Google has confirmed it inadvertently erased some Google Maps Timeline data belonging to a number of people. The company told CNET the incident resulted from a temporary technical issue but did not elaborate on the specifics. The issue has since been resolved and new visits should now appear in user Timelines.
“We briefly experienced a technical issue that caused the deletion of Timeline data for some people,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “Nearly everyone with encrypted Timeline backups will be able to restore their data; unfortunately those who did not have backups enabled will not be able to recover lost data.”
The company said people need to be on the latest version of Google Maps to recover data from a backup. To import your data, go to the Timeline section, tap the cloud icon near the top of the screen and select a backup. The incident was first reported by tech publication Android Authority.
Google Maps Timeline, which is turned off by default, helps Google users remember places they’ve visited and routes taken. The data is typically stored in your Google Account as part of their activity across other Google sites, apps and services.
This isn’t the only time Google has encountered problems with Timeline data. It previously faced challenges retrieving some users’ data after it transitioned from cloud-based storage to on-device storage as part of an effort to make the feature more secure.
Not just a Google problem
Eric Abbruzzese, a director at market intelligence firm ABI Research, said that because this isn’t a major product for Google and the affected user base represents only a fraction of its total users, the impact likely wasn’t overly significant.
However, he noted that if the same issue had occurred with another Google service, such as Gmail or YouTube, the consequences would have been far more severe.
“Google stores literal exabytes of data, so if one service’s data can disappear like this, it’s possible others can as well,” he said.
He also noted that this type of issue isn’t unique to Google. Any large-scale data company can experience data loss.
“It does highlight a possible increase in these types of issues as more companies shift storage and data sovereignty policies to stay current,” he added.
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