FAQ: Editing Custom Data Fields in your FIT file

[fulmar2]

FIT files are organized into several "categories":

• Records - This holds information like your latitude, longitude, temperature, heart rate, power, cadence, etc. There should be a data point recorded at least every few seconds, tracking your every move.
• Sessions - This holds information about your activity as a whole, such as your total distance, average speed, average cadence, each segment of a multisport activity, etc.
• Developer Data - This holds ConnectIQ information.
• PoolLengths - This holds information only relevant to swimmers.
• File ID - This holds information about the device(s) that you used in conjunction with the file.

The above is just a short list of the many fields that GOTOES reads and writes. GOTOES has taken a conservative approach to handling FIT files because of the focus on repairing corrupted FIT files. The idea is to read-in a great deal of data, then create a new FIT file from scratch while only writing in the absolute essentials. That way, GOTOES can minimize the risk of transferring the corruption into the new file.

This technique has been very useful for Strava, which does not show most of these data fields anyway. Users have asked for more access to their data, so I have recently started adding the ability for the user to add, view, and edit some of these additional components to their output file. The tools let you see the ORIGINAL data in its ORIGINAL format. In some cases, that data might not make sense to you. You're welcome to edit the data, but please understand that edits you make might produce a corrupted FIT export from GOTOES.

Here is how it works:

In some instances, you will be given the opportunity to add data from your original file into your export. Notice how it says, "added" next to "Multisport":

Adding Extra Data to your GOTOES FIT FILE export

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Once the extra data has been added to your potential export, you can view it by clicking the link that says, "added":

A new window will pop up showing you the RAW data that will be added to your FIT export

You have the option of editing any of these fields. I don't recommend doing this unless you REALLY know what you're doing. Note that currently only numeric fields can be edited. Any characters other than the numbers "0-9" and "-" and "." will be removed from your input. This is to prevent you from accidentally corrupting your files. To make an edit, simply click on the number you want to edit, and an edit box will appear:

Editing a FIT file data entry on GOTOES

Changed the value to 600....

Once you have made the desired edit, either click-away, use the tab key, or use the enter key to leave the box. Upon exiting the box, the value will be saved, and the table cell will turn green - indicating that the new value has been saved.

Successfully edited a FIT file using GOTOES.

Please note! Changing individual values can immediately corrupt your FIT export. For example, if you are editing a multisport activity, and you put the same timestamp in twice, you will end up with a useless export. Alternatively, if your leg durations do not match your timestamps (don't add up), again, the file will be corrupted. So, you need to use this manual editor with care!