How to Export Symptoms from Apple Health

A step-by-step guide to exporting the symptoms you log in Apple Health - all 25 General Symptom types, each with the severity you recorded - as a single PDF, CSV, or JSON for your doctor.

Last updated: July 13th, 2026

By Marina

Co-founder, vitalina

A woman resting a hand on her forehead - logging and exporting symptoms from Apple Health

Apple Health has a General Symptoms section where you - or the Apple Watch and third-party apps you use - log how you feel: a fever, a cough, shortness of breath, dizziness, and more. Each entry is stored with a severity, so it's far richer than a simple yes/no.

If your doctor asks you to track symptoms between appointments - to follow a new medication, monitor a chronic condition, or document a flare - the Health app gives you no tidy report. This guide shows you how to export every symptom in your chosen date range as one PDF, CSV, or JSON using vitalina, a free iPhone app that reads your Apple Health data locally.

Why Apple Health has no built-in symptom export

You can scroll your symptom history in the Health app and tap into any entry to see its severity, but there is no built-in way to hand a series of symptom logs to a clinician. Exporting all of Apple Health as XML produces a giant Export.zip in which your symptoms are buried alongside every other metric - not readable by a human. vitalina solves this by exporting just the symptoms you pick, for the date range you choose, in a clean file.

Step 1: Download vitalina

Download vitalina from the App Store. It's free to use with no account or sign-up required.

Step 2: Allow access to Apple Health

When you first open vitalina, tap Allow Health Access and confirm the permissions. vitalina only requests read access; it cannot modify or delete your health data, and nothing leaves your iPhone.

vitalina requesting read-only access to Apple Health data

Step 3: Open the General Symptoms group and pick your symptoms

Create a custom export and scroll to the General Symptoms group. Tap each symptom you want to include - or add related vitals such as heart rate or body temperature on the same screen so they appear in the same report.

vitalina custom export screen showing the General Symptoms group with Chest Tightness, Shortness of Breath, Dizziness, Fever, Chills, and more available to select

Step 4: Pick a date range

Choose Last 7 days or Last 14 days for free, or upgrade to vitalina Pro for 30 days, 3 months, 1 year, all-time, or a custom range - handy when a doctor wants a symptom diary spanning a whole treatment.

vitalina date range picker showing preset options from 7 days to all time

Step 5: Choose your export format

PDF: a doctor-ready report with a severity chart per symptom and a complete log table.
CSV: one row per entry with date, symptom, and severity - opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers.
JSON: structured records for analysis tooling. See the export format reference for the exact schema.

vitalina format selection showing PDF, CSV, and JSON options

Step 6: Export and share

Tap Export Now. vitalina reads your logged symptoms and generates the file within seconds - then email it to your care team, AirDrop it, save it to Files, or print a copy for your appointment.

A person resting on a couch with a warm drink while feeling unwell

All 25 symptoms you can export

vitalina exports every symptom in Apple Health's General Symptoms set. Most are recorded with a severity; each row below shows what the symptom captures and an example of the value you'd see in your export.

Symptom	What it captures	Example
Chest Tightness or Pain	Chest tightness or pain you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Shortness of Breath	Shortness of breath you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Rapid, Pounding, or Fluttering Heartbeat	A rapid, pounding, or fluttering heartbeat you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Skipped Heartbeat	A skipped heartbeat you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Dizziness	Dizziness you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Fainting	Fainting you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Coughing	Coughing you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Wheezing	Wheezing you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Fever	Fever you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Chills	Chills you've logged in Apple Health, with their severity.	Mild
Night Sweats	Night sweats you've logged in Apple Health, with their severity.	Mild
Vomiting	Vomiting you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Diarrhea	Diarrhea you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Constipation	Constipation you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Heartburn	Heartburn you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Appetite Changes	Appetite changes you've logged in Apple Health, noted as increased, decreased, or no change.	Decreased
Dry Skin	Dry skin you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Hair Loss	Hair loss you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Body Ache	A generalized body ache you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Moderate
Loss of Smell	Loss of smell you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Loss of Taste	Loss of taste you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Memory Lapse	Memory lapses you've logged in Apple Health, with their severity.	Mild
Runny Nose	A runny nose you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild
Sinus Congestion	Sinus congestion you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Moderate
Sore Throat	A sore throat you've logged in Apple Health, with its severity.	Mild

How symptom severity is exported

Apple Health doesn't just record that a symptom happened - it stores how severe it was. vitalina surfaces that exact value. Most symptoms use a five-level severity scale:

Not PresentPresentMildModerateSevere

Appetite Changes is the one exception - Apple records it as one of No Change, Decreased, Increased instead of a severity, and vitalina exports it exactly that way.

How much does vitalina cost?

vitalina is free with 5 unique exports and date ranges up to 14 days. vitalina Pro is a one-time purchase (no subscription) that unlocks unlimited exports and extended date ranges up to all time.

Download vitalina free on the App Store →

Frequently asked questions about exporting Apple Health symptoms

Can you export symptoms from Apple Health?

Yes. Apple Health stores the symptoms you log in its General Symptoms section, but has no built-in export for them. vitalina lets you export all 25 symptom types in your chosen date range as a single PDF, CSV, or JSON file, each with the severity you recorded.

Which symptoms can vitalina export?

All 25 of Apple Health's General Symptom types - from Chest Tightness or Pain and Shortness of Breath through Fever, Chills, and Sore Throat. The full list is in the table above.

Does the export include how severe each symptom was?

Yes. Apple Health records most symptoms as Not Present, Present, Mild, Moderate, or Severe, and vitalina exports that exact value rather than collapsing every entry to a bare occurrence. Appetite Changes is recorded as Decreased, No Change, or Increased.

Is my symptom data safe when I export it?

Yes. Everything is processed locally on your iPhone. Nothing is uploaded to any server, there is no account and no cloud storage, and the file stays on your device until you share it.

Other Apple Health export guides

Step-by-step tutorials for every metric vitalina can export.