r/GoogleMaps • • Jun 18 '24

Google Maps MEGATHREAD: Google Maps Timeline Moving To On-Device Storage: Web Access Ending Soon - What You Need To Know

184 Upvotes

What Is Happening (Or Already Happened To You)?

Google is moving or has already moved your Timeline data, which tracks places you visit and routes you take, from their online servers to your phone. This change means that you soon won't be able to or already can't access or manage your Timeline through the Google Maps website via a web browser.

Why Is This Happening?

  1. Privacy and Security: By storing this data on your device instead of online, your location history is more secure and private. Only you have access to this data unless you choose to back it up.
  2. Control Over Your Data: This gives you more control over your data. You decide if you want to back it up or delete it, and you can manage it directly on your phone.
  3. Reduced Liability: By keeping the data on users' devices, Google reduces its liability and the risk of having to comply with geofence warrants or subpoenas that require providing information about users' locations.

Can You Prevent This From Happening?

No, users cannot prevent this change from happening and maintain their web-based Timeline data. Google is transitioning all Timeline data to be stored on users' devices and discontinuing the web-based access to this data.

What Do You Have To Do To Adapt To These Changes?

  1. Update Your Google Maps App: Ensure you have the latest version of the Google Maps app on your device.
  2. Backup Your Data: Use the backup feature in the Google Maps app to create an encrypted copy of your Timeline data. This will allow you to transfer your data to a new device if needed.
  3. Check/Watch For Notifications: Look out for notifications from Google about the transition. These may come in the form of emails, push notifications, or in-app messages.
  4. Set Data Retention Preferences: In the Google Maps app, you can manage how long your location history is kept. Options include three, 18, or 36 months, or indefinitely until you manually delete it.
  • Once the transition is complete, web-based access to Timeline data will no longer be available. All management and viewing of this data will need to be done through the Google Maps app on mobile devices.

While you cannot stop the transition to on-device data storage or maintain web-based access to your Timeline data, you can ensure your data is backed up and properly managed on your mobile device.

What Is The Deadline For These Changes?

You have until December 8, 2024, to make these changes. If you don’t update your settings or your Google Maps app, you might lose some or all of your historical Timeline data.

Additional Reading About The Changes:

Alternatives and Solutions

  1. Use the Mobile App: Unfortunately, there is no way to bring back the Timeline feature on the web. The best alternative is to use the Google Maps app on your mobile device. The app has all the functionality of the web version and more, allowing you to view, edit, and manage your Timeline data.
  2. Backup and Transfer: If you're worried about losing your data, make sure to back it up. You can save an encrypted copy of your Timeline data to your Google account. This allows you to transfer your data to a new device if needed. To do this:
    • Open the Google Maps app.
    • Go to the Timeline section.
    • Follow the prompts to set up automatic backups.
  3. Extended Storage Options: You can also extend the auto-delete window for your location history if you want to keep your data longer. Options include keeping your data for three, 18, or 36 months, or indefinitely until you manually delete it.
  4. Feedback to Google: If you are unhappy with these changes, you can provide feedback directly to Google via the Maps website or Maps app. Please remember that this support group on Reddit is not an official method of feedback or support of Google or Google Maps.

r/GoogleMaps • • 7h ago

Other Google refuses to do anything about incorrect subway station name

8 Upvotes

The Universal City/Studio City subway station in Los Angeles has been incorrectly labeled "Universal studios" (sic) for years now. This is not just wrong, but as it is clearly of great importance to tourists who might not know better, it seems like it would be of higher than average priority for Google to change it to the correct name. I submit a lot of requests for name changes, removal of duplicates, etc., and generally Google will accept my edits within days or even hours, even for fairly trivial requests. This one I have requested to change several times, and this is by far the most important request I have made. Why does Google accept my edits on other things but not this one? And if anybody else is willing to submit a request to hopefully move it along, I would appreciate it. Been driving me crazy for years.


r/GoogleMaps • • 7h ago

Discussion Does anyone else HATE being asked to sign in when trying to explore the other reviews and photos on Google Maps without being signed in?

5 Upvotes

I can’t stand having to sign in just to read the other views and other photos on Google maps! I hate how Google is doing this crap to us and many other signed out users! I want the full unlimited Google Maps back!


r/GoogleMaps • • 8h ago

Discussion Enabling precise location always has me in another state

2 Upvotes

Has anyone come across this issue? It's not just Maps, it's all of Google. I can't wrap my head around it. I've done literally everything, I can not come up with a solution


r/GoogleMaps • • 4h ago

Google created duplicate hotel/property pins for my business. Google, Booking.com and Agoda keep sending me in circles.

1 Upvotes

I own a small private villa resort in Thailand called Solitude Villas, and I've been trying for weeks to resolve an issue with Google Maps and Google Travel.

We have one legitimate, verified Google Business Profile with our correct address, photos, reviews, and business information.

However, Google also displays two additional property listings at practically the exact same location:

  1. Our official, verified Google Maps listing.
  2. A duplicate "Solitude Villas" listing, apparently generated through Booking.com.
  3. Another duplicate, "Solitude Villas - Villa with Garden View," apparently generated through Agoda.

