--- title: "How to export your Apple Health data, and read the file" canonical: "https://aifitnessapi.com/own-your-data/apple-health-export" cluster: "Own Your Data" primary_query: "how to export Apple Health data" last_reviewed: "2026-11-05" description: "Apple's steps for Export All Health Data on iPhone, what the XML archive is, and how to open export.xml in a browser or pandas without uploading it." publisher: "AIFitnessAPI — independent, not sponsored" cite_as: "\"How to export your Apple Health data, and read the file\", AIFitnessAPI, https://aifitnessapi.com/own-your-data/apple-health-export" --- # How to export your Apple Health data, and read the file > On iPhone, open the Health app, tap Summary, tap your picture or initials, then tap Export All Health Data and choose how to share the file. Apple's iPhone User Guide says this exports all of your health and fitness data from Health in XML format. Apple's guide describes no web download, and HealthKit is read by apps on the device rather than through a web API. To look inside the file without uploading it, open it in this site's in-browser Apple Health explorer or one of the pandas notebooks linked below. - Canonical: https://aifitnessapi.com/own-your-data/apple-health-export - Last reviewed: 2026-11-05 - Publisher: AIFitnessAPI (https://aifitnessapi.com) — independent, not sponsored - Cite as: "How to export your Apple Health data, and read the file", AIFitnessAPI, https://aifitnessapi.com/own-your-data/apple-health-export --- ## Apple's steps Apple's iPhone User Guide, in its page on sharing health data, puts the export under the profile, not under Settings: 1. Go to the Health app on your iPhone. 2. Tap Summary, then tap your picture or initials. 3. Tap Export All Health Data, then choose a method for sharing your data. Apple describes the result in one sentence: "You can export all of your health and fitness data from Health in XML format, which is a common format for sharing data between apps." That is everything the guide says about the format. It does not list the files in the archive, the element names, or how long the export takes, and this page does not fill those in from elsewhere. ## Opening the file Apple's guide does not name the file. The [Apple Health export explorer](/tools/apple-health-explorer) on this site accepts either a ZIP archive or the export.xml file inside it, reads it in your browser, streaming it in chunks so a large file does not have to fit in memory, and shows each record type with its count, first and last date, units and sources, a daily chart and a CSV download per type. Nothing is uploaded. It maps each type identifier in the file to its name in [the HealthKit identifier reference](/healthkit-identifiers), so `HKQuantityTypeIdentifierStepCount` shows up as `stepCount` with Apple's one-line description. For analysis in Python, the [Apple Health notebook](/own-your-data#notebooks) reads the same ZIP with the standard library's `zipfile` and `xml.etree.ElementTree.iterparse`, so memory stays flat, and builds a pandas DataFrame per type. ## Is there an API for my own Health data? Not one this site could find. HealthKit is read on the phone by an app the user installs and grants permission per data type, as the [HealthKit integration guide](/integrate/healthkit) covers, and Apple's guide offers the export file as the way to take everything with you. The export is the route for a person; an app is the route for a product. ## Things to check in your export - **More than one unit.** The explorer counts units per type and charts one unit at a time, because nothing guarantees a type arrives in a single unit (distance in kilometers and miles, for example). - **Several sources write the same type.** A phone and a watch can both count steps, and adding every row double-counts. HealthKit's statistics queries are built to merge overlapping sources; a raw file is not. The explorer lists the sources per type, and its CSV keeps the source on every row so you can filter to one. - **Which day.** The explorer groups by the calendar date written at the start of each record's timestamp, the day where it happened; converting everything to UTC first moves late-evening samples to the next day. [Why "today's steps" is a bug](/day-boundaries) shows the same trap in code. ## Sources - [support.apple.com/guide/iphone/share-your-health-data-iph5ede58c3d/ios](https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/share-your-health-data-iph5ede58c3d/ios) — export steps and the XML-format sentence (checked 2026-11-05) ## FAQ ### Where is Export All Health Data in the iPhone Health app? Under your profile, not in Settings. Apple's iPhone User Guide says to go to the Health app, tap Summary, then tap your picture or initials, then tap Export All Health Data and choose a method for sharing your data. The guide says the export is in XML format. [Permalink](https://aifitnessapi.com/own-your-data/apple-health-export#faq-1) ### Can I download my Apple Health data from a website or API instead of the phone? Not that this site could find. HealthKit data is read on the device by apps the user grants permission to, and Apple's iPhone User Guide offers no web download. The Export All Health Data file on the iPhone is the route for an individual, and a HealthKit app is the route for a product. [Permalink](https://aifitnessapi.com/own-your-data/apple-health-export#faq-2) ### How do I open a large Apple Health export.xml without crashing my computer? Stream it instead of loading it whole. In a browser, this site's Apple Health explorer reads the ZIP or XML in chunks in a Web Worker and keeps only per-type summaries. In Python, xml.etree.ElementTree.iterparse with elem.clear() after each Record keeps memory flat; the linked notebook does exactly that and runs on a synthetic sample. [Permalink](https://aifitnessapi.com/own-your-data/apple-health-export#faq-3)