Google Maps acting strangely
September 5, 2023 6:52 PM Subscribe
My location history on Google Maps seems to have developed a mind of its own.
I like to use location history on Google Maps to keep track of where I've been. It's usually been accurate, with minor corrections needed sometimes. Lately though, it's been acting strangely. For example, it says I left home last night at midnight and went to a nearby restaurant until 4 am. (I do not, to my knowledge, sleepwalk, especially 5 miles away).
So, anyone have any insight as to what's happening?
I like to use location history on Google Maps to keep track of where I've been. It's usually been accurate, with minor corrections needed sometimes. Lately though, it's been acting strangely. For example, it says I left home last night at midnight and went to a nearby restaurant until 4 am. (I do not, to my knowledge, sleepwalk, especially 5 miles away).
So, anyone have any insight as to what's happening?
Whatever it is, 1130 people have already complained to Google about something similar.
I like to use location history on Google Maps to keep track of where I've been.
Probably best not to rely on it for anything genuinely important.
posted by flabdablet at 10:51 PM on September 5, 2023
I like to use location history on Google Maps to keep track of where I've been.
Probably best not to rely on it for anything genuinely important.
posted by flabdablet at 10:51 PM on September 5, 2023
Bear in mind that the reason for Location History's existence is to allow Google to sell targeted marketing, and for that purpose near enough is completely good enough.
In any large software system, the last 1% of bugs will always be the most expensive to find and fix; Google simply has no incentive to do so for the kinds of sporadic errors that their location history facility occasionally throws up. Marketing is a percentages game, and the difference in potential returns between 99% accurate and 100% accurate livestock tracking is simply not consequential enough to justify the expense of achieving the latter.
posted by flabdablet at 11:10 PM on September 5, 2023
In any large software system, the last 1% of bugs will always be the most expensive to find and fix; Google simply has no incentive to do so for the kinds of sporadic errors that their location history facility occasionally throws up. Marketing is a percentages game, and the difference in potential returns between 99% accurate and 100% accurate livestock tracking is simply not consequential enough to justify the expense of achieving the latter.
posted by flabdablet at 11:10 PM on September 5, 2023
I've been using Google Timeline for years and it is very accurate. It is faithfully taking location data from my phone and matching it to real-world places. Sometimes the location is off a little, sometimes it guesses I'm at a business next door, but the results are really good. I have no phantom trips. (I have my own location tracking product on the Apple App Store, this compliment comes from some expertise.)
What's strange about the report here is the results are plausible. You say the mystery trip started and ended at your home? It's not just you getting someone else's data in some weird mixup then. My guess is some device logged in as you actually took that trip.
You can see what devices are feeding Google's location history in the Activity Controls for location. Check the "Devices for this Account" and verify you know exactly what each one is. Beyond that I'd look at where each of those devices are. Maybe someone else in your house went? You say you don't sleepwalk but is that actually a possibility? How fast were those 5 miles travelled? 4 hours is a long time at a restaurant but maybe the phone sat in a car in the parking lot?
I'm very curious what caused what you're seeing; please follow up if you can. Also glad to look at your data in detail privately if you want to memail me, but then I'll know a lot about you personally if you share location info with me.
posted by Nelson at 8:26 AM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
What's strange about the report here is the results are plausible. You say the mystery trip started and ended at your home? It's not just you getting someone else's data in some weird mixup then. My guess is some device logged in as you actually took that trip.
You can see what devices are feeding Google's location history in the Activity Controls for location. Check the "Devices for this Account" and verify you know exactly what each one is. Beyond that I'd look at where each of those devices are. Maybe someone else in your house went? You say you don't sleepwalk but is that actually a possibility? How fast were those 5 miles travelled? 4 hours is a long time at a restaurant but maybe the phone sat in a car in the parking lot?
