KMZ to GPX Converter: Google Earth onto Your Device

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Converter

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Features in this file

NameTypeFolderVerticesLengthArea

A four step pipeline. First, a KMZ arrives as one compressed file, usually by email or from a shared map. Second, it is unzipped in the browser and the KML inside is read, with icons and overlays set aside. Third, the waypoints, routes and tracks are drawn on a map before anything is written, so you can see what you are about to load. Fourth, the GPX is written, with points becoming wpt elements and lines becoming trk elements, carrying names and heights but not styling. A band below advises splitting a mixed file before loading, because some units list every waypoint in one long menu.
Step three is the one people skip. Checking the map takes a moment at a desk and saves discovering the wrong valley at a trailhead.

How to use this tool

Drop a .kmz file above. It is unzipped here on your own device, the KML inside is read, and everything is drawn on the map so you can see what you are about to load. Press Convert to GPX and download, then copy the file onto your unit.

If what you were sent is a plain .kml, use the KML to GPX Converter instead. It skips the unzip step and is otherwise identical.

What is in the archive, and what makes it onto the device

A KMZ is a zip file with the extension changed. Inside there is normally a doc.kml holding all the geometry, and often a files folder with icon artwork, ground overlay photographs and legend graphics.

Only the KML crosses over. Icons, overlays and legends are set aside, because GPX has no field for any of them. If the KMZ you were sent depends on a custom icon to tell one kind of point from another, that distinction is about to vanish, and it is worth writing it into the names before you convert.

One detail worth knowing: the specification allows a KMZ to hold several KML files and does not say which is the map. The convention, which this tool follows, is that a file named doc.kml in the archive root wins, falling back to the first KML found anywhere. If you have an archive with several and the wrong one is being read, unzip it yourself and convert the one you want.

A worked check you can repeat on paper

You can confirm what is in any KMZ before converting it, with no tools at all. Take a copy, rename the extension from .kmz to .zip, and open it the way you would open any archive.

You will see the doc.kml and whatever else the sender included. Open the doc.kml in a text editor and search for the word Placemark: the number of times it appears is the number of features you should expect to arrive in the GPX. Search for coordinates and you can read the positions directly, remembering that KML writes longitude first.

Now convert the file here and compare the feature count in the table above against the count you made by hand. They should match exactly. If a converter gives you fewer, it has dropped something, and the usual casualty is a MultiGeometry: a placemark holding several parts at once, which a naive parser reads as only its first part.

That failure is quiet and it is common. It is worth checking once with a file you know, so that you trust the tool afterwards.

How this was checked

The unzipping uses the browser native inflate implementation with no library, and it is verified against archives produced by two independent zip libraries, covering compressed entries, stored entries, files in subfolders, archives with a long trailing comment and archives holding several KML files.

The conversion is tested as a full loop rather than in one direction: a GPX becomes a KMZ, the KMZ comes back through this page, and the result is compared against where it started. The same four features arrive, the total length matches at 83650.94 m, and waypoint positions show zero drift.

The MultiGeometry case mentioned above is not hypothetical. An early version of this engine lost exactly those features, and it was caught by the loop test rather than by reading the code. Both implementations now reassemble a MultiGeometry into a single track with its segments intact, and a permanent test keeps it that way.

Mistakes that catch people out

Renaming the file to .gpx and hoping. A KMZ is compressed binary and a GPX is text. Renaming changes nothing about the contents, and the device will reject it.

Loading everything at once onto a small unit. GPX will happily hold hundreds of waypoints alongside a track, but some units list every waypoint in a single flat menu, which is unusable on a small screen. Split the file by type before loading if the unit is basic.

Expecting a route you can navigate turn by turn. A line drawn in Google Earth becomes a track in GPX, and many units will not offer turn by turn guidance along a track. If you need navigation, build the route on the device or in software that writes rte elements.

Assuming ground overlays will come with it. A georeferenced image draped on the terrain is not vector data and has no GPX equivalent. Extract it from the archive separately if you need it.

Forgetting to look at the map before loading. It takes a moment here, and it is the difference between finding a mistake at your desk and finding it at a trailhead.

Related Calculators and Reference

Taking somebody else map onto your own device is usually the first step of a trip rather than the last.