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Comment by DjangoReinhardt | Hacker News Reader

https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/settings - Enable/Disable your Location history.

I had no location history when I visited this page, since I usually do not grant location access to most apps, unless absolutely necessary. However, when I visited the settings page, the location history was shown as enabled.

My only guess is that viewing your Location history automatically sets it to enabled if it was previously disabled. Or, the default radio button selected on the page is the "Enabled" radio button. Either way, it is friggin' suspicious...

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My radio button setting was "disable" even after I visited the location history. I think enabling location access and enabling location history are two different things, in that you can enable the detection of your current location to have better instructions from the application, but at the same time disable history.

This seems to be the best explanation so far.

Having said that, I am still wondering why I had no location history even if the enable radio button was selected. Still, no harm no foul, I guess?

Another thing worth noting is that the dropdown shows only the last 30 days of your location history - does that mean Google shows only the last 30 days or that we get to see only the last 30 days?

It's not the last 30 days, it shows 30 days worth of data on the map at once. So, you can do 30 days, and then go on the calendar and select September 1st. It will then show 30 days worth of location history on the map, starting on September 1st. I think showing any more than a 30 day period would probably just end up being a tangled mess, honestly, which is probably why they did it that way.

If you want, you should also be able to download the entirety of your location history from Google Takeout. It comes in a JSON file, and has locations in Latitude, longitude, the accuracy, and what activities it thinks you are doing (e.g. still, in a car, walking, on a bike), and the confidences for that.

Nope, I also had no location history, and when I went to the history settings mine was still disabled.

I don't know, but "Disabled" is still selected when I visit that page after viewing my location history.

When I visit the dashboard, there's a notice at the bottom stating as much, as well... "Google Location History is not yet enabled for your Google Account."

Hmm, I got the same message on the dashboard but I can swear that the Enabled radio button was selected when I visited the settings.

No harm, no foul, I guess?

Mine is disabled, I don't remember doing it, but if must have long ago.

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