Web front end/How to upload a GPS trace

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The GPS traces link, highlighted. It may be hidden behind a "More ▼" or a "☰" drop-down menu button if you use a small window width.
  • (optional) Convert your GPS trace to the GPX file format if your GPS device does not supply this format natively.
    • Only GPS traces in the GPX file format can be uploaded to OpenStreetMap; multiple GPX files can also be submited if using a single zip (or tar/tar.gz) file.
    • Files can easily be converted to this format using tools – see the convert GPS tracks.
  • Select the "GPS traces" from the top main menu.
  • Select "See your traces", or "upload a trace" directly
    • If you are not already logged-in to the main OSM website, you will be asked to log in. If you don't have an account for the site, create an account first.
  • (optional) Use the "Browse" button to select the GPX file on your local computer.
  • (optional) Enter a Description and Tags of GPS trace. Help others understand how trace was recorded, there significant difference between car/hiking and bicycle traces.
  • (optional) Select the privacy option visibility of GPS traces.
    • If you do not want your GPS trace to be seen by anybody else, stop here and do not upload. (If you have already uploaded it, then in "See your traces" you can still edit/delete it.)
  • Click Upload. The file will be uploaded to the OSM server, where it will join the queue of files ("PENDING" next to it) to be inserted into the database.

Uploading Compressed files

A single file may also be uploaded after being compressed by gzip, having a .gpx.gz extension. If you have a big file or multiple files to upload, you may compress them into a zip archive and upload it. It will then be treated as one big gpx file (that is, only one entry in your trace list is created).