I'm very curious what caused what you're seeing; please follow up if you can. Also glad to look at your data in detail privately if you want to memail me, but then I'll know a lot about you personally if you share location info with me.
posted by Nelson at 8:26 AM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Any chance a roommate / family member / friend etc. has a device logged in with your credentials? Or do you share a relatively new car with Google Maps built into it that maybe some else uses?
Random thoughts - Any chance your home wifi was up or down and maybe your device switched to or from a slightly distant wi-fi network (5 miles unlikely but)? Unlikely to impact it, but do you have any tracker devices on your property (like Apple airtags, Samsung Galaxy Tags, etc.)
May be helpful to know what your device is (phone, laptop, and if it is a Google device or Apple etc.) Also is it a restaurant that you may have gone to during normal hours go to or near on a regular basis?
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:35 AM on September 6, 2023
Random thoughts - Any chance your home wifi was up or down and maybe your device switched to or from a slightly distant wi-fi network (5 miles unlikely but)? Unlikely to impact it, but do you have any tracker devices on your property (like Apple airtags, Samsung Galaxy Tags, etc.)
May be helpful to know what your device is (phone, laptop, and if it is a Google device or Apple etc.) Also is it a restaurant that you may have gone to during normal hours go to or near on a regular basis?
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:35 AM on September 6, 2023
Also any fitness trackers / smart watches / wearable devices that a roommate / family member / friend may have borrowed? No pets with animal trackers on their collars? All long shots, but really want to find out your cat/dog is part of a secret society that meets at Denny's in the early hours of the morning. Speaking of which, was the restaurant the mystery trip went to even open at that time of the morning?
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:54 AM on September 6, 2023
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:54 AM on September 6, 2023
Any chance your home wifi was up or down and maybe your device switched to or from a slightly distant wi-fi network (5 miles unlikely but)?
That's a good guess; there's various ways geolocation on a device could be wrong like that. It depends on what kind of device is providing location and which of several location methods are being used.
Are the phantom trips always to one specific? Or are they a bunch of different places, all plausible?
posted by Nelson at 9:49 AM on September 6, 2023
That's a good guess; there's various ways geolocation on a device could be wrong like that. It depends on what kind of device is providing location and which of several location methods are being used.
Are the phantom trips always to one specific? Or are they a bunch of different places, all plausible?
posted by Nelson at 9:49 AM on September 6, 2023
Response by poster: Thanks for all the suggestions so far, folks. To answer some questions:
Android device (Pixel 6a). No one else is signed in using my credentials, I checked. No trackers used. One cat but he's strictly indoors. No one else uses my car. The restaurant in question definitely wasn't open between midnight and 4 am. Last night Maps decided I visited a Hallmark, also at midnight until 7 am this time. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't so strange.
posted by cozenedindigo at 5:37 PM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Android device (Pixel 6a). No one else is signed in using my credentials, I checked. No trackers used. One cat but he's strictly indoors. No one else uses my car. The restaurant in question definitely wasn't open between midnight and 4 am. Last night Maps decided I visited a Hallmark, also at midnight until 7 am this time. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't so strange.
posted by cozenedindigo at 5:37 PM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
A couple of other thoughts / questions that are less likely, but to rule them out:
- At home do you use a personal wifi network (one you own in your house) or a shared wifi (like some apartment buildings have / share a network with a neighbor etc)
- Do you use one of the major mobile network providers (like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile if you are in the US) or a smaller secondary provider (like Straight Talk or Boost Mobile?). If a smaller provider I am wondering if something weird is going on with flipping between networks.
- Is your Android a personal device or company managed? (Work phone). If a work phone, does your company have a VPN (Virtual
private Network) it may be connecting to?
- Do you use any personal VPNs on your phone (or have any VPN apps installed)?
- Does your phone connect to your home wifi? If so could you switch off wifi on your phone when you get home for a few days (assuming you can use mobile data network instead) and see if it still reports weird routes?
- And then do the same, but switch off mobile data when you get home on your device and only use wifi on it for a few nights?
