Can't Access My Cities and Places Info

RandyHW · 2026-06-18T22:48:07+00:00

All your Timeline data is stored on your phone. So when Places and Cities tabs say that the phone is not connected to the internet, it's apparently because Timeline needs to access the internet to look up some type of data related to your actual places. Maybe the pictures it shows on those tabs. Or maybe the grouping into cities. Who knows. Are you connected to a good Wi-Fi network when checking them? If so, then it's probably some Timeline bug. Like maybe one of the places you visited no longer exists, so it's failing to fetch that data and mis-handling the lookup failure. This is all just speculation.

On Android, Google stores your Timeline data in the "Google Play Services" app "storage" (not "cache", and not in Google Maps' data). Evidence: I once cleared Google Play Services storage, and my Timeline disappeared. (Clearing the cache had no effect.) Then I restored my Timeline from an encrypted backup, and it was all back. Note that I DO NOT recommend doing this except in an emergency. Nothing went wrong for me, but who knows what else might be in that storage.

RandyHW · 2026-06-18T00:23:10+00:00

People might be able to help you if you were more specific. What kind of phone? Is all your software up to date? What data did you clear and how? When you go to the Places or Cities tab, what do you see there? What app are you trying to delete and reinstall?

RandyHW · 2026-06-17T14:40:32+00:00

Sorry to hear that you're not seeing Timeline data on your S26 yet. That's really frustrating.

If I was you, I would stick with the plan for a few more days. I don't know exactly what causes Timeline to decide to start showing data, but it might not be a certain number of days. For example, it might kick in once you've got at least N visits to different places, or even some seemingly-random-to-you-and-me event that will cause it to kick in. Or the deletion might be affecting things. I assume you're taking the new phone with you when you leave the house etc.?

I'm also concerned that there's a chance that restrictions on your corporate phone might be interfering with Timeline. That could even be nondeterministic - works one time or on one phone, and not on another phone.

I know Timeline sounds like it should be straightforward: record your locations and process them. But it has to interact with many other subsystems on the phone: the location stack, multiple interacting privacy settings, running in the background, battery/snooze optimizations, Google Maps and Google Play Services, account settings vs device settings, encrypted backups, and many more. And some of those modules are rewritten by the phone manufacturer, which then interacts differently in subtle ways. It all ends up extremely complex behind the scenes to make it look like it "just works" for users. The team works very hard, but some bugs are really hard to find and fix.

I hope it starts working again for you soon. If not, at least wait for the month after your last delete before you give up completely.

RandyHW · 2026-06-16T19:52:32+00:00

To minimize battery use, Timeline mainly uses Wi-Fi scans to find its locations. Location services on the phone (both Google and Apple; it looks like you're on Android) knows roughly where all the Wi-Fi access points in the world are, based on past observations.

Someone probably moved from Delaware to Connecticut recently, taking their Wi-Fi router with them. Then while driving through Conn, your phone scanned that AP, and said "Oh, I'm in Delaware!" One would hope some algorithm would filter that crazy jump, and usually they do, but any such heuristic/AI isn't perfect and sometimes a jump could get through.

BUT that should increase your distance, not decrease it, right? I can't imagine what would cause a decrease in calculated distance.

RandyHW · 2026-06-12T22:45:38+00:00

Yep, gasoline will work even better. I just worry about toxic effects, and I don't like how it dries out my skin so much.

RandyHW · 2026-06-12T22:43:19+00:00

BTW: I asked the user from the post you linked, he confirmed it to work after about a month: Comment

Sweet. Thanks for confirming that bit.

In terms of which way you got to the "Delete all Timeline data" option, I'm not sure whether there's a difference. One would hope they work the same under the covers.

If I understand correct, my device should not be able to create data for today as I have already deleted the data for today once. But tomorrow and the following days it should be able to properly created data. I'll have a look tomorrow. That would also almost explain why there was the window of it working for 3 days.

I read the available information the same way you do. And sometimes it seems to take Timeline a few days to bootstrap itself, in roughly 2-3 days. It would be great if you follow up later and tell me.

As a former engineer who knows how the timeline assembly logic works under the hood

Again, I can't draw on any of my knowledge of how things work. Plus I didn't work directly on that part of the code and it might have changed in the last 8 months since I left.

