hardest process on this list. The result is also the most complete.
- An encrypted iPhone backup, then CSV or JSON via a third-party converter
- Wait time: however long the backup takes, which is not quick
- Best for: step count, heart rate, sleep, reproductive and hearing history, and anything a clinician has logged
- Limitation: Apple contradicts itself on whether the account export includes Health, so the app route is the reliable one
- Migrating to Garmin: <a href="/guides/apple-health-to-garmin">Apple Health → Garmin guide</a>
Strava
Strava has the cleanest bulk export here. Every activity ships as an individual GPX, FIT or TCX file, ready to import into Garmin, COROS, Wahoo or Runalyze.
- One GPX, FIT or TCX file per activity, plus a summary CSV
- Wait time: a few hours, emailed to you; long-running accounts can take a day
- Best for: GPS activities across runs, rides and swims, heart rate zones and segment efforts
- Limitation: no sleep or recovery data anywhere in it. Strava records activity and nothing else.
- Full guide: <a href="/guides/how-to-export-strava-data">how-to-export-strava-data</a>
- Migrating to Garmin: <a href="/guides/strava-to-garmin">Strava → Garmin transfer guide</a>
MyFitnessPal
MyFitnessPal's export is one of the few that includes free-text notes. That is the column where a lot of people write the things they would rather not see surfaced anywhere else: recovery milestones, trigger foods, what they substituted and why.
- CSVs for the diary, measurements, exercises and notes, plus a small JSON profile
- Wait time: 24 to 48 hours
- Best for: the full nutrition history, weight, exercise log and those notes
- Limitation: the in-app export has been unreliable for years. Use the desktop web version
- Full guide: <a href="/guides/how-to-export-myfitnesspal-data">how-to-export-myfitnesspal-data</a>
Oura, Whoop, Samsung Health
Oura, Whoop and Samsung Health each do this their own way, and most of them want a manual request rather than a button. Delivery ranges from instant to about a week.
- Oura: Profile, then Export data. CSV of all sleep, readiness and activity, downloaded instantly
- Whoop: manual request through the web app, 7 days or more, as JSON
- Samsung Health: Settings, then Download your data. JSON and CSV, 24 to 48h
- Migrating Whoop → Oura: <a href="/guides/whoop-to-oura">Whoop → Oura migration guide</a>
Why the Google Fitbit precedent matters
Google acquired Fitbit in 2021 and has been folding Fitbit features into Google Fit and Health Connect ever since. The accounts still work. New devices have slowed down and some Fitbit-era features are already gone.
It is not a Fitbit thing. Any consumer fitness company is one acquisition away from the same outcome, and an export you took last year is the only version of your data nobody else controls.
- Garmin walked away from Facebook's attempted acquisition in 2016, which probably saved its export philosophy
- Under Armour sold MyFitnessPal to Francisco Partners in 2020, and the export was worse for a while afterwards
- Strava is private and growing, and its export is good right now. It is also the only copy you control
- Oura, Whoop, Samsung and Apple are owned by companies that are not going to sell their wearables division, so they are lower risk. Their export processes are still inconsistent
What this means in practice
Export at least once a year, and twice if you can: Digital Takeout Day is on May 8 and November 8. Garmin and Samsung both take days rather than hours, so start those before you remember you meant to.
Then treat it like any other backup: three copies, two kinds of storage, one of them somewhere else. Our backup guide has the specifics.
- Once a year is the floor, twice is better
- Storage: an encrypted local drive, such as a portable SSD, and an encrypted off-site copy. <a href="/guides/backup-your-exports">Backup guide</a>
- For the day to day, turn on sync between your watch and Strava, and export on top of it. Sync handles the recent history; the export is what covers the years
Sources consulted
Every row above is grounded in that platform's own export documentation. The individual guides link the primary source for each walkthrough.
- Garmin Connect data management (https://www.garmin.com/en-US/account/datamanagement/): the primary source for Garmin's bulk export path
- Fitbit data export (https://help.fitbit.com): covers both the native export and the Google Takeout path
- Apple Health data access (https://support.apple.com/en-us/108353): first-party documentation for Apple's two-step export via privacy.apple.com and iCloud content
- Strava data export (https://support.strava.com/en-us/articles/15401919-how-do-i-export-my-strava-data): the primary source for both the bulk archive and the per-activity exports
- MyFitnessPal data export (https://support.myfitnesspal.com): the desktop web export flow
- Oura export (https://support.ouraring.com): the Membership Hub export flow
- Whoop data export (https://support.whoop.com): the app-side Data Export request
- Samsung Health data export (https://www.samsung.com): Settings, then Download your data
- Google Fit consumer deprecation (https://support.google.com/fit/answer/10088479): the transition to Health Connect
FAQ
Which fitness platform has the best data export?
Garmin and Strava both ship complete activity archives in gold-standard formats (FIT and GPX). For sleep and recovery, Oura offers the cleanest instant CSV. Fitbit's Google Takeout is the deepest on the free-tier side.
Can I get all my fitness data in one place?
No. Each platform exports independently. For ongoing aggregation, tools like Apple Health, Google Health Connect, Runalyze, or Exist.io aggregate across platforms automatically. For an export snapshot, run exports from each platform and join the CSV files by date in a spreadsheet.
Should I export fitness data before a platform sunsets?
Yes. The Google Fitbit precedent shows that platforms can be partially or fully consolidated without warning. Exporting at least once a year is the only durable protection.
What is the safest storage for fitness exports?
Encrypted local SSD plus encrypted off-site cloud storage. See our backup guide for the full 3-2-1 pattern.
How often should I export?
At least once a year, and twice if you can: Digital Takeout Day is on May 8 and November 8. Start with Garmin, Samsung and Whoop, since those take days rather than hours.