How to switch workout apps without losing your history
Export your data from the old app before you do anything else, and keep that original file untouched. Then import it, check three recent workouts against the old app, and run both apps side by side for two weeks.
Your history is the only part of a training log you cannot rebuild. Treat the move like a data migration, not an app download.
Why people switch
The reasons are usually one of four.
- Ads. A banner or a video between sets is a poor trade for a free app.
- A paywall on history. Your own old workouts should not be locked behind a subscription.
- Data loss. A phone swap, a failed sync or a deleted account has already cost you a year of numbers.
- A missing feature. No rest timer that works with the screen off, no supersets, no RPE per set, or no watch app.
None of these is a reason to start from zero. A good log is worth moving, and the move is mostly an afternoon of care.
Step one: export from the old app
Open the old app’s settings and look for export, backup or data. Most apps offer a CSV file. Some have their own export format. Take whichever is available, and if there is a choice, take both.
Then do three things.
- Save the file somewhere that is not your phone: cloud storage, your computer or an email to yourself.
- Rename it with the app name and the date, such as
oldapp-export-2026-10-07.csv. - Do not edit it. If you want to clean the data, work on a copy.
The original is your safety net. If an import goes wrong, you return to it and try again. Do not delete the old app, and do not delete the old account, until the checklist below is finished.
What a good import keeps
An import is a translation from one app’s structure to another’s. The core fields survive well:
| Kept in a good import | Often lost |
|---|---|
| Workout dates | RPE or RIR, unless the file carries it |
| Exercise names | Free-text notes, unless the format carries them |
| Sets | Progress photos and videos |
| Weights | Custom exercise art |
| Reps | Routines and schedules |
| Bodyweight entries | Achievements, streaks and badges from the old app |
The right-hand column is not a flaw in any one app. It depends on what the export file contains. If a CSV has no RPE column, no importer can invent one. Open the file in a spreadsheet and look at the columns. What is in the file is the ceiling for what you can bring over.
Photos are the item people forget. If the old app stores them, copy them out by hand or through its own backup before you leave.
The week after switching
Work through this list in order. It takes about an hour spread over a few days.
- Verify three recent workouts. Pick one from last week, one from a month ago and one from at least six months ago. Open each in the old app and the new one. Check the date, the exercises, and every set’s weight and reps. A mismatch in the oldest one usually points to a unit problem, so check kg against lb.
- Reconcile duplicate exercise names. The same lift often arrives under two names, such as “Squat” and “Barbell Back Squat”. Choose one name and use it from now on. This matters because strength curves and personal records are built per exercise. Two names means two half-histories, and neither shows the true trend.
- Re-create your routines. Routines rarely survive an import. Rebuild the three or four you actually use. Do not rebuild the ones you have not touched in a year.
- Set units and the rest timer. Choose kg or lb, then set your rest timer sound and default time. For ranges to start from, see rest between sets.
- Turn on the health integration if you want it. Apple Health on iOS or Health Connect on Android. Leave it off if you do not need it.
- Check your bodyweight history. One wrong entry, such as 800 instead of 80, will wreck a chart. Fix it now.
If your tracking habits are loose, this is the moment to tighten them. How to track workouts covers what to record and how to review it each week.
Keep both apps for two weeks
Do not make a clean break on day one. For two weeks, log each session in the new app and keep the old one installed, unchanged and untouched. You are not logging twice. You are keeping the old one as a reference.
Two weeks gives you six or so sessions. That is enough to learn where the new app is slower, to notice a missing field and to decide whether the move was right. If it was not, you lose nothing. You still have the old app and the original file.
At the end of the two weeks, do a last export from the old app. It will include any workouts you logged there after the first export. Then archive the file with the first one.
Export again from the new app
This step is the one people skip. Once you are settled, export from the new app too. You are checking one thing: could you leave this app tomorrow with your data intact?
Open the file. Look at the columns, the dates and a few sets. If the file is readable and complete, you have lost the fear of lock-in. If it is not, you have found out while the old app is still there.
Repeat this once a month or once a quarter. A backup you have never opened is a guess.
In GymYuz
GymYuz imports workouts and bodyweight from Hevy, Strong, Lyfta, FitNotes and openGym. It exports to CSV, or to a ZIP backup that holds your data plus the media you added and imports back into the app. Imports, export and backup are all part of the free logger, and you do not need an account. After an import, check the exercise list for the same lift under two names and pick one to use from then on, as there is no merge tool.
Join the waitlist on the home page to get the app when it opens.