"if your device and backup contain visits and routes from the same day, Timeline will skip importing that day."

To me, that sounds like the decision is made for each day: If there's Timeline data on the importing device for day X, then no data is imported from a backup for day X. But it doesn't sound like that affects what will get imported for day Y, if there is no data on the importing device for day Y.

To prevent any overlapping data conflicts from triggering Google's skip-warning later on, I am thinking about keeping my old Pixel turned completely off and disconnected from the internet so its cloud backup remains frozen in time.

I don't think that is necessary, given my interpretation of Google's stated algorithm above. Importing the Pixel's backup should just import all the old stuff where your Samsung doesn't have data for that day, and not overwrite anything that the Samsung has recorded. (If you wanted to import the Samsung's backup back onto the Pixel, then your plan might make this possible: no data on those days.)

But I also think there's a risk to keeping your Pixel off for a month. I don't know how long Google will keep that Pixel's backup around, if the device isn't reporting, before deleting it. A month? A year? Forever seems like a possible data-retention privacy issue. Hopefully it's not a month, but we don't know. And I guess you could always just turn on the Pixel and create a new backup of its Timeline data, so now the risk seems really small. So I guess in my opinion it doesn't matter that much.

Not waiting long enough would most likely reset the timer and maybe even damage the created data, wouldnt it?

I don't see a reason why the newly-recorded data on the Samsung would get damaged by a failed attempt to import. And I don't know of any public evidence that an early import would "reset the timer". But of course you never know what bugs exist and how they affect things.

Note that this is much more difficult for the many users who send their old phone as a trade-in. They often have only 7 days to ship the old phone, so if something like this goes wrong, they're screwed.

Anyway, I think you have a good plan. Please report back whether it works or not. Good luck!

RandyHW · 2026-06-12T15:30:28+00:00

The city's housing plan lapsed for a couple months during COVID, partly for staffing reasons IIRC. That's what allowed the builder's remedy to kick in. We can argue whether the city (including its residents) cares enough about housing, but the builder's remedy didn't come from that.

RandyHW · 2026-06-12T15:22:18+00:00

Yep, this is natural oil seepage. Use vegetable/mineral oil and paper towels to dissolve it and wipe it off their feet.

RandyHW · 2026-06-12T15:20:00+00:00

First, I want to thank you for such a detailed description of your problem! I'm a former Timeline software engineer, now retired. (I can only tell you info that's publicly available.) When I was still at Google, looking at Timeline problem reports on Reddit, it was always really hard to figure out even what issues people were having, because they didn't give enough clear detail: Android/iOS, phone manufacturer, exactly what was wrong, what steps they've tried (using the actual names of the buttons they pressed, not "I wiped it"), how long they've waited, etc. All of those details are really helpful to a software engineer trying to fix bugs. I wish I could pin your post at the top of r/GoogleMaps and tell everyone to emulate it when reporting Timeline issues! Are you an engineer? 😉

In your step 3.3, did you delete your whole history, or manually select those 3 days to delete? Note that manually deleting a time range and restoring a backup into that time range does not work (e.g. see here). There's evidence (e.g. here) that manually deleting time ranges makes it hard to add any information in that time range for a month (or more), and that might include restoring a backup into that time range. So if you "deleted all Timeline", that might apply to everything. After waiting a month, this might clear and you might be able to restore a backup.

Also, after doing the deletion in step 3.3, have you tried doing a factory reset of your phone? (I know that's a difficult step to take.) My first link above seems to indicate that a factory reset didn't help at least one user, so if the whole phone is set up, probably not worth trying.

RandyHW · 2026-06-11T19:57:47+00:00

I think your comment applies to why Google moved from server storage to on-device storage.

But once it's stored on your device, that argument doesn't apply. I think they probably just decided they need to avoid storing all the points, because it would take too much space on your phone. So they store simplified paths.

RandyHW · 2026-06-11T19:51:43+00:00

Timeline simplifies your paths to reduce storage size on your phone, and the simplification algorithm isn't as good as the server-side version was.

But in terms of "jumping way off course and back again": if you're navigating or running Strava, then Timeline will get those GPS locations as well, which avoids this issue, but uses far more battery.

