I’m currently travelling around some of the Balkans, and arrived in Albania a couple of days ago (absolutely beautiful country). Unfortunately yesterday when I was trying to work out where I had parked my rental car, I could not find the Timeline section on the maps app (I actually had to spend 40mins looking for where I had parked the rental car as I couldn’t see where I had been earlier in the day 
). I tried to get the Timeline up in the Google Chrome browser today, but was met with an error message. Does anyone know if this is a service that’s not available in all countries, or have I found a glitch in the Matrix?
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Hey James. Boohoo. I am sorry but you also have to make sure you keep. Few record of time and space in your head as a functioning human being .
.are you not just a tad.dramatic when you say you cannot recall anything when your timeline doesn’t get automatic updates… What do you do with the rooming in the beautiful country you are now. Please put some nice picture instead … It was probably your phone setting and the calibration maybe because of the zoom
Enjoy the remaining time there. Speak along the way.
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Timeline works with your GPS position, so you should be able to get it everywhere, if your GPS is ON and you allow Google to collect some data. For more details please read: Google Maps Timeline
However timeline is not usually displayed instantly, so if you want to save your parking position it is better to follow the steps explained in Find & save parking locations
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Hi @ErmesT ,
Some reason my initial post didn’t add the screenshots I’d taken.
All my location services are on, but still no access to timeline.
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I see now, @JamesHogg
This is interesting, thanks for sharing the screenshots, where we can see that you checked both on the App and in the web version.
A few questions for you, just to better clarify the issue:
- When checking in the web version, were you logged in with your local guides Account?
- Have you checked your settings, especially about Web & App Activity (must be turned on) and your Location History?
- Can you please share with us the device you are using, the Operating System and the version of Google Maps App.
- Have you already tried to clean cache and cookies, to check if you have the last version of the app and to restart your device?
You can also send a feedback to the Team directly from the app, for them to collect the data: How to send us feedback in Google Maps
I am tagging @DeniGu here to see if others are experiencing the same issue, and eventually to escalate the issue with the team
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@ErmesT everything was turned on settings wise and I was logged into the same Google Account on both the Google Maps App & in browser. I’m actually heading across the border to Montenegro later today, so I can perhaps test if this is an issue just in Albania? Back in September I was in Bosnia, and my Timeline definitely works there!
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@ErmesT , I’m in Montenegro now, and the same issue is persisting. No timeline section in the app and the same error message in browser. I’ve tried resetting cookies and location is turned on.
The only thing that I think could be causing this issue is that I’m using a local SIM card, VodafoneAL, but then when I’ve visited the Balkans previously (Bosnia) I’ve also used a local SIM card?
Thanks for your assistance so far.
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It would be quite strange to have your GPS not acquired by the history because you are connected with a different internet provider, @JamesHogg , but it think this can be an interesting case for the team to study it, and hopefully fix it.
Thanks for keeping us updated
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Hi @ErmesT ,
I’m back in the UK now, and most bizarrely, it seems to be a limitation with the Albanian SIM card I used. After landing in the UK, I used the same SIM card I was using in the Balkans (VodafoneAL) and still had the same issues with the timeline. When I swapped back to my UK SIM card and restated my phone all of the functionality came back, although the days on which I couldn’t access the Timeline feature were blank.
What is even more confusing is my friend who was traveling with me never bought a local SIM card and only used a hotspot created from my phone, yet he has a complete timeline with no gaps!
Anyway, I’m just glad that I have the feature back at home (and I might have to manually add some of my trip highlights manually).
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Thanks for the feedback, @JamesHogg
On one side I am happy that your issue is no longer present, on the other side I think this is a bizarre situation, especially after you wrote about your friend using your hotspot. Weird indeed
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Hey all,
I am currently in Albania, also using a VodafoneAL Sim card and also have no access to timeline. I also get the illegal request when going into settings.
@Miloooo It’s a shame this is still an issue. The only fix that I got was to manually add the places I visited to my timeline after returning to the UK and using my UK SIM card. Here are some points that I’ve worked out since;
- My friend didn’t purchase a local sim, and turned off data roaming, using only local wifi access points and the mobile hotspot data from my phone (using the VodafoneAL SIM). He has a full timeline of the trip.
- Upon returning to the UK, I left the VodafoneAL SIM in my phone, and had no access to the timeline in the UK, even when using local wifi.
- I’ve used a local SIM card from BiH before and haven’t had an issue with the timeline functionality both in BiH and neighboring Croatia, as far as I’m aware all of the Balkan countries have very similar data networks and most networks support free data roaming across the whole region.
So I personally think that it’s most likely that the Google Maps timeline feature is either restricted by VodafoneAL or the Albanian government and local network providers aren’t allowed to send the data that can be used to generate the timeline. This was truly a strange scenario - but I’m sure glad it isn’t just me that it happened to!
I hope this helps.
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Same story in Montenegro
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I have the same issue. Since I live here in Albania and usingva local Vodafone (AL) Sim Card, I do not have any access to my timeline. Also, there are no options for me to leave reviews and comments, just from my time before I moved to Albania… Any solution to that?
I have since had this problem on a recent trip to Azerbaijan. On both trips (Albania & Azerbaijan) I traveled with the same friend and he retained his UK SIM card in his phone (no data roaming, but GPS Services on). On both trips, he has generated a history in his Google Maps timeline and I haven’t. As my trips to Albania and Azerbaijan used different local network providers I think this must either be a service that’s blocked by the network provider in some regions as foreign sim cards where the Timeline is usually active still generate history. So it isn’t a service that is blocked by the government, and seemingly the network providers, however, I don’t know the reason or a workaround at this time. Hopefully, you can find a solution that works for you, however.