Tools · Personal ops
Strava Activity Stitcher
You paused at the turnaround, the watch ended the hike instead, and the way back became a second activity. Drop both TCX exports here and get one file back with every recorded point intact. The tool shows what it keeps, what it shifts, and what it leaves empty, and asks you twice before anything is built. It never invents a trackpoint, a heart rate, or a timestamp, and the files never leave this tab.
stitched activities built on this page
Get the two recordings
Strava exports one TCX per activity. Paste the two activity links or IDs to get the export links, or skip that and drop the files you already have.
Export (you must be signed in to Strava; each opens in a new tab and downloads the file):first activity TCX·second activity TCX
Drop both .tcx files here, or choose them
Two files, either order. Nothing is uploaded; parsing happens in this tab.
Read the plan, then approve it
What the seam looks like, what is carried through untouched, the one number you decide, and what is deliberately left empty.
Kept verbatim
Shifted or derived
Left empty on purpose
Check the result, then download
The stitched file was re-read from scratch and every kept value compared to its source. The download only unlocks when that comparison passes.
After the download: delete first, then upload
Strava rejects any upload whose time range overlaps an activity you already have, so the stitched file comes back as "duplicate of …" until the originals are gone. Deleting first is safe: the two TCX files you dropped in above are the complete originals, so if anything goes wrong you upload those again.
- Keep the two original
.tcxexports somewhere you can find them. They are your undo. - Delete both original activities on Strava. Strava's API cannot delete, so it is a manual step on each activity page (the three-dot menu, then Delete).
- Upload the stitched file at strava.com/upload/select. Strava reads the two recordings as two laps of one activity.
- TCX has no "Hike" sport, so Strava may file it as a Workout. Set the type you actually did on the upload form, then give it the name you want.
- The upload preview shows moving time, not the length of the outing. Strava drops every second under its walking speed, so a slow hike with stops can preview at half the file's elapsed span, and the gap is dropped too. Once saved as a Hike or Walk the headline is elapsed time, and the Elapsed Time stat always reads straight from the first and last timestamps.
- Strava recomputes distance from GPS on upload and does not count the gap distance you chose here. Your choice is still in the file; Strava just overrides it.
How it stays honest
A stitched activity is only worth having if it is true. So the tool never fills the gap. Where you stopped recording and where you started again are both real points; the time between them counts as elapsed time because you were out there, but no positions, heart rates, or timestamps are invented to paper over it. On the map Strava will draw a straight line across the gap, which is the honest picture of an untracked stretch.
The one editorial number is distance for the gap. Counting nothing is safe. Counting the straight line is a floor you certainly covered. When the second recording starts on a point the first one already passed, the tool can also offer your own recorded trail back to that point, which is the ground you actually walked, measured by your own watch. Each option says where its number comes from before you pick it. In practice Strava recomputes distance from GPS on upload and skips the gap entirely, so the choice is recorded in the file and overridden on the site.