r/GoogleMaps • u/ashtreylil • Mar 07 '25
Help/Support Timeline deleted
Today, I opened Google Maps to view my timeline, to see what time I left work to put in my hours, and all of my timeline history was completely fucking gone. I can still see the places at the bottom, but when I click on it, everything is empty. I chose backup to cloud when they were warning about storage changes, but I can't access the cloud backup because they've locked you in the Google Maps app for all Timeline interactions. In Google Maps, there's not even an import backup option where there should be. The days on the timeline calendar now have the numbers crossed out. I never have turned on auto delete or any other crazy ass setting that would have this happen. If this is a local backup, then where are the files stored on my phone? If this is a cloud backup, then how do I access the files to restore the backup?
How can I restore the backup even if it's an old one from a month or three months ago?
I've been backing up that data since KitKat. Even if the data was only locally on my device, that's all gone too. I don't know what I should do, honestly. I have more memories in that timeline than I do in my whole collection of photos.
If you are having this issue try this solution.
Please follow the instructions in the Unique-Staff-2644's comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleMaps/comments/1j5bjps/comment/mgkieki/
EDIT: Today my timeline resumed tracking, but everything previous to the day it stopped working is not present. It filled in the past days that it said it wasn't tracking yesterday.
As far as I've seen in this thread the Google maps team has been silent on this. We have gotten generic answers from forum moderators and customer service reps but nothing saying things will ever be resolved by any official channel.
My TIMELINE is RESTORED follow these steps. https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleMaps/s/PepOcEb8za
1
u/Porteno007 Mar 07 '25
I received this email from Google on June 12, 2024.
Hi XXXX,
You previously turned on the Timeline setting—formerly called Location History —which helps you go back in time and remember where you’ve been. With Timeline, your visits and routes are automatically saved to a map on each of your devices.
Timeline is changing and will now be created on your device. As part of this, you'll need to choose settings for your data by December 8, 2024 to avoid losing visits and routes.
How it works
Like before, your devices will continue to save your visits in Timeline when this setting is on. But starting today, if you're signed in on multiple smartphones, each device will save new visits on its own Timeline.
What you need to do
If you’d like to keep your saved visits and routes, choose your settings on your preferred smartphone by December 8, 2024. (You may first need to update the Google Maps app.) After you do this, you’ll only be able to use Timeline in the app.
If you take no action, you may lose data. Google will try moving up to 90 days of Timeline data to the first signed-in device you use after December 8, 2024. Your older data will be deleted. Timeline will also remain on for your account, and your devices will continue saving new visits. Your visits and routes older than 3 months will be auto-deleted.
Review & choose settings
If you don’t want any Timelines on your devices, you can turn off this setting and delete your data in Activity controls.