Guide

Google Maps Timeline disappeared, empty or not working?

Updated September 2026 · 8 min read

"My Google Maps Timeline disappeared" covers four different problems, and they are not fixed the same way. One is a change in where the data lives and costs you nothing. One deleted data on a published date. One was a bug. And one is a default setting that keeps deleting, quietly, until you change it. Work out which applies to you before you go looking for a fix, because two of the four have no fix and the other two take about a minute each.

Find your symptom

My Timeline is empty, or says "No visits for this day"

Every date blank, going back years, on a phone you have not changed: that is one of the two 2025 events — the 9 June deadline or the March bug. Recoverable only if encrypted cloud backup was on.

My Timeline is missing recent trips, or stops months ago

The app looks right but an export ends abruptly: your Timeline moved to the phone and Takeout can no longer see anything recorded since. Nothing is lost — export from the device instead.

My Google Takeout location history is empty

Same cause. Takeout reads your Google Account, and since the migration your account no longer holds the recent history. Here is what it does still hold.

My Timeline is gone on a new phone

On-device storage does not follow you across handsets. The trips are still on the old phone, and only there — export them before you wipe or trade it in.

Google Maps is not saving my location history any more

Recording is a per-device setting since the migration, so a new phone, a factory reset or a set-up prompt that was dismissed all leave it off. Check Settings → Location → Location services → Timeline on Android, or Google Maps → your profile picture → Settings → Location & Privacy on iOS.

My Timeline only goes back three months

That is not a fault, it is a setting: auto-delete at three months is the default for anyone who turned Timeline on after the migration. Older trips are already gone, but you can stop it taking the rest of the year.

My Timeline does not show everything I did

Gaps inside an otherwise working Timeline are usually recording gaps — the phone was off, in aeroplane mode, or out of battery — not a storage problem. They cannot be filled in afterwards, which is the reason to export while the data is still there.

Cause 1 — the data moved to your phone (2024)

Starting in December 2024, Google moved Timeline storage off its servers and onto your device. This was framed as a privacy improvement — your location history is no longer held in your Google Account by default — but it has a real side effect: Google Takeout, which reads from your account, can no longer export trips recorded after the migration. If your Timeline switched over a year ago, a Takeout export today only contains that first year, and nothing since.

Nothing has been lost here. The trips are on the phone, and the section below gets them out.

Cause 2 — the 9 June 2025 cutoff

The migration was not optional forever. Google gave users until 9 June 2025 to go through the new set-up on their device; location history still sitting in the cloud after that date was deleted. People who changed phones during that window, or who never opened the prompt, reached the deadline without having moved anything.

If this is what happened, the history is gone unless you had turned on the encrypted cloud backup that the new set-up offers. There is no export that recovers it, and no third-party tool — this one included — can bring back data Google no longer holds. What you can still do is export whatever your phone has kept since, which is usually more than people expect.

Cause 3 — the March 2025 bug

Separately from the deadline, in March 2025 a batch of users who had migrated correctly, and had auto-delete switched off, opened Timeline to find "No visits for this day" across every date going back years. Users who had enabled cloud backup could restore from it; some could not, and were offered only the option to delete. Google did not publish a figure for how many accounts were affected.

The practical lesson from both 2025 events is the same one: on-device storage means the only copy is on the handset. A phone that is lost, wiped or replaced takes the Timeline with it. If your mileage log depends on that history — as it does if you are claiming a deduction — export it periodically rather than trusting it to still be there in April.

Cause 4: auto-delete at three months

Google's own announcement of the move to the device says it plainly: when you first turn on Location History, "the auto-delete control will be set to three months by default, which means that any data older than that will be automatically deleted". It used to be 18 months. So a Timeline that only reaches back to a date three months ago has not broken; it is doing what it was set to do.

This matters most at tax time. A mileage log for a tax year needs every business trip from its first day, and a return is usually filed months after that year ends. With the default left in place, by the time you sit down to claim, most of the year has already been deleted, one day at a time, with no warning.

