Mar 24, 2025 11:15:00

Google admits that it accidentally deleted Google Maps timeline data

Google Maps has a feature called '

Timeline ' that allows users to look back on the routes and places they have visited based on their location history. Some users have more than 10 years of travel history stored in their timeline, but it has become clear that this timeline data was deleted due to a mistake by Google.

Google confirms it deleted Maps Timeline data for some | The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/news/634442/google-maps-timeline-data-deleted-cloud-backup-recovery

In March 2025, some Google Maps users reported on social news site Reddit that their timeline data had disappeared.

A bug has occurred where data from Google Maps' Timeline action history storage function is being deleted without permission and cannot be restored - GIGAZINE

According to Reddit user srj737 , who reported the problem, he noticed that his Google Maps timeline data was deleted on March 9, 2025, and lamented that 'more than 10 years of data has been lost.' The user had enabled timeline backups and disabled automatic deletion, but even if he restored the backup, the data would not come back.

The environments of the users reporting the problem are diverse, with devices such as Google Pixel and Samsung devices running Android 12 and Android 15, and it does not seem to occur in a unique environment. Therefore, among users who encountered the problem, there was an opinion that 'it seems like someone at Google just deployed something wrong or deleted some important data from the production environment.'

In response to The Verge, a technology media outlet that reported on the deletion of Google's Timeline data, Google spokesperson Genevieve Park said in a statement, 'We experienced a temporary technical issue that caused some users' Timeline data to be deleted. Nearly all users who have encrypted Timeline backups will be able to restore their data, but unfortunately users who did not have backups enabled will not be able to recover their lost data.'

srj737 also received an email from Google informing him that he had accidentally deleted his timeline data. 'The email basically just said, 'Try importing a backup. If that doesn't work, you're out of luck.' I've tried this method many times already, but importing a backup only restored data from March 7 onwards. In other words, it seems that the past 10 years of my timeline data has been completely lost,' he wrote.

In addition, you can open 'Timeline' by opening the Google Maps app and tapping the account icon. At the time of writing, 'Timeline' is disabled by default, so you need to manually enable the setting to save the timeline.

In the summer of 2024, Google announced to users that it would switch Google Maps location data to on-device storage. This means that you can now store your Maps location history without being tracked on Google's servers. This is the best setting for privacy protection, but it has become clear that there is a risk that it may suddenly disappear due to Google's 'technical issues' as in this case.

Also, while Google Maps allows you to export your timeline data, the instructions for restoring it do not include a clear way to re-import the data without going through the cloud backup server. This is why, like srj737, even if you restore your backup data, you end up only being able to restore data from March 7 onwards.