MapLiberator

Export all your data from Gaia GPS.

Every track, route, waypoint, area and photo in your Gaia GPS account, saved to one ZIP file on your computer, still sorted into the folders you made.

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Works with Gaia GPS, AllTrails, Strava and Garmin Connect, in Chrome, Edge, Brave and Firefox.

mapliberator-gaiagps-2026-09-21.zip
├── tracks/           GPX + metadata, one per track
├── routes/           GPX + metadata, one per route
├── waypoints/        one GeoJSON file
├── areas/            one GeoJSON file
├── photos/           original files + metadata
├── collections.json  your folders, nested
├── errors.json       anything that didn't export
└── manifest.json

Your planning is the valuable part

People use Gaia GPS to plan. A trip often starts as a folder with a route or two, a handful of waypoints for water and camp, and an area for the zone you want to stay out of. The tracks you record go into the same folder afterwards. After a few years the account is a library, and the way you've organized it is as much your work as any single line on the map.

MapLiberator copies the whole library, structure included, so you have it whether or not you keep your subscription.

What you get from Gaia GPS

  • Tracks and routes, each as its own GPX file, with a JSON file beside it holding the name, notes, dates, distance and climb, and a link back to the item on Gaia GPS.
  • Waypoints in one GeoJSON file, with their names, notes and icons.
  • Areas in one GeoJSON file, as polygons.
  • Photos as the original files. Each one keeps the location of the waypoint it was attached to.
  • Folders, nested the way you nested them, in collections.json. It lists what's in each folder, so the archive isn't flattened into one long list.
  • Folders other people shared with you, listed in a "Shared with me" collection as links back to Gaia GPS. Other people's tracks are theirs, so MapLiberator doesn't copy them.

Items you deleted on Gaia GPS are left out.

What Gaia GPS's own export does

Gaia GPS lets you export any track, route, waypoint, area or folder from gaiagps.com as GPX, KML or GeoJSON. To export many waypoints at once, its help center suggests filing them into a folder first. That works well for sending one trip to a friend or a GPS unit.

It's harder to use for a full backup. You'd export folder by folder, then hunt down anything you never filed. According to Gaia's help center, photos can't be exported in bulk from the website at all, only from the iOS app. MapLiberator makes one pass over the account and gets everything.

How to export everything from Gaia GPS

  1. Add MapLiberator to Chrome, Edge, Brave or Firefox using the buttons at the top of this page.
  2. Sign in at gaiagps.com in the same browser.
  3. With a gaiagps.com tab open, click the MapLiberator icon in the toolbar and choose Export from Gaia GPS.
  4. On the export page, click Allow access to Gaia GPS. Your browser asks you to confirm. The permission covers Gaia GPS and its photo host and nothing else.
  5. MapLiberator checks which account you're signed in to and counts what's in it. Choose Everything, or Maps only — no photos if you want a smaller file, then click Export.
  6. Leave the Gaia GPS tab it opens running in the background. When the export finishes, save mapliberator-gaiagps- followed by today's date and .zip.

A large library with many photos can take a while. MapLiberator paces its requests like one patient person clicking through the site, so it doesn't strain Gaia's servers. If Gaia signs you out partway through, the export pauses instead of failing. Sign in again in the Gaia GPS tab and resume.

Opening the archive

Unzip it. The GPX files open in almost any map app, including CalTopo, onX, Garmin BaseCamp and Gaia GPS itself. The GeoJSON files open in QGIS and most GIS tools. If an item couldn't be exported, errors.json says which one and why, so you can tell what's missing.

The archive follows the Portable Map Archive format, which is open and documented, so any app that adds support for it can import a whole Gaia GPS library in one step, folders and photos included.

Not affiliated with Gaia GPS

MapLiberator is an independent, open-source project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Gaia GPS. Gaia GPS is a trademark of its owner, named here only to say which site the extension works with. MapLiberator only reads your own account, signed in as you, the same way the Gaia GPS website does, and writes the archive straight to your computer. There's no MapLiberator server and no account to create.

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