Guide

Google Timeline Missing Recent Trips? Here's Why

Updated July 2026 · 5 min read

If you've exported your Location History through Google Takeout recently and found it stops months (or years) ago, you're not imagining it — Google changed how Timeline works, and the old export method genuinely can't see your recent trips anymore.

What actually changed

In 2024, Google moved Timeline storage off Google's servers and onto your device. This was framed as a privacy improvement — your location history is no longer stored 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, not anything since.

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.