Google Maps gets a community-made solution for its location history mess

If you’re frustrated with the fact that you can’t merge your Google Maps Timeline data, you’re not alone. But you can now end that frustration with the help of a new tool. And the best part is that the tool is free to use.

For those unfamiliar with Timeline, it’s a navigation feature that saves all your routes. This way, you can easily see everywhere you’ve been and when. It’s a nice feature that allows you to take a walk down memory lane. However, it could also be useful for other reasons, like finding places you haven’t explored or tracking travel expenses.

The problem is that when Google switched from storing the data in the cloud to having it stored on-device, it wound up causing a fracture between old and new location history. This is because the data is in different formats that don’t work together. There’s also an issue with trying to merge location history from multiple accounts, which happens to be a workaround for those having trouble accessing their Timeline backups.

If you’re someone who has been looking for a way to merge your Timeline data, today is your lucky day. A Reddit user has created a tool that will allow you to combine your location history into a unified dataset. As it’s explained, you’ll need to upload all of your Timeline files into the web app. The app will merge and convert everything, cleaning up duplicates and unnecessary data. You’ll then be able to download the information in three formats: CSV (for Google My Maps), KML (for other mapping tools), or JSON (for backup).

As mentioned earlier, this app is free to use, so no need to hesitate. The Reddit user also states that the tool is open-source.