How I converted Google MyTrack kmz/kml to Strava gpx (using Linux and GPSBabel).

My dad asked me to convert a bunch (somewhere between 10 and 100) of old rides he saved in Google MyTracks back in ~2011, to something that Strava can understand. The problem is MyTracks does not save per trackpoint timestamp info, just the trackpoints themselves, so Strava apparently can’t calculate its own segments etc., and as a result, will drop you an error when you try to upload a .gpx or .fit file you convert a MyTracks file to.

The solution is to somehow add timestamps to each trackpoint during conversion to .gpx.

As this needed a bit of tweaking I captured (ugly as it is) what I did so I (or you, reading this) can reproduce it later. This is basically a bunch of raw bash commands and I didn’t do anything to eyecandify them, sorry for that; I basically copypaste all my steps here, minus the reading and trial-and-error bit of course. Continue reading How I converted Google MyTrack kmz/kml to Strava gpx (using Linux and GPSBabel).