It’s kind of annoying that for years, we have been unknowingly letting Google track our location. If you visit your Timeline in Google Maps, you’ll witness your entire location history firsthand. This undermines your privacy goals. Thankfully, Google has made it easier for everyone to delete or even completely turn off the location history on Google Maps.
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How to View Your Location History in Google Maps
Viewing your location history on Google Maps is a pretty straightforward process. Simply open Google Maps on your phone, tap on your Profile Picture, and then select the Your Timeline option.
From there, you can choose the date to view your location history, see the cities you have traveled to, review the activities you engaged in, and other additional insights about your past movements.
How to Download Your Location History in Google Maps
Before you delete your location history, you may consider downloading your Google Maps data for future reference or personal archiving. This way, you can always use the backup to access your past data, such as places you’ve visited, routes you’ve taken, and timestamps of your activities.
Here’s how you can download your location history:
1. Tap your Profile Icon and select the Your data in Maps option.
2. Scroll down and hit the Download your Maps data option.
3. Select the map data that you want to download and then hit the Next Step button.
4. Now, select the transfer destination for your backup. You have multiple options to choose from, including email, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box.
5. After that, choose the frequency, file type, and file size as per your preference, and then hit the Create export button.
That’s it. Google will now begin the backup process. The completion time of the backup file depends on the size and amount of data being processed. It may take a couple of hours or days to complete.
Once the copy of your Google Maps data is successfully backed up, you can revisit the Download your Maps data page and tap the Manage exports button.
With a simple tap, you will be able to effortlessly download the backup files of your choice.
Note: The download link is only available for seven days from the day of export.
How to Turn Off Google Maps Location History
If you’re concerned about your privacy and security or no longer want to see targeted ads from Google, it’s time for you to stop Google from storing your location history. And the process to do that is quite simple; just follow the instructions below:
1. Open Google Maps on your iPhone or Android device.
2. Tap on your Profile Picture and select Your Timeline.
3. Now tap on the Kebab Menu (3-dots icon) in the top right corner and go to Settings and privacy.
4. Under location settings, select the Location History is on option and then choose your Google account, if prompted.
5. In the Location History column, tap on the Turn off button and select the Turn off option.
That’s it. Google will now no longer save any new places, routes, or trips to your Timeline or its server. As you can see from the below screenshot, Google is no longer saving your location history.
Tip: Is your Google Maps draining your phone battery? Here are 20 fixes for it.
How to Delete Your Location History in Google Maps
Just by turning off the Location History, it won’t magically delete all your Google Maps data. You have to manually dig through settings to delete your Google Maps Location History. You can choose to delete it in three different ways: all at once, individually, or automatically.
Delete All Your Location History in One Go
If you want to completely annihilate your location history from Google Maps, you can follow the below instructions:
1. Open Google Maps on your phone, tap your Profile Picture and then select Your Timeline.
2. Tap Kebab Menu (3-dotted icon) and select Settings and privacy.
3. Next, select the Delete all Location History option.
4. Lastly, tick the checkbox and tap the Delete button.
Now all your Location History from Google Maps will be deleted.
Individually Delete Your Location History
If you want to choose specific days to delete from your Google Maps Location History instead of deleting all of it, there are two ways to accomplish that. You can either delete it by day or choose a specific range to delete.
Delete by Day:
1. Tap your Profile Icon and select Your Timeline.
2. Tap Kebab Menu (3 dotted icons) and choose the Delete day option.
3. Finally, hit the Delete button and your location history of that day will be erased.
Here’s the before and after screenshot of the Location History:
Delete Within a Specific Range:
1. Again tap on your Profile Picture and select Your Timeline.
2. Tap Kebab Menu (3-dots icon) and choose Settings and privacy.
3. Scroll down and select the Delete Location History range option.
4. After that, set your Start and End date and then hit Continue.
5. A confirmation pop-up will appear, check the box and hit Delete.
You have now successfully deleted the Google Maps Location History within the specified date range.
Automatically Delete Your Location History
If you want to delete the older location history but wish to keep track of your recent activities, you can enable the auto-delete option to automatically remove the older data without the need for manual deletion. Here’s a complete process:
1. Go to your Timeline’s Settings and privacy page.
If you don’t know how to go there, refer to the above section.
2. Choose the Automatic delete Location History option.
3. Now select the desired timeframe to enable the automatic deletion of all your data.
4. Once done, hit the Next button.
5. Confirm your decision by tapping on the Confirm button.
Google will now begin deleting all your location history older than the timeframe you have set.
Tip: Learn how to automatically delete your entire Google activity
Pros and Cons of Deleting or Turning Off Location History
Before you take any action, it’s important to know the consequences as well. Here are some potential advantages and disadvantages to consider:
Pros:
- Enhanced privacy and data security.
- In case of a data breach, your location details won’t be compromised.
- No one can use your phone to see all your location history through Google Maps.
- Frees up storage space on your device or Google account.
- Reduced targeted ads
Cons:
- You won’t be able to recall places you’ve visited, routes you’ve taken, or memories associated with specific locations.
- Potential loss of personalized features and recommendations.
Stop Spoon-Feeding Your Location Data to Google
While Google can still track your location through various means, you can at least minimize it by deleting or disabling the Location History in Google Maps. This will further enhance your privacy and data security. We hope the above guide will help you take control of your location data.
