Trailroll

Lost your Google Maps Timeline? Rebuild your travel history from photos

Updated November 10, 2026 · 4 min read

For years, Google Maps Timeline quietly recorded everywhere you went. Then Google moved Timeline from its servers to people's phones: the web version stopped working, history now lives on one device, and many people who missed the move or changed phones lost years of travel history.

If that's you, there's a second record you probably still have: your photos. Every geotagged photo is a dated point on a map. They can't replace a minute-by-minute log, but for travel, the places you cared enough to photograph are the ones worth remembering.

Timeline vs. a photo travel map

  • Timeline recorded everything: commutes, supermarkets, every trip to the dentist. Great for "where was I on Tuesday", noisy as a travel record.
  • A photo map records only places you photographed. Less complete, but it's exactly the trips, and every pin comes with a picture.

Photos also survive phone changes and account moves: they're in your camera roll, in iCloud or Google Photos, and in old backups.

Rebuild your travel history in Trailroll

  1. 1Gather photos from your trips. Originals from your phone, iCloud or Google Photos keep their location; copies from messengers don't.
  2. 2Upload a handful from each trip to Trailroll. Each one is pinned where it was taken.
  3. 3Trailroll groups photos into trips by date and names them by country, so years of travel turn into a list of trips.
  4. 4Fill in the gaps: photos without GPS get a suggested place from your nearby photos, or you pin them yourself.
Put all your trips on one mapUpload your photos and Trailroll pins each one where it was taken. Free for your first 500 photos.
Make my travel map

Keep your Timeline data too

If you still have Timeline on your phone, turn on its encrypted backup in Google Maps settings so it survives a phone change. You can also export it from your phone's Location settings, under Timeline.

Questions

Can Trailroll import Google Timeline data?
Not yet. Trailroll builds the map from your photos' own location data.
Do photos from Google Photos keep their location when downloaded?
Usually, yes. Original downloads keep the GPS data stored in the file. Check one in the photo location finder if you're not sure.

Related guides