GPX and .mnav: tours in, tours out
A tour is a file. No link to our server, no feed, no profile where somebody hands out thumbs-ups. The file goes by email, AirDrop, messenger or into the forum, and where it goes is decided by your phone’s share menu.
Two formats, two jobs
GPX is understood by every GPS unit, every planner software and every forum. It carries positions and names, nothing more.
.mnav is our own format: a JSON file that may also be gzip-compressed (the extension stays .mnav). It carries the whole recipe: routing profile, waypoint types, wait times, plus folders, order, disabled entries and Auto-advance.
Rule of thumb: between two MotoNavigator phones, .mnav travels. Everything else gets GPX.
Opening a file
Getting it there. On the iPhone you tap the file in Files, Mail or Safari and pick MotoNavigator as the destination. On Android the way is Open with (as of October 2026). Without any detour, it works inside the app: Organizer → Routes → Import route… opens the file picker. The app reads .gpx and .mnav and nothing else. KML, FIT and relatives it leaves alone, and tells you so.
Preview first. The app reads the file and shows what’s inside: which routes, which tracks (the app also says trace) with how many points, how many POIs, which program wrote it and what doesn’t survive. You uncheck what you don’t want. Nothing gets written until you tap Import. A broken file gets a message with its name.
Where it goes. Everything lands in a new folder in the Projects tab, named after the name the file gives itself, otherwise after the file name. The routes sit under Routes, the tracks under Traces, the POIs with the POIs; the folder only points to them. Your open plan stays untouched.
What GPX becomes:
<wpt>becomes a POI.<trk>becomes a track, whole.<rte>becomes a route. If it has more points than routing accepts, you get both: the line as a track and the named points as a route.
Dense tracks. If a track has more points than a route can carry, the app asks exactly once: Keep as trace or Simplify to the number shown in the dialog. Nothing is preselected, and Import stays off until you’ve answered.
What GPX doesn’t know. Stops, U-turns, wait times and profiles aren’t in any ordinary GPX file. An imported route therefore arrives without a profile, as NoRoad, and its waypoints are drive-throughs. Pick a profile in the route panel and the app calculates them onto roads. Stop and wait time you set yourself (Waypoints).
Riding it. You ride a route like any other. A track you ride via Ride this track; how the app lays it onto roads or rides it without turn instructions is covered in Navigation modes.
Sending a tour out
In the menu of a route, a track or a folder you’ll find Share…, for a ride in the History tab Export…. For a route and a track, the app asks about the format. The dialog tells you beforehand what the format doesn’t take along, and afterward what really stayed behind this time. A folder always goes as .mnav, because GPX can’t do folders. After that your phone’s share menu takes over. The app uploads nothing. More on passing things on is in the chapter Recording.
What stays behind with GPX:
- Route: profile, start mode, waypoint types and wait times. Only the positions and names of the waypoints travel along.
- Track: the comment. It comes back marked as a GPX track.
- Ride: travels as a line, simplified and with a name. Positions only.
Onto a GPS unit
GPS units read GPX. From a route, the file takes the waypoints along, not the road in between. The unit usually calculates the route itself and may pick other roads than the app. If you want to pin the line down, set more waypoints, closer together at the places where it counts: the pass, not the tunnel. How a unit treats the points is the unit’s call. How the file gets onto the unit (cable, memory card or the manufacturer’s app) is in its manual.
A whole folder
A tour of several days you send as a folder in .mnav format. The recipient gets the structure, the order, disabled entries and the Auto-advance switch. Setup and handling are in the chapter Planning a multi-day trip.