How to export your Google Maps Timeline
Timeline no longer lives in your Google account — it sits on your phone. That changed where the export button is, and it caught a lot of people out. Here is the current path on both platforms, plus the traps that make an export come back empty or shorter than you expected.
What changed, and why it matters
Google shut the Timeline service down on 9 June 2025 and moved location history onto the device itself. The web version at google.com/maps/timeline is gone, and Google Takeout archives generally no longer contain Timeline data.
The part that surprises people: only about 90 days of history was carried over to the phone at that switch, unless you had chosen to keep more before the deadline. So an export today may start a few months back rather than years ago — that is not a bug in your phone or in any tool reading the file.
Auto-delete makes the same thing happen quietly over time. If Timeline is set to erase entries after 3, 18 or 36 months, everything past that window is already gone.
Android
On Android the export lives in your phone's own Settings, not inside the Google Maps app. This is the part most guides still get wrong.
- 1
Open Settings
Your phone's Settings app — the grey cog, not Google Maps.
- 2
Tap Location
Usually under Security & privacy, or search 'Location' in the settings search bar.
- 3
Tap Location services
Then tap Timeline. On some phones Timeline sits directly under Location.
- 4
Tap Export Timeline data
Confirm with Continue, then Save.
- 5
Find the file
It saves as Timeline.json, normally in your Downloads folder.
Some phones show Timeline directly under Location, without the Location services step. If you cannot find it there, open Google Maps, tap your profile picture, then Your Timeline, then the ⋯ menu, then Location and privacy settings.
iPhone
On iPhone the export is inside the Google Maps app itself.
- 1
Open Google Maps
The app, not Safari.
- 2
Tap your profile picture
Top right corner.
- 3
Tap Your Timeline
Then open the ⋯ menu, top right.
- 4
Tap Location and privacy settings
Scroll down to find Export Timeline data.
- 5
Save the file
It is named location-history.json. Save to Files, or share it straight to your computer.
What is actually in the file
- Format
- JSON in most countries. Some users in the EU receive CSV instead, under local data-protection rules.
- Filename
- Timeline.json on Android, location-history.json on iPhone. Both hold the same kind of data.
- Size
- A few MB for a year of travel. Over about 50 MB, email will refuse it — use a cloud drive or a cable.
- Place names
- An Android export usually labels a stop only by category — 'restaurant', 'workplace' — with no name. An iPhone export names roughly half of them.
- Coordinates
- Stored as text, in different shapes per platform, which is why some converters choke on one and not the other.
When something goes wrong
The export is empty
Timeline was switched off. In the same settings screen, turn Timeline on, travel for a few days, then export again. Nothing can recover history that was never recorded.
It only covers the last few months
That is the 2025 migration limit, or auto-delete. Check the Timeline settings for an auto-delete period and set it to 'Keep until I delete manually' so it stops happening.
I cannot find Export Timeline data
Update Google Maps, and check you are signed into the right account. On Android, try both routes: phone Settings → Location → Timeline, and Google Maps → profile → Your Timeline → ⋯.
Google Takeout gave me nothing useful
Expected. Since Timeline moved on-device, Takeout archives no longer carry it. Export from the phone instead. Old Takeout archives you downloaded before 2024 still work in most tools.
The file is too big to email
Use Google Drive, iCloud, or plug the phone into your computer with a cable. Nothing needs to be uploaded to any website to read it.
What you can do with it
Once you have the JSON, you can turn it into an animated travel video right here — every trip drawing itself across a real map, with your own colours and your photo as the marker. It runs entirely in your browser, so the file never leaves your device, and export up to 4K is free.
Open the visualizer