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Import pins into UrbanLens

Bring your saved places, field notes, GPS waypoints, and research datasets into UrbanLens. Use this guide to export from common services, choose the right file, and upload it from the map import tool.

upload_file Open import tool Supported formats
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Quick start

1Export

Download any format from your current tool.

2Upload

Open the UrbanLens import tool, and preview your pins before saving.

3Review

Deselect any pins you don't want to import.

4Customize

Customize pins with names, tags, categories, and statuses that you created on the Organize page.

map

Google

We support Google Maps lists, Google My Maps, and Google Earth.

Google Takeout Screenshot, showing the 'Deselect All' button
  1. Go to Google Takeout.
  2. Click "Deselect All"
  3. Check any of the following sections you want to import:
    1. Google Earth
    2. Maps
    3. Maps (your places)
    4. My Maps
    5. My Activity - for driving-directions history, open its options and set the Maps output format to HTML (the only format we can read for this section)
    6. Saved
    7. Street View
    8. Timeline
  4. Click "Next Step"
  5. Google will email you when the download is ready.
  6. Upload the exported file to UrbanLens.
Tip: You will have a chance to choose which pins to import.
Note: Google only supports exporting data via Google Takeout; there's nothing we can do to make this process easier.
My Activity imports differently: "Directions to X" entries aren't saved places, so they don't become pins automatically. A destination near one of your existing pins gets logged as a visit there; anything else shows up as a suggestion in your notifications for you to confirm or dismiss.
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Multiplottr

Multiplottr
  1. Login to Multiplottr.
  2. Click "Map Settings"
  3. Click "Download KML File"
  4. Upload the exported file to UrbanLens.
Tip: You will have a chance to choose which pins to import.
route

GPX apps and GPS devices

Gaia GPS, CalTopo, Garmin, AllTrails, Wikiloc, Geocaching.com, and similar tools commonly export GPX.

  1. Open the trip, route, or waypoint list you want to bring over.
  2. Look for an "Export," "Share," or "Download" option and choose the GPX format (sometimes listed as "GPS Exchange Format").
  3. Some apps only let you export one waypoint or track at a time - check for a "Export all" or "Export folder" option first.
  4. Upload the GPX file to UrbanLens.
Tip: Only waypoints (saved points of interest) become pins. Tracks and routes - the recorded breadcrumb trail of a hike or drive - are ignored, so importing a recording won't flood your map with hundreds of points.
Gaia GPS CalTopo Geocaching.com AllTrails Wikiloc Garmin Connect
dataset

GIS portals and open data

City, county, state, federal, university, and preservation datasets often export Shapefile, GeoJSON, CSV, or ZIP archives.

  1. Find the dataset's download or export panel.
  2. Prefer GeoJSON for point datasets. Use Shapefile or ZIP when GeoJSON is not offered.
  3. For CSV exports, make sure it has latitude and longitude columns - see the CSV spreadsheets section below for the exact column names we recognize.
Data.gov NRHP data EPA Envirofacts ArcGIS Hub
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OpenStreetMap / Overpass Turbo

  1. Build a query in Overpass Turbo.
  2. Export the results as GeoJSON for the cleanest import, or OSM XML if you need original OSM tags.
Technical details: For OSM XML, only nodes and ways that carry at least one <tag> become pins - untagged geometry vertices are skipped. Ways are placed at the centroid of their member nodes. Relations (multipolygons, administrative boundaries) aren't imported.
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CSV spreadsheets

CSV is the easiest path for Airtable, Google Sheets, Excel, personal notes, scraped lists, or manually curated research.

  1. Make sure your spreadsheet has a latitude column and a longitude column - see the required column names below.
  2. Add a name column so pins aren't imported as "Unnamed."
  3. A description-style column (see below) is optional but carries over as the pin's notes.
  4. Export the sheet as CSV and upload it to UrbanLens.
Required columns: One latitude column (latitude or lat) and one longitude column (longitude, lng, lon, or long), with plain decimal values like 42.3601 and -71.0589. A CSV without both is skipped as unrecognized.
Technical details: Column names are matched case-insensitively. Name is read from the first match of name, place, title, label, site_name, or namealt (falls back to "Unnamed"). Description is read from the first match of description, desc, comment, notes, note, or address. Exporting from Google Takeout instead? See the Google section above - Takeout's CSV format works too, using its own URL/Title/Note columns.
fact_check

Supported import formats

KML / KMZGeoJSONGPX waypointsCSVShapefile ZIPWKT / WKBOSM XMLMy Activity (Maps)ZIP archives
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