[nswanberg]

I ended up losing nearly 15 years of my Google Location history during the switch to on-device, so if you're interested in doing analyses like this, be sure to back up your data on Takeout before you enable the on-device setting that nemo1618 mentioned. Once that setting is set, the data is no longer available on Takeout, and if the data didn't fully transfer to your device, which is what happened to me and to some others, it's gone: https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleMaps/comments/1diivt3/megathr...

[everybodyknows]

> Follow the prompts to set up automatic backups.

> Options include keeping your data for three, 18, or 36 months, or indefinitely until you manually delete it.

So, if we Takeout our current data, we can squirrel that away on our own computer.

Also navigate the transition process perfectly, including the above settings, so history -- new history anyway -- will be preserved on Google servers. Will it then be available for decryptable download to the user's computer via Takeout? Or only to a replacement phone?

[nswanberg]

That encrypted backup isn't available via Takeout, only via the Google Maps app. You can use that backup to load your history to various devices or a replacement phone.

[nickburns]

> I ended up losing nearly 15 years of my Google Location history

genuinely curious—why would you want this?

[everybodyknows]

I have my Dad's history as well as mine, and a mapping app into which I can load both. Where the the two tracks coincide, I'm prompted to remember the occasion.

[nswanberg]

Making analyses like zdimension's, keeping a kind of automated diary, and occasionally looking up a spot I've been but can't quite remember.