Google Timeline history missing

slipd

slipd

slipd

Soldato
Joined
26 Feb 2004
Posts
4,784
Location
Hampshire, England.
Hi guys,

Have Google recently updated something? The entries in my Timeline in Maps only goes back for a week or so?!

I've been previously able to go back as far as 2015/16 :eek:

Thanks.
 
I'm on Google One, hoping not all is lost, so have messaged Support... Fingers crossed!
 
It's so weird - my settings look okay I think? I've definitely not authorised anything to be deleted?

Screenshot-20250321-180111-Maps.jpg
 
Something definitely went awry a couple of weeks back - I had an email a while back saying certain settings needed to be changed by June 2025 or i'd lose history, so I changed those settings but everything before 8th March has gone (although I was able to restore backed up info from my old phone, so only actually 'lost' a month).

There was an update pushed in early March which seems to be responsible.

There's loads of people similarly affected if you search for the issue - Google support were responding to people saying:

We have been receiving such reports since March 6/7, 2025, it may be a transient issue, so you should wait for a few days, otherwise, the timeline data deleted by the system cannot be recovered.

At this point I can only say that we should be patient because this issue came with a software update and in the same software a new feature was added called Import which could import data to the same phone so it seems that this issue might be a software issue.
Click to expand...

I don't think they've said anything more useful or more recently than that.
 
I just had an email from Google regarding this:

"We briefly experienced a technical issue that caused the deletion of Timeline data for some people. We're reaching out as your account may have been impacted.

If you have encrypted backups enabled, you may be able to restore your data. Make sure you have the latest version of Google Maps, then go to your Timeline. Tap the cloud icon ( ) near the top of your screen, and choose a backup to import your data. If you did not have backups turned on, unfortunately you will not be able to recover lost data.

We understand that this can be frustrating if you use Timeline to remember places you've visited, and we are taking steps to improve our systems for the future."

Which sounds a lot like "yeah it's gone, sorry"
 
[HB]Rugrat said:
I just had an email from Google regarding this:

"We briefly experienced a technical issue that caused the deletion of Timeline data for some people. We're reaching out as your account may have been impacted.

If you have encrypted backups enabled, you may be able to restore your data. Make sure you have the latest version of Google Maps, then go to your Timeline. Tap the cloud icon ( ) near the top of your screen, and choose a backup to import your data. If you did not have backups turned on, unfortunately you will not be able to recover lost data.

We understand that this can be frustrating if you use Timeline to remember places you've visited, and we are taking steps to improve our systems for the future."

Which sounds a lot like "yeah it's gone, sorry"
Click to expand...
Yep, had this too, yesterday. Which I actioned and I appear to be back up and running... I know I can go back to 2022, because I've just found the address that I was originally looking that set this whole thing off - for me anyway.

I've also had a reply to my ticket to Google One, which after reading, will update you with ;)
 
I love using it and it really annoyed me that you can't see your timeline on your PC anymore. Only on my phone and it's rubbish on the app.
Mine is backed up to Google one and I had to change a setting last month that was set to delete my history 18 months or older. I turned auto delete OFF.
All my history is still there, over 10 years worth thankfully.
 
Earliest it goes is up to the 7th this month. Rather disappointed, went to check the backup settings and was only prompt about it with a pop-up asking if I went to turn i on. Didn't realise it was opt-in instead of the usual opt-out. Tried loading up my older Pixel 6 Pro but it still had an old version of Maps where timeline data was online instead of local. That's pretty much all my years of timeline gone. Was pretty nice seeing the routes I've taken for holidays.
 
Thankfully it looks like my backup is intact, managed to restore and went back a couple of years and can see my routes are still available.
 
Even though it looks like all my old data is back Maps missed an entire 150 mile journey yesterday... I was using Maps throughout as well :D

This morning's commute has tracked, to date, no issues. So weird. Is it an app thing maybe? I'm an Android user.
 
slipd said:
Even though it looks like all my old data is back Maps missed an entire 150 mile journey yesterday... I was using Maps throughout as well :D

This morning's commute has tracked, to date, no issues. So weird. Is it an app thing maybe? I'm an Android user.
Click to expand...
That happens to me too. I use maps to navigate to a place then look later on and it thinks I've been somewhere else, it even asks me to rate a place I've not been too.
Maps has gone downhill. It used to be very accurate.
 
Thankfully mine is still in place. I got an email a whole ago saying that the data will no longer be stored on google servers so I had it moved to my google drive account
 
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