Google Maps Is Deleting Your Timeline History. Here’s How to Save It

Google Maps, the greatest app of each time, has a Timeline diagnostic that saves your visits and routes to assistance you spell backmost successful clip oregon revisit each the places you’ve been to. According to emails sent retired to users by Google, it looks similar it’s erasing immoderate information older than 3 months (via Android Authority). For folks who privation to keep their determination history, the email besides provides instructions connected preserving it.

Android Authority reveals that successful December 2023, Google changed each your determination past to the instrumentality alternatively of the cloud. But the emails suggest that that’s going distant soon. Some emails notation a November 19 deadline for the caller changes, portion others accidental December 1. Given this ambiguity, it is champion to enactment arsenic soon arsenic you person the email.

To forestall Google from deleting your antecedently visited places, click connected a nexus embedded successful the email and travel the instructions. The nexus takes you to a leafage that lets you take betwixt keeping your information until you delete it oregon automatically deleting it aft 3 months. The three-month enactment is portion of a dropdown menu, truthful you tin astir apt prime much Timelines from here. However, there’s a large drawback here, too.

The catch, which feels much similar a huge blooper connected Google’s part, is that immoderate folks study selecting the archetypal enactment (keeping the information until they delete it) and inactive person everything erased. This is an egregious mistake, particularly aft you’ve abruptly threatened millions of users by destroying each grounds of their past travel.

Android Authority suggests backing up your determination past via Google Takeout to guarantee you’re not a unfortunate of this. You tin bash this by selecting lone “Location History (Timeline)” and leaving everything other unchecked. Once you person a backup, you tin past travel on with the instructions successful the email.

Sadly, 2 much changes are happening arsenic portion of inevitable collateral damage. First, you volition nary longer beryllium capable to entree Timeline connected the web, and second, your Timeline volition present beryllium device-specific. If you log successful to a device, your determination past volition amusement up for that instrumentality lone alternatively of the Google relationship you’re logged successful to.

It’s unusual that specified a alteration was abruptly brought upon users successful a reasonably stressful way, and the vague instructions, specified arsenic 2 antithetic deadlines, lone worsened the situation. Of course, doing arsenic Google tells you and inactive having each your precious past deleted doesn’t assistance the case.