Apple Health export formats — CSV vs Excel vs PDF vs JSON

Start with the destination

You need to…	Use	Why
Build charts or filters	CSV / Excel	Opens in Numbers, Sheets, Excel
Hand a readable pack to a clinician	PDF	Fixed layout, easy to print
Pipe into a script	JSON	Structured for code
Drop into a notes vault	Markdown	Human-readable text

Metrics and ranges

Export only what the recipient needs. Common sets:

• Activity: steps, distance, active energy
• Heart: heart rate, resting HR, HRV
• Sleep and vitals: sleep, blood oxygen, respiratory rate, blood pressure, weight

Shorter ranges validate structure; longer ranges are for archives.

Raw vs daily aggregation

• Raw — better for research-style plots
• Daily — better for progress reviews and PDFs

Tooling example

Health Data Export reads HealthKit on device and writes CSV, JSON, Markdown, Excel, or PDF with free/Pro tiers for range and advanced metrics. Pair this guide’s format choice with that export step.

Checklist before you share

1. Confirm the date range on the filename
2. Strip columns you do not need
3. Prefer private channels for full dumps
4. Keep a local archive if the share is one-way