How to Keep Your History in Google Maps – Even After May

Location history, or Timeline as it’s now called, is a Google Maps feature that is both smart and controversial. With it enabled, all your travels and movements will be tracked, allowing you to look back in time to see where you have been. This is practical and fun, but if the information falls into the wrong hands, it can also become a significant invasion of privacy.

Google has therefore completely reworked the feature. Previously, the timeline was stored in the cloud and you could access it on all devices. Now, it is stored separately on each device.

The change will take effect on May 18, and if you want to continue using the feature, here’s what you need to do:

1. Open Google Maps on the desired device. If you haven’t used the app in a while, you may need to update it.
2. You will now receive a message with instructions regarding the changes to the timeline. If you don’t receive this, you can tap on the round profile picture at the top right and select Your Timeline.
3. Tap on the three dots at the top right, select About the Timeline, and scroll down to see if the timeline is active and whether it is automatically erased after a certain time. To change this, tap Open Settings.
4. To customize how the timeline is displayed, tap the three dots at the top and select Location and Privacy Settings. As you can see, you can toggle the timeline on and off and customize how it is displayed. This is a bit complicated and there are many different options, so check carefully.

Since the timeline is only stored on your device, you risk losing it if you lose your device. Therefore, it may be wise to enable backup, which saves the information encrypted on Google’s servers. This happens automatically when the phone is charging and connected to Wi-Fi, and it does not affect the storage limits of your Google account.

To enable backup, open the timeline as described above and tap the cloud icon in the top right corner. You will find it next to the three settings options. Verify your identity using your password and toggle the backup feature on using the switch. You can then read more information, and once you’ve done that, select Activate.