Google Maps Timeline Data Recovery

Google Maps tips & tricks
1

Hi all,

On 5 August, my google maps timeline data for the past 10 years got erased somehow and now everything shows blank.

It was highly curated with detailed location and durations added in it.

Earlier when the time line data was switched over to the devices, we lost access to the web browser based access for timelines.

Now this device data is gone and I can’t find a way to get it back.

Has anyone else gone through this issue and had any success in restoring the data from a back up?

It is a very bad design decision from google regarding the timeline data, which can’t even be restored now.

I have taken out a google takeout of that data - which is in JSON format and almost useless unless I become a data engineer of high expertise.

I am disappointed by this whole loss of personal data and the inability to recover it now.

5 Likes
2

Hi @RaghavA

Sounds very bad.

I have never before seen this complaint so let me tag @DeniGu for you. Hopefully, she can get some help to you.

Morten

4 Likes
3

Hi @RaghavA ,

Please share more details about your issue so that we can help you better:

  • How did you discover that your Timeline got deleted?

  • Is the Auto-delete option in your Activity controls for Location History turned off?

  • Have you switched to a new device without backing up your Timeline to the cloud?

Thank you!

And thank you for the tag, @MortenCopenhagen . :blush:

3 Likes
4

Hi @RaghavA

Has your problem been solved?

It would be helpful to others if you would report back or answer the questions from Deni so we can move forward in this.

Thanks

Morten

1 Like
5

Hey sorry for my late reply, I had accidentally turned off the email me when someone replies check box and hence couldn’t track your replies.

I raised a case in google communities regarding this problem -

https://support.google.com/maps/thread/290233987?hl=en

There is no resolution to this issue, it seems.

I had all the saving options turned on, auto delete off at all times.

The only thing I did was I updated the google play store app and I believe it reset the google play services app cache and data as well.

Even then I should have been able to restore the backed up version of the encrypted timeline data back from the online back up.

I couldn’t do that, as it didn’t give me that option.

So now all the data is lost and I have started afresh.

It has been a terrible feature downgrade from google and I can’t do anything apart from being unhappy about it.

Now onwards I have stopped curating my timeline meticulously and would recommend anyone doing that to stop altogether.

6

thanks for your reply,

I have tried all these options - along with importing the back up to an old device.

Nothing worked.

So - back to stone age now.

7

hi, just came across this post seen my location history is also not avalilable.
Could you help me?

  1. i discovered when i wanted to see whjat i did last year, entered the app and no information before august 15 is there.

  2. auto delete is off, I did the update sent in the activity of the month email and was very carefull with leaving it off because that information is important for me.

  3. i havent switched devise in several years

1 Like
8

hi @lauura , have you moved to the new timeline? https://support.google.com/maps/answer/14169818

2 Likes
9

@DeniGu
I hope this message finds you well.
My issue is almost the same as the original poster and I have not been able to get timeline back or any positive responses from either sides.

MY issue started as I got an email that 19th November would be the last day to accept these changes i.e. Review and choose settings,

My app was an outdated one last updated in March 2024 so, till 19th November I had not opened and updated it. The last version was the one which did not have the download to device feature.

On 18th November I had made timeline edits , Using the Web Access of timeline in google chrome and they are also reflected in my Maps activity history.

On 19th November When I updated the app;

  • I opened the Maps app After updating the app only, on my main device.
  • Opened the Maps App on 19th Nov following the Link in the email to review and choose settings.
  • I was shown the option to select an account
  • Here I selected my main account which showed timeline Off (no last date when it was on), it has been on since long and I have emails of timeline history. (Monthly/yearly emails of timeline Month in review dating back to May 2017)
  • Turning it On gave the 19th November date, and Auto-Delete was shown On here with 3 months selected, which has been off since long and this is well documented in my google account settings. I again set it as don’t auto delete. As per my previous settings.
  • After this I saw my previous days and all my visits were lost here, I created a post on Maps Community Support and Here later I also turned on Backup after I saw all my visits had been lost.
  • And then I activated Google one membership so I can talk to Google Support to help address and recover my UNJUSTLY DELETED DATA by GOOGLE.

Referring to the takeout on 19th November tombstone file, it showed deletion time and date in PST 4am on 19th November , by this time I had not updated the app or opened the App on an android smartphone to Review and choose settings.
The Activity of Review and Choose settings after the app was updated was carried out much later in the day after more than 10 hours and data deletion was done much earlier as visible in tombstone files.
The Tombstones.csv file in takeouts tell the initial deletion occurred on 19th November, under column
Delete Request Time UTC as
2024-11-19T04:40:48.681Z

Here’s hoping @DeniGu you and others might be able to directly address and tackle it.

Regards!

1 Like
10

hi @RaghavAbbhi , for the moment, as far as i am aware, there is no other recovery process.

appears you have tried to restore the timeline-specific back up, but not quite clear exactly how that went.

if you have the takeout data from before the change to new timeline, as indicated in the maps forum, you can process the data using recent version of microsoft excel, extract what you would like, then plot that in mapping software applications that support data import.

1 Like
11

Thanks for your replies (for all) who have posted in this topic.
I have tried a few times but I couldn’t save any data.

So as a disgruntled (slightly) user, I have stopped curating data in timelines and updating it religiously.
The positive side has been the amount of time I have gained away from the phone, because once the timeline editing feature was moved to the phone screens (from desktop versions), I had felt that the experience was constantly degrading.

So now I am not using the timeline feature as much I’d done in the past, given the drawbacks I have seen now.

1 Like