These are not three different properties. They are all the same resort.

Interestingly, other booking platforms, including Trip.com and Traveloka, appear correctly associated with our original listing.

Here's where it gets frustrating.

I contacted Google support, and they explained that these additional listings are Google Vacation Rentals entities generated from third-party accommodation feeds. Apparently, Google Business Profile support cannot merge or remove them, and I need to contact the booking platforms.

So I contacted Agoda and Booking.com, but they essentially redirected me back to Google.

I explained this to Google and asked them to escalate the issue to whoever manages Google Travel property matching, or at least identify which fields in the incoming feeds are causing Google to treat the same property as multiple businesses.

Instead, Google eventually stopped responding to my support case.

I've now opened a second support ticket, but I'm still getting nowhere.

What I actually want is simple:

One Google Maps/Travel property listing, with all the relevant booking platforms correctly associated with it. I don't want to remove Agoda or Booking.com as booking options. I just want Google to stop presenting the same physical property as three different places.

Has anyone here dealt with this before?

More specifically, does anyone know:

  • Whether these Google Travel/Vacation Rentals entities can actually be merged with an existing verified Business Profile?
  • Which Google team is responsible for matching accommodation feeds to existing properties?
  • How to get an issue like this escalated beyond standard Google Business Profile support?

Any practical advice would be appreciated. I'm completely stuck between three companies, each pointing at someone else.


r/GoogleMaps • • 5h ago

Timeline How to retrieve Google My Activity Maps history / is it accurate?

1 Upvotes

My boyfriend has a history of prostitution massage parlors… I found out through his phone and he said it was all before me. He also lied about porn our entire relationship and was watching daily for years.

Naturally, I now want to know the truth. Came across Google My Activity through Reddit, and when checking his found maps logs to airport hotels and 6 different addresses from March to July of this year, 3 of which are confirmed erotic massage parlors.

He phrased it as “omg I must’ve been hacked” or someone else must be on his account or he has used his email for many shady things in the past so this info is probably from there, and went and logged out of sessions other than his current phone and laptop. The other sessions however were from his old phones and laptops (which he still has, and he’d take this old phone to the gym to use in the sauna to read so as to not ruin his current phone). All of these addresses were visited around/during his gym times.

After logging out of other sessions, when checking My Activity the next day these address and maps history were gone. However I also saw him sitting with his personal laptop out (the one I saw all this on) during work hours with his work laptop right there, so it makes me think he went in and manually deleted them instead of them just disappearing when logging out of other sessions.

  1. How can I connect his old phone to My Activity to see if that’s what had searched these locations? (He has 3 different gmails too.)
  2. How accurate is Google Maps history on My Activity? Because he claimed he never went to these places or searched them

    and that it must be completely inaccurate, but

  3. the activity said “directions from home to X, or X to gym” and they were the correct home address and address of his gym

    and the times were when he was out at the gym (usually 3 hours total door to door and he showered there as well).

Just want clarity if anyone is able to help. I also don’t know where to look other than scrolling through My Activity, so if there’s anything else I can check (generally to check such things or also to somehow find those disappeared addresses and searches, that would be much appreciated.


r/GoogleMaps • • 6h ago

Immersive Navigation October Update

0 Upvotes

if you have a pixel 7 check to see if immersive navigation is active mine flickered on and off unfortunately it's been off since.


r/GoogleMaps • • 15h ago

Google maps Chicago problems

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

This past week, I have noticed a crazy amount of notifications on Google maps. I kept getting "police ahead" every 1/2 mile. Or my route showed multiple crashes that were not there. I started to click each map notification and noticed they were all old. Ex: it showed "reported 20 hours ago" OR "reported 2 days"... So basically, I think Google Maps was showing EVERY notification on the map that had been received over the past few days to a week. Has anyone else noticed this? Is there somewhere to report this? Although they probably don't care 😬🤷‍♀️😬🤷‍♀️


r/GoogleMaps • • 15h ago

No option to filter out transit companies

2 Upvotes

I am trying to get from hasselt to montdidier any given day in october and arrive in Montdidier before 17:00, But Unless I choose some specific timings it keeps showing me "eurostar" as travel option which is very expensive and not at all viable, I could plan all of this myself to be under 50 euros with great pain so why can't a computer do it, why does google maps not even consider travel price total?


r/GoogleMaps • • 16h ago

Discussion Heading-up in overhead views when using Maps in Android Auto?

2 Upvotes

In Maps, there are three orientations: Perspective, North-Up, and Overview. I particularly like the North-Up and Overview orientations because they give an overhead (or top-down) view that works for me. However, both of these being oriented north-up can be somewhat disorienting at times, especially when I am facing south. It can take half a beat longer to determine if I should turn left or right. Would there be any appetite, from either the community or the Devs to add an option to be Heading-Up when in these top-down views?


r/GoogleMaps • • 1d ago

Can we normalize uploading photos of the interior and vibe of places - not a close up of your coffee??

