Update: For most people, today is the final day to migrate your Timeline.
I love the Google Timeline. It’s one of my favorite Google services.
I’ve been using it since 2012 and it helps me track the places I’ve gone, with the ability to search where I went by selecting any date date or when I was somewhere by location.
Sure, it’s missing the place I went before then, including the 7th continent of Australia from our 2010 round-the-world trip, but I still love viewing the map of places I’ve been since I started using it.
Share which airports, states, state map, and countries you have visited on DDF.
You can then view a map of that data for a day, month, year, or lifetime of the service, if you’re on a desktop device:
Sadly, the company is killing off the ability to store your data or even view Timeline history on a desktop.
You can download your data to your phone through 12/8, after which point Google will delete it.
Before you switch your timeline to your phone, save the data via Google Takeout.
In general, it’s good to do a full backup of your Google Takeout data as Google can always decide to block you.
But if you just want your location data, click on Deselect all and then scroll down to Location History (Timeline) and select that for backup:
You can upload that data to various services like GoogleTimelineMapper, though I have yet to find any great options.
After backing up your data, you can open Google Maps on your phone, and click on Your Timeline from the app menu. You will be prompted to switch to Timeline on your device only. You can select to keep your data until you delete it instead of having it auto-deleted every 3 months.
Once you switch, your data will be deleted from Google servers and will only be available on your phone.
Personally, I find the phone interface significantly worse and far less functional than the desktop interface, so this is a sad day indeed. It’s a good reminder not to get too attached to Google’s products, because the company does have a tendency to kill them off. I still miss iGoogle. 😀
Have you found any good replacements for Google Timeline? Which Google products that have been killed off do you miss the most?
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37 Comments On "Important: Final Day To Save Your Google Timeline To Your Phone!"
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I really dislike that they are doing that. I don’t understand why I can’t leave it online.
This comment comes from a lack of an understanding of the resources required to maintain technological infrastructure.
To simplify it, all your cloud storage is actually saved on physical storage units (which have to be stored in very cold places or in water). So sadly is not actually free for them to store your stuff same I guess they decided that is not a gos investment for them. ♀️
When you switch phones, will the saved/old data migrate to the new phone as well?
There’s an option to back it up.
they should just automatically do this based on your location from google photos
I’ve been using Google timeline only on my phone also since about 2012. If I’m understanding correctly, I’m not going to lose any of that data even without a backup, right?
I just switched to a new phone and for the first time Google deleted 15 years of my Timeline. There was no notification, nothing telling me that my data wasn’t backed up like everything else on Google. 15 years just gone. Trips, places, dissappeared. It’s so incredibly frustrating.
Had the same story happen to me. Crazy disappointing.
Please share if you found a solution.
hold on, it is still on your old phone unless you’ve destroyed that. You can back it up from that device, or even re-export all the data to your new phone by choosing a different option.
I keep on seeing messages like this online, but I’ve never gotten any messaging from Google and I don’t see anything on my Maps app to “make that switch”. Is there somewhere I’m not looking?
Follow the directions in this post.
I followed those instructions, but I still don’t see anything and I wasn’t prompted to switch timeline to device only. And side note – the web is still showing me data from the beginning of time until today, so maybe this switch has just not rolled out to everybody yet
This msg came up, “Timeline is no longer available on web browsers. To view or change your Timeline settings, go to Activity controls.”
Any advise?
Did you already agree to migrate it on your phone?
No,
But I recently had to do a factory reset on my phone (btw i did a Google backup before anyway to regain it)
Any help?
I am so confused! What is happening?
Why can’t you just use Google photos timeline?? Anywhere you’ve taken a picture automatically shows up on the map.
Works just fine..
That’s only places where you took a picture. Time line would track everywhere oyu went even if you didn’t have the camera out.
This is what says on my timeline on desktop, does it mean i already lost everything??
Timeline is no longer available on web browsers. To view or change your Timeline settings, go to Activity controls.
Did you already agree to migrate it on your phone?
No
Not understanding. I have years of location history but have always used it on my phone. Does this download do anything in that case?
what is it is already on my device as seems switched a while ago before takeout ?
Is there another app that could provide the same service?? Best would be if it syncs with googled timeline history to have everything in one place, but at least I would have something replacing this for the future
In Short simple terms: Google is moving from saving location history on its cloud and will delete anything older than 3 months from the cloud, and from now will only be saved on your device.
There is no difference between desktop or mobile, all cloud data in Timeline besides the last 3 months will be deleted from your Google account. (You just can’t see it on desktop at all since it’s not saved there)
Therefore you want to save that data on your device so it can used and seen on Google maps.
| In general, it’s good to do a full backup of your Google Takeout data as Google can always decide to block you.
I believe in general, they still let you takeout your data even if they block you
Nope.
https://www.dansdeals.com/shopping-deals/google/dont-mess-with-the-google/
“open Google Maps on your phone, and click on Your Timeline from the app menu. You will be prompted to switch to Timeline on your device only. You can select to keep your data until you delete it instead of having it auto-deleted every 3 months.”
I don’t see these options on my phone.
There are apps to keep track of places you went to
Anyone know of the best one?
Does this apply if already paying for Google Storage?
This has nothing to do with that.
Should I select backup, if I already have all (or most) of my timeline data on my Android device?
Also, can I get my data off of my android device to back it up if I already (sometime in the summer) moved to timeline on my device, but I still see old data on my phone?
I tried “takeout” but am not getting much useful info in my exports.
Here’s how Google Timeline saved me $$
I had an HVAC guy do work at my house. For some reason I wasn’t able to Zelle him I told him I would drop off cash at his home.
Long story short he called me a year later saying I owed him money for that service call. Unfortunately I didn’t have any messages regarding payment. When I paid him I had called him to drop off the money and gave it to his daughter who was home at the time.
He didn’t recall me paying him.
I went into my timeline and sent him a screenshot of my drive to his house and in his driveway. He was amazed I was able to pull up that info.
I got this from google:
Something went wrong and we couldn’t create a copy of your Google data. You can try to create a new export.
Try to create a new export
This message was sent to you because you recently used Google Takeout. Learn more about how to locate, access, and share your data.
Now what?