The Google Maps Timeline has lengthy been a helpful although barely uncomfortable function that maintains a whole document of in all places your telephone goes (and doubtless you with it). Google lately modified the way in which it saved timeline knowledge to enhance privateness, however the firm now confirms {that a} “technical concern” resulted in lots of customers shedding their timeline historical past altogether, and there may not be any strategy to get well it.
Timeline, beforehand referred to as Location Historical past, may be very helpful if it is advisable work out the place you have been on a specific day or for those who simply cannot keep in mind the place you discovered that neat bar in your final trip. Many Google customers grew fairly keen on gaining access to that knowledge. Nevertheless, Google had entry to it, too. Beginning in 2024, Google transitioned to storing Timeline knowledge solely on the person’s particular person smartphone as a substitute of backing it as much as the cloud. You’ll be able to in all probability see the place that is going.
Customers began piping up over the previous a number of weeks, posting on the Google assist boards, Reddit, and different social media that their treasured Timeline knowledge had gone lacking. Google has been investigating the issue, and the information is not good. In an electronic mail despatched out over the weekend, Google confirmed what many already feared: Maps has unintentionally deleted Timeline knowledge on numerous gadgets.
A Google spokesperson confirmed that is the results of a technical concern and never person error or an intentional change. It is unclear how this occurred, however we might wager on a botched Maps replace. Google often rolls out updates in waves, and it is attainable that the faulty construct on this case made it to numerous gadgets earlier than it was stopped.
You’ve gotten precisely one attainable repair for this concern, however provided that you deliberate forward. When Google started the complete change-over to native storage of Timeline knowledge, it added a number of settings to manage the function. Whereas the info is saved domestically by default, you will have the choice of making encrypted backups within the cloud. If you happen to did that, you need to be capable of restore the info.
