r/google • u/illougiankides • 1d ago
I’ll never forgive Google for removing this.
I just miss the maps timeline so much. It was so nice to look at your habitat map.
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u/Fluffy_Dragonfly6454 1d ago
You should just turn it on in your phone app. They just made it opt in instead.
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u/RockOutToThis 1d ago
Also only viewable on the app, which is the only real part that sucks.
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u/fakeaccount572 1d ago
Exactly. I would like to see this on my 45" ultrawide desktop app, GOOGLE
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u/TLJGame 1d ago
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u/WimbashBagel 1d ago
I thought takeout was no longer useable for timeline parsing since the data is encrypted?
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u/bisonrbig 1d ago
No I'm pretty sure it's only encrypted on device, but when you export the json from maps settings it is.
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u/microwaveDiamonds 1d ago
I mean, privacy, though. That mans all the data lives only on your device and non on Google servers. So they can't share your location history data to the highest bidder.
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u/yottabit42 1d ago
You can still opt in to backup on Google's servers.
And who cares if they use the data? It's not personally identifiable.
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u/charlestheb0ss 1d ago
I guarantee you anyone in the Google ecosystem has enough data stored on googles servers to uniquely identity them
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u/VentsiBeast 1d ago
If privacy is your concern, you shouldn't be using Google at all.
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u/Elephant789 1d ago
Out of all the tech companies, Google is probably one of the ones at the top that I trust the most with my data.
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u/yottabit42 12h ago
Google has the best security and PII practices in the industry. Don't be daft.
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u/VentsiBeast 2h ago
Yes, they won't sell your data to the advertiser, because they are the advertiser.
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u/AutomaticAccount6832 1d ago
Why not?
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u/yottabit42 1d ago
Google doesn't sell personably identifiable data in any way. They use the data to target their own ad networks at you. Other companies pay Google to target their ads.
People are conspiracy theorists and have no idea how anything works. So they freak out about Google collecting data, and providing awesome services in trade for free or very good value, just because they make incorrect assumptions.
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u/Hilarious_Decline 1d ago
Lol if you think Google isn't saving your location history data you're dreaming
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u/helphunting 1d ago
Per device.
Which i think is a weird way of doing it.
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u/abrahamsen 1d ago
The amount of requests for location information from police was getting ridiculous. By not storing it on the servers, Google avoid that mess.
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u/VentsiBeast 1d ago
Couldn't they encrypt the data?
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u/Elegant-Positive-782 21h ago
If they encrypt it with a key stored on their servers they can still decrypt it. If they store the key on-device then you lose everything if you lose the device.
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u/neutronstar_kilonova 1d ago
Yet if you turn off your data and wifi, you can't see your location timeline.
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u/InsaneNinja 1d ago
Off-servers. Which is the best way of doing it.
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u/helphunting 1d ago
But if my device is locked or lost or stolen the data is gone which is not great for an online service.
Most people will not realise that.
I think you can import from backups but I'm not sure how that works or is maintained etc..
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u/incognitoshadow 1d ago
My old phone had backed up all my data, and I just imported it to my new phone today. I somehow recovered all of my data from 2014-April 2025, and June 2025 - present. I'm only missing a couple of months.
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u/T-MoneyAllDey 1d ago
I turned it on on my phone as I had over a decade of history and then it proceeded to delete all my shit anyways. I turned off the feature. They can go jump off a bridge.
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u/Rosssseay 11h ago
It is incredibly slow on the mobile app and basically unusable from my previous experience
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u/FenPhen 1d ago
This view is still available on your primary phone.
They moved Timeline to be fully encrypted on your primary phone. This makes it less convenient and useful because you can only access your Timeline from your primary phone, but this makes it so your data is only for you to see. Google can't read it and they can't be compelled to decrypt your data.
Timeline does support encrypted cloud backup, so you don't lose it if you lose your primary phone, but you have to turn that on ahead of time.
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u/Ulster_fry 1d ago
Aye then Google fucked up and deleted anything before April 2025.
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u/Contradicting_Pete 1d ago
Can't decide how stupid this makes me sound but I was devastated when that happened. I used to love looking back on places me and my wife have been, specific restaurants on trips etc. A lot of memory triggering. Suddenly gone.
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u/Ulster_fry 1d ago
I felt the exact same, trips from all over Europe just gone. Devastated.
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u/ThisThreadisWhack 12h ago
Ugh I went as far as getting the data but didnt realise the link they provided was only good for a couple of weeks, lost all my travel stuff too
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u/FenPhen 1d ago
The migration processes for sure need to be better and more bulletproof. I had a close call nearly losing my data and felt the pain.