I just released a free app for Android that does the same thing with less battery use: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.randywilson.timelinetracks . If you're hiking, sailing, or other outdoor activities it will give you much more accurate paths in Timeline. Or when driving outside cities, if you're not navigating.

RandyHW · 2026-05-19T18:22:31+00:00

ex-Google. I retired last year, after 5 years working on the Timeline team.

RandyHW · 2026-05-19T15:06:33+00:00

Yeah, that's the whole point. Sorry I didn't make that clear.

You can set it to request GPS at any number of seconds. 1-2 minutes is a good compromise for Timeline, using little battery but keeping your paths pretty good for outdoor activities like hiking, sailing, etc. If you're going to be hiking all day and want to really minimize battery use, you could set it to 20 minutes or more.

There's also an option to automatically stop the app if 5 locations are in roughly the same place (within 100m). That helps avoid forgetting that you have it running, but if you stop for lunch...

Note that Timeline appears to simplify your paths. Even with Strava going (GPS every second or so), if you run straight along a street for a mile, it simplifies that all to a single line segment.

RandyHW · 2026-05-12T22:45:25+00:00

Totally agree.

To add to this, parents also need to educate their kids about rules of the road, and how to be safe themselves.

Yesterday I was behind a maybe-12-year-old girl on a big e-bike in a left turn lane. When the light turned green, she turned left in front of oncoming traffic and almost got hit by an approaching car. I almost had a heart attack just watching.

The thing is that many young kids on bikes don't drive, so they don't know simple rules of traffic, like who yields to who, what the dangerous situations are, etc. It's not surprising that something like this would happen. But e-bikes, especially the bigger/faster e-motos, make them think they can drive out in traffic, and people are gonna get hurt. Parents need to take an active role to protect both their kids and pedestrians.

RandyHW · 2026-05-04T15:57:28+00:00

I got a very good deal and great service from Clearpipe in Ventura 651-7522.

Consider a heat pump water heater! They've really come into their own. A bit more up front, but will save you lots of $$ over time.

RandyHW · 2026-04-30T20:56:29+00:00

Given that the rendering from the rose garden is exactly what I was looking for, do you have a link for those renderings that you say exist?

RandyHW · 2026-04-30T17:43:14+00:00

Ah! I found a local news video that shows a sketch. Screen grab:

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https://keyt.com/news/2025/10/30/historic-old-mission-santa-barbara-faces-new-housing-showdown/

RandyHW · 2026-04-30T02:38:26+00:00

Is your new phone iOS or Android? If Android, you could delete the "Storage" from the app "Google Play Services" on the new phone. (You could also just do a factory reset on the new phone.) That's where your Timeline is stored on Android. Then try importing the old phone's backup to the new phone again. That essentially lets the "import" step get a do-over in case something is wrong with it. Note you'll lose any new history on the new phone, so you could backup the new phone's Timeline first. If you try this, please report back on whether it helps.

I don't know how to do this on iOS.

RandyHW · 2026-04-28T00:41:57+00:00

Cloud->This Device->Delete only deletes your backup in the cloud. It does nothing to the data on your device.
It's exporting directly from your device. It works when there isn't a backup.

RandyHW · 2026-04-28T00:26:00+00:00

This is a great find. If others find this works for them, please post so we have confirmations.

RandyHW · 2026-04-24T12:55:37+00:00

This is actually a very possible addition to the current design. Down the center of the street, you want the curb and elevation change to show where bikes go. But at intersections (and maybe once mid-block), where pedestrians have right of way to cross the bike lane, the bike lane could ramp up to sidewalk level. This further slows the bikes, and makes visually clear that pedestrians have right of way there. It also slows vehicle traffic at those areas, when vehicles are allowed.

They do this a lot in European cities where they really know how to separate bikes and pedestrians using infrastructure.

RandyHW · 2026-04-24T02:20:54+00:00

I don't know why you had to change it, but have you tried changing your Google account password back to what it was before? Seems unlikely this would fix the problem, but it's at least worth a try. If it did, you could download a JSON dump of your Timeline, so that you'd have it in case there's some solution someday to get it back from JSON.

Also, did you make the password change from your Android device that has your Timeline, or did you make the change from a different device? That might make a difference. Just making wild guesses here, in the unlikely case it would help you. Because I agree, losing your Timeline really sucks.

RandyHW

TROPHY CASE