Moving to Badger from FitNotes

If you like FitNotes for being fast, free and offline, Badger is all three. Your .fitnotes backup brings your whole library across along with your sets. Here is exactly what comes with it and what you gain.

What the backup file carries across

A .fitnotes backup is a full database, not a flattened CSV, so far more than your sets comes across. Badger reads it on your phone.

Your categories, with their colors. A category you already have in Badger is reused instead of duplicated.
Your exercise library, in those categories, instead of an "Imported" bucket. Each exercise keeps its FitNotes type (weight and reps, cardio, and so on), so the logging screen shows the right fields.
Every set, with its date, weight, reps, distance, time, and any comment you left on it.
Backups from before 2018, when FitNotes changed its database layout. On those, Badger turns the stored kilograms back into the unit you typed, so a pounds log stays in pounds.
Your routines, with their days, exercises and planned sets. A routine with the same name as one already in Badger is skipped.
Supersets, on your past workouts and on routine days.
Workout comments and times. The comment you left on a day becomes the workout's note, and each workout shows when it started and ended.
Exercise settings. Each exercise's bar weight comes across. Weight increment, rest time and favorite fill in only where the Badger exercise has no value of its own, and favorite can only be turned on.
Your body weight history, added to Badger's body weight track.
Your custom measurements (waist, arms, whatever you tracked), each as its own measurement type with its unit.
Your PRs, worked out again from the imported history, so your records and graphs start out full.

What does not come across:

Warmups, as warmups. FitNotes does not mark them, so every set arrives as a working set. You can flag warmups yourself afterward.
Your bar list and plate inventory. The plate calculator keeps its own; set your plates in Badger once.

Doing it

In FitNotes, go to Settings → Backup to write a .fitnotes file, move it to the phone you train with, then open Settings → Your data → Import from FitNotes in Badger. Import each backup once. The full steps are in importing from another app.

On the preview, check the weight unit. Badger assumes kilograms, which is what FitNotes normally stores; a pre-2018 backup carries its own unit on each set.

What you get that you did not have

Routines that pre-fill. Build your program once and each session opens with your exercises and last weights in place. Eleven programs ship built in, including StrongLifts 5x5, GZCLP and PPL.
Gym and machine tracking. Record which gym and machine a set was done on, with PRs kept per machine. How that works.
A plate calculator and a warmup generator that work from the plates your gym owns and round to loads you can make.
A rest timer that starts itself when you complete a set, set per exercise.
More graphs. Estimated 1RM, eleven graphs per exercise, an activity heatmap, weekly volume by muscle group, and plateau detection. What it tracks.
An iPhone version. Badger is on Google Play and the App Store, so a new phone does not mean a new app. FitNotes on iPhone covers getting the backup from an Android phone to an iPhone.

What stays the same: no account, no sign-in, and your log lives on your phone.

Getting back out again

You can take your log with you if you leave. Every set exports to CSV, and the whole database backs up to a file you keep. Routines, exercises and equipment share as .badger files, a documented format you can read in any text editor.

What it costs

Nothing: no subscription, no ads, and no cap on routines or history. The no-subscription guide compares what free means across the trackers people usually weigh up.

About the name

FitNotes is the work of its own developer, and Badger is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or connected to it in any way. This page describes compatibility only: Badger reads the backup file that FitNotes writes.