Should you’ve been having hassle loading your Google Maps Timeline, you’re not alone. As noticed by 9to5Google final week, some Google Maps customers are unable to search out their Timeline, which is a function that tracks journeys, routes, and locations visited by utilizing Location Historical past. You possibly can decide to show the function on or off, however even those that have been utilizing the function for years are discovering that each date they examine reveals the next message: “No visits for today.”
It’s unclear what induced the difficulty, however some customers at the moment are lacking years of Timeline knowledge with no choice to revive it. One person notes that the one choice the app presents for the newest backup is to delete it. Some customers had been capable of change a couple of settings to revive their backups, however others say their final usable backup has already been overwritten by an empty one.
Even worse, it’s unclear if Google can assist those that have misplaced their knowledge. Right here’s the response one affected Google Maps person acquired from Google Assist:
Primarily based on our present design, when transitioning to the brand new Timeline model, the system migrates knowledge in keeping with predetermined retention insurance policies. Though disabling auto-delete is meant to protect your knowledge indefinitely, some customers have reported that historic knowledge was not retained as anticipated. Sadly, as soon as Timeline knowledge is deleted as a part of this migration course of, it can’t be recovered by way of our present instruments.
We’re conscious that different customers have skilled related points, and your suggestions is invaluable. I’ve escalated your case to our product group for additional evaluation. Right now, there isn’t a confirmed resolution to revive the lacking knowledge. Nonetheless, please relaxation assured that any updates or modifications relating to Timeline knowledge retention might be communicated by way of our official channels.
That doesn’t sound particularly promising.
In its response, Google appears to be referring to the truth that Google Maps now shops Timeline knowledge on-device as an alternative of within the cloud. It is a increase for privateness, nevertheless it additionally had some unfavorable penalties for followers of the function. As an example, you’ll be able to now not examine your Timeline on the net — it’s important to use the app. It may additionally have induced the mass deletion.
The excellent news is that the difficulty doesn’t appear to be widespread. Not like Google turning a bunch of outdated Chromecasts into bricks, not everybody who makes use of the Timeline function is affected. That mentioned, those that are shouldn’t get their hopes up about getting their knowledge again.
