How to import a GPX file into Topo Maps+

The short answer

Open Topo Maps+, use its import option to bring in the .gpx file from Files or iCloud Drive, and the track appears as a line over whichever map is currently loaded. On an iPhone, sharing a .gpx file to Topo Maps+ from the Files app, or from the share sheet of the app that recorded it, does the same thing without switching apps first.

Why Topo Maps+ works differently from Strava or Komoot

Most GPS apps show a route on a live web map that streams in tiles as you scroll or zoom, which is why they need a connection to be useful away from home. Topo Maps+ is built the other way round: you download the topographic map data for an area before you leave coverage, and from then on it is stored on the phone exactly like any other file, contours and all. A GPX track imported into that world is not something to browse in an activity feed — it is a line laid over terrain data you already trust, useful for checking where you actually walked against the contour lines, a marked trail, or a boundary printed on the map itself.

Getting the file in

From the iPhone share sheet

A .gpx file sitting in Files, attached to an email, or produced straight out of the export action of the app that recorded it can be shared to Topo Maps+ through the iOS share sheet, and it lands as a track without leaving the app you started in.

From inside Topo Maps+

Topo Maps+ also has its own import option that reads a .gpx file directly from Files or iCloud Drive. Either route puts the track in the same place — a line drawn over whatever topographic map is currently open.

What actually lands, and what does not

A GPX track — an ordered, timestamped sequence of points — comes in as a continuous line. Waypoints, if the file has any, come in separately as individual pins rather than part of the line. What does not come across is anything outside the coordinate data: photos, video clips and voice notes recorded along the way are separate files with no field for them in GPX, so the imported line shows the shape of the route, not what you captured on it.

The line sits over whichever map is loaded at the time, which matters more here than in most tools built around a live web map — the map itself has to already be downloaded for the area the track covers, or the terrain underneath it will look blank or unhelpfully low-detail even though the track imported correctly.

Things that trip people up

• The track imports but the map underneath is blank or generic — the detailed topographic data for that area was never downloaded for offline use, which is a separate step from importing the track itself.
• Only pins show up, no line — the file contained waypoints rather than a track, which is common in files exported from tools built around marking locations rather than recording a continuous route.
• Nothing offers to open the file on the phone — check the extension is still .gpx. Email attachments sometimes get rewritten as .txt, and iOS will not offer Topo Maps+ as an option for that.
• The line looks slightly offset from a feature you know is right on the trail — recorded GPS naturally wanders by a few metres, which is a property of the original track, not something the import introduced.

Where TrailCam fits in

TrailCam records a route with GPS on an iPhone and exports it as GPX 1.1 or CSV, for a single walk or the whole history at once — the format Topo Maps+, along with Strava, Garmin Connect and most mapping tools, reads directly. Export is part of the optional TrailCam Pro upgrade; the app itself is free to download.