42 Upvotes

I do a lot of remote work and greatly prefer when I can check out the interior of a coffee shop or restaurant and make sure there are small tables out of the way, outlets, and spots where I can post up with minimal impact.

But so many photos that people share to Google Maps are just close ups of their coffee cup sitting on a table, or other completely useless shots, that add no value to the business or possible patrons.


r/GoogleMaps • • 16h ago

A website that continuously generates random maps from around the world with random colors that look like abstract art

1 Upvotes

http://www.shaunutter.com/maps/

A GENERATIVE ART experiment coded using the Google Maps API. It generates a random map every 4 seconds. There are 20 DIFFERENT ELEMENTS on each map, such as highways, arterial roads, and parks. Each of those elements is set to a RANDOM COLOR, is randomly turned on or off, and the zoom level is set to a random number. The geographic location is randomly chosen from a list of 33 predetermined cities.


r/GoogleMaps • • 1d ago

Glitch where crash and police reportings aren't being taken down

5 Upvotes

There's definitely something wrong with maps. Crash and police reportings aren't being taken down after time has gone by/no longer cops there. Some of these reports are showing from days ago. Not sure about other reportings but for sure these ones.


r/GoogleMaps • • 18h ago

Google Maps and Sony Xperia

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1 Upvotes

r/GoogleMaps • • 18h ago

Help/Support Sending me through a wall

1 Upvotes

When you put in the post code for my address it sends you into the wrong estate and then has a dotted line that tries to send you through a 7ft wall to the back of the house. Delivery drivers and people visiting always end up in the wrong place. I’ve tried all the different edits on Google maps like updating the address and changing the pin but the address and pin are correct, it’s the directions that are wrong. It’s so frustrating because delivery drivers have to ring me and I have to go find them at the wrong place then. How can this be solved?


r/GoogleMaps • • 20h ago

Other pain to zoom in on the phone

1 Upvotes

why is it every time i want to zoom into anywhere on the damn app, i get sent across the entire country and have to zoom back out to find the area only to zoom back in and have the exact same thing again. billion dollar company, fix ts


r/GoogleMaps • • 20h ago

Pesquisa por voz no Google maps

1 Upvotes

Alguem sabe como a pesquisa por voz funcionar no google maps? tenho um mate 80 pro max...


r/GoogleMaps • • 21h ago

Arrival time (ETA) box sometimes is not white but Grey/Gray, why is that please?

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1 Upvotes

r/GoogleMaps • • 1d ago

Discussion Car crash glitch

4 Upvotes

Was looking on maps 2 days ago and my maps showed about 20 car accident reports all within one area. I thought there’s no way there’s that many. Ended up running errands and we didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, roads were fine.

I looked again today and I counted at least 50 in a 20 mile radius. There’s no time stamps on any of them either. Is this a glitch that can be fixed and how can I go about reporting it on my end so the makers of the app are aware?


r/GoogleMaps • • 1d ago

Help/Support "Construction Ahead" notification every 5 mins on a 60mi+ stretch of highway

8 Upvotes

I'm not sure if these are bad faith on the part of a user or a big, but while driving a long stretch of highway Google keeps interrupting to remind me the highway is under construction. They're putting in a new lane, so it doesn't affect anyone and hasn't for the past years it's been going on.

Any options other than turning Google off? I don't want to miss my exit but nobody needs to be reminded of what we can clearly see this often...


r/GoogleMaps • • 1d ago

Is there possibility to use street view to make a racing car game with ai?

0 Upvotes

I really want to play car games where I live, explore etc, and street view already has everywhere I want, and ai has more than enough capability to make this happen. Now is it in works or talks with any ai developers?


r/GoogleMaps • • 1d ago

Help/Support Can't get directions from Google

2 Upvotes

I will Google a location for the address. I will tap the 'directions' icon and it opens Google maps with my current location but does not transfer the destination address. Even the pin below with the map location just opens my current location.

I googled the address because I don't know it. Opening my current location isn't particularly helpful.

Anyone know how to correct this. It used to work and just quit on me.


r/GoogleMaps • • 1d ago

Apple Maps show a fake website for restaurants with higher prices that Google Maps.

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1 Upvotes

r/GoogleMaps • • 1d ago

Does anyone else find the new Google Maps navigation voice oddly... attractive?

0 Upvotes

I realize this probably sounds ridiculous, but it's almost as if the old voice just sounded like a robot navigator, whereas the new one is almost like having an cute female passenger who you don't want to embarrass yourself in front of by making a wrong turn. I would guess it's probably made a small but measurable improvement to my attentiveness while using the feature.

From a quick Google search, it definitely seems like I'm in the minority here, but I can't be the only one to subconsciously find whatever archetype the new voice conjures to be kinda charming. Right?


r/GoogleMaps • • 1d ago

Google Maps gltich?

1 Upvotes

Im an instacart driver. Last weekend I switched back to google maps and it was normal. Letting me recent and the car on the screen was in the direction of ny vehicle. This weekend however it shows the map and the car on the screen going the opposite direction. I tried to recent nothing. No app update. It shows the car driving towards the ground or right or left on my screen. Anyone else?