After weeks of user complaints about lost Timeline data in Google Maps, Google has confirmed that a technical issue resulted in the deletion of some users’ location history, with some data now being unrecoverable. A Google spokesperson, Genevieve Park, explained to The Verge, “We briefly experienced a technical issue that caused the deletion of Timeline data for some people.”
For users, this means that if their Google Maps Timeline data was deleted due to a technical issue, they may have permanently lost the history of places they’ve visited, unless they had backups enabled. If they didn’t have backups turned on, there’s no way to recover the lost data.
Additionally, with Google recently switching to on-device storage for Timeline data, backups are no longer automatically enabled. Users now need to manually turn on backups in the Maps app to ensure that their location history is saved and can be restored in case of future issues. Without this backup, any lost data could be irretrievable. This has caused frustration for some users, especially those who have lost years of location history, and others have struggled to fully restore their data even when backups were enabled.
The incident has led to some users losing years of location history, and while some have been able to recover their data using backups, others have reported that not all of their information was restored, even after importing their backups, as discussed on Reddit.
Some Google Maps users received an email from Google regarding the recent deletion of their Timeline data, as reported by Forbes. While the email provided some explanation, it stopped short of offering a direct apology for the issue, leaving many users dissatisfied.
The closest the email came to an apology was stating, “We understand that this can be frustrating, and we are taking steps to improve our systems for the future.”