Changing the setting cannot bring back what is already gone, but it keeps everything from today on:

1. Open the Google Maps app and tap your profile picture → Your Timeline.
2. Tap More (top right) → Location & privacy settings.
3. Under Location settings, tap Auto-delete Timeline and choose 36 months.

Then export what the phone holds now and keep the file. The setting protects the future; only an export protects what is there today.

How to get your current Timeline data

Since the data now lives on your device, you export it from your device:

Android

1. Open Settings on your phone.
2. Go to Location → Location services → Timeline.
3. Tap Export Timeline data. This produces a Timeline.json file.

iOS (iPhone/iPad)

1. Open the Google Maps app.
2. Tap your profile picture → Settings → Location & Privacy.
3. Find the Timeline export option and choose Save to Files.

If you need both old and recent history

Run both exports — Takeout for anything before the migration, Direct Export for everything since — and combine them. Time-mile accepts both the legacy Takeout ZIP and the new Timeline.json format, and merges them into one table sorted by date, so you don't have to reconcile two different file formats by hand. Where the two overlap, the duplicate is dropped and the more descriptive record is kept.

Running both is worth the extra step for another reason: the two files don't carry the same information. A Takeout archive names its stops and gives them a street address; a phone export identifies them by coordinates alone, and on Android usually with no name at all. Our guide to exporting a Timeline to Excel or CSV sets out what each of the three formats actually contains, and the two traps that quietly corrupt a spreadsheet built from the raw file.

Frequently asked questions

Why did my Google Maps Timeline disappear completely?

Two separate 2025 events wiped Timeline for some people. Location history still held in the cloud was deleted after the 9 June 2025 migration deadline, and separately, in March 2025, a bug emptied Timeline for users who had migrated correctly. In both cases the history is recoverable only if encrypted cloud backup had been switched on. No third-party tool can restore data Google no longer holds.

Why is my Timeline empty on my new phone?

Because since 2024 Timeline is stored on the device rather than in your Google Account, and it does not follow you to a new handset on its own. The trips are still on the old phone. Export them from there before wiping or trading it in — once the handset is gone, so is the only copy.

Why is my Google Timeline missing recent trips?

In 2024 Google moved Timeline storage off its servers and onto your device. Google Takeout reads from your account, so it can no longer export trips recorded after the migration — a Takeout export today only contains your pre-migration history.

Why is my Google Takeout Location History empty or stopping months ago?

Since the 2024 migration your recent Timeline lives on your device, not in your Google Account, so a Takeout export only shows the pre-migration history and stops around the time your Timeline switched over.

How do I export my Timeline data on Android?

Open Settings on your phone, go to Location then Location services then Timeline, and tap Export Timeline data. This produces a Timeline.json file.

How do I export my Timeline on an iPhone?

Open the Google Maps app, tap your profile picture then Settings then Location & Privacy, find the Timeline export option and choose Save to Files.

Can I combine my old Takeout history with my recent trips?

Yes. Run both exports and open them in Time-mile, which accepts both the legacy Takeout ZIP and the new Timeline.json format and merges them into one table sorted by date.

Why does my Google Timeline only show the last 3 months?

Because auto-delete is set to three months, which is the default for anyone who turned Timeline on after the move to on-device storage. Anything older has already been deleted and cannot be recovered. To keep the rest, open Google Maps, tap your profile picture then Your Timeline, then More, Location and privacy settings, Auto-delete Timeline, and choose 36 months. Then export what the phone holds now.

What does “this timeline export contains no usable location points” mean?

It means the file holds Google’s raw location signals — GPS fixes, wifi scans, activity guesses — or the Timeline Edits record, but none of the trips Google builds from them. Two exports look alike and only one carries journeys. Take the export from the phone itself: Settings then Location, Location services, Timeline, Export timeline data. If that file also reports no trips, the reconstructed timeline was never written for that period, and no tool can rebuild it from the raw signals.