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The original was posted on /r/linustechtips by /u/techmill_tom on 2024-12-19 09:06:18+00:00.

Now for the sob story…

Until recently, I used to work as an arena touring technician, blessed to have worked in 36 countries around the world.

I used Google timeline religiously to look back at my travels, recommend motorcycle routes, coffee shops, obscure points on interested, etc.

A few days ago, I lost all of it. It may sound stupid to some, but it’s like the equivalent to losing my family photos in a house fire.

There are many of us in the same boat, I thought I’d warn others.

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I had received emails notifying me that: “Timeline is changing and will now be created on your device. As part of this: to avoid losing your visits and routes, you’ll need to choose settings for your data by June 9, 2025.”

At the time, I didn’t think to act on it. Recently, while working as a firefighter in my hometown, we were returning to the station and needed to figure out some timings for our report. I opened Google Maps, went to Timeline, and was presented with a three-page prompt.

I quickly flicked through without fully reading it. On the second page, it asked how long I wanted to keep my data. I accidentally selected “3 months” and proceeded to the final page. It was only then that I realised what I had done.

The back button wasn’t available, so I exited Google Maps without completing the prompt. When I returned to Timeline to fix my mistake, all my data was already gone.