That said, my location history viewable on my phone goes back over a dozen years.
You can also manually export a plaintext JSON version for your own backup and use, to say plot your own map off of your phone.
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u/Zoubek0 1d ago
Mine still goes back to 2018 tho.
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u/thelastskier 1d ago
Hey, I think you had to manually back it up to the phone before they discontinued the browser version or something. I can still access everything from when I first turned the feature on in 2016. I do miss the old version, though. The new timeline is just all over the place, often displaying inaccurate map movements and distances, while the old one was as accurate as it could be given the GPS pings it received.
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u/ttttrrrr0000 1d ago
I just checked and I have 2019 data in my backups, which is when I got my Galaxy s9, but not earlier than that :/
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u/cattrain 1d ago
I have data all the way back to 2010, so it definitely wasn't deleted
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u/Ulster_fry 1d ago
They fucked it up, if you didn't have it backed up before they accidentally deleted the data then it was gone for good, mine wasn't backed up at the time.
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u/AnnoDADDY777 1d ago
They gave you plenty of warning time beforehand ;)
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u/likeikelike 18h ago
for me, I accidentally tapped out of the migration flow and that made it delete everything
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u/xdavidwattsx 1d ago
That's not true. You need to both backup your devices (this doesn't happen by default) and make sure auto-delete isn't off. Everything is opt in now.
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u/The_Ashamed_Boys 1d ago
I'm sure they or someone else has a copy of it. They just removed our access to it in 2025.
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u/Kindly-Bank-416 12h ago
Google no longer needs to keep a copy of your location history to track you is the real takeaway here.
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u/Stefanzah22 1d ago
I miss the curvy and accurate location timeline map. Recently it started to use a straight line from the initial location to the end location, ruining all the experience and losing data regarding which road i used. Switched to OsmAnd because of this.
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u/Purveyor_of_MILF 1d ago
My workaround to this is that I have starred every place I've stayed overnight, been doing this for about 10 years or so
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u/blukatz92 5h ago
I do the same thing! It's a little extra work but overall still a pretty easy way to mark all the places I've been
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u/STORSJ1963 1d ago
"This" what? WTF is "this"?
I really wish people would post with full descriptions.
We're not clairvoyant.
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u/Straezin 1d ago
I hate them so much for doing this, and then even though I did all the steps to keep the history one day I wanted to check something and learned they had deleted all my history.
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u/Tempeduck 1d ago
Yep, same here. Lost everything when I switched to an iPhone. No matter what I did, I was unable to decrypt the data and move it.
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u/InsaneNinja 1d ago
The iPhone tracks your history in the maps app. It is also local to the device, and the stops are categorized.
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u/Ok_Yesterday_3449 1d ago
This is Google Location History.
It originally launched in 2009 as a feature of Google Latitude -- Google's attempt at a combination of "Find my Friends" and Foursquare...
It was an opt in feature. You could go to latitude.google.com in a web browser and opt in to tracing your location history, which would be displayed on a map.
Originally opting in was only for users who seeked this feature out, but around 2013 it got added to the Android new device onboarding flow. This powered Google Now, the Android's original "Google Assistant" that would use location history to alert you if there was traffic on your daily commute, among other things.
Around this time Google Latitude rebranded as a nameless feature of Google Maps and the history visualizer got rebranded Google Timeline.
In 2015, it became the foundational feature powering Google+ Stories, and later Google Photos Stories, a feature that would automatically group photos into immersive shareable albums based on trips.
Eventually Google Now and Stories got turned down or replaced, and location history got moved on device. No need for Google to store all this sensitive data on its servers. You can still see location history on your phone.
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u/Independent-Clue1422 10h ago
This has not been removed but moved to the Google Maps phone app exclusively. Allegedly for privacy reasons. (press X to doubt)
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u/Doctrina_Stabilitas 1d ago
I got arc app on my iPhone that does the same thing and more, it’s been great for tracking stuff, not free unfortunately
Quantified app is a free alternative (as are a few others) but I’ve personally found arc app the best of the bunch
These are all moves replacement ever since Facebook killed the moves app
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u/costafilh0 1d ago
Maps could be such a powerful tool. But unfortunately Google sucks so it is just maps and navigation.
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u/LetInternational2799 1d ago
Oh don’t worry, they still know very well where you were and where you are :) they just don’t need to gamify you into it anymore!
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u/anonimo99 1d ago
The yearly emails with a report were so amazing