- Do any of the weird routes occur during the day / when you are elsewhere? I have an unlikely but possible theory that maybe your town/location has nighttime maintenance going on and either the number of cell towers you connect to or which ones may be changing due to local maintenance and it is throwing off your location
- wildly unlikely but - do you live near (with a few miles) of an international border with another country?
posted by inflatablekiwi at 6:57 AM on September 7, 2023
- At home do you use a personal wifi network (one you own in your house) or a shared wifi (like some apartment buildings have / share a network with a neighbor etc)
- Do you use one of the major mobile network providers (like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile if you are in the US) or a smaller secondary provider (like Straight Talk or Boost Mobile?). If a smaller provider I am wondering if something weird is going on with flipping between networks.
- Is your Android a personal device or company managed? (Work phone). If a work phone, does your company have a VPN (Virtual
private Network) it may be connecting to?
- Do you use any personal VPNs on your phone (or have any VPN apps installed)?
- Does your phone connect to your home wifi? If so could you switch off wifi on your phone when you get home for a few days (assuming you can use mobile data network instead) and see if it still reports weird routes?
- And then do the same, but switch off mobile data when you get home on your device and only use wifi on it for a few nights?
- Do any of the weird routes occur during the day / when you are elsewhere? I have an unlikely but possible theory that maybe your town/location has nighttime maintenance going on and either the number of cell towers you connect to or which ones may be changing due to local maintenance and it is throwing off your location
- wildly unlikely but - do you live near (with a few miles) of an international border with another country?
posted by inflatablekiwi at 6:57 AM on September 7, 2023
Additional thought - have you gone into "saved networks" in your WIFI settings and removed any networks you no longer use (preferably removing anything except the essential networks you use every day - like home, office, etc.) If you have any networks that may be "highly mobile" (like WIFI for your local town bus network, train or subway network, etc.) I'd remove them . Again highly unlikely but just in case you phone is connecting to buses/trains that are going past and it's causing some locational weirdness.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:03 AM on September 7, 2023
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:03 AM on September 7, 2023
It'd be helpful to know if the travel times are plausible. You can work this out by going to Google Timeline and picking any full day with an unexplained trip (ie: click "Today" and then go back until you find one). It should show something like your address, then "Driving" or "Walking", then "Hallmark Store" or the restaurant. Then another travel section, then your home again.
Is the travel portion realistic? Or does it look like you teleported from A to B instantly?
FWIW yesterday I drove 3 miles to a restaurant. My timeline has an entry "Driving - 3.1 mi 15 min". That's completely reasonable and accurate. What do yours look like around the mystery trips?
posted by Nelson at 9:28 AM on September 7, 2023
Is the travel portion realistic? Or does it look like you teleported from A to B instantly?
FWIW yesterday I drove 3 miles to a restaurant. My timeline has an entry "Driving - 3.1 mi 15 min". That's completely reasonable and accurate. What do yours look like around the mystery trips?
posted by Nelson at 9:28 AM on September 7, 2023
Response by poster: - Personal wifi at home, not shared with anyone else, using Verizon Mobile
- Personal phone, not work phone. No VPN apps used.
- No, the weird routes only seem to occur at night, around midnight or 2 am.
- Not near an international border.
- Travel times for the weird routes are plausible.
No mystery routes happened last night, so maybe it was a bug that was fixed? If it starts happening again I'll turn off wifi for a few days and see what happens.
posted by cozenedindigo at 2:58 PM on September 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
- Personal phone, not work phone. No VPN apps used.
- No, the weird routes only seem to occur at night, around midnight or 2 am.
- Not near an international border.
- Travel times for the weird routes are plausible.
No mystery routes happened last night, so maybe it was a bug that was fixed? If it starts happening again I'll turn off wifi for a few days and see what happens.
posted by cozenedindigo at 2:58 PM on September 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
What a mystery! I really hope you figure this out.
There's two broad categories of explanation. Either the tracking tech is failing and generating plausible-but-incorrect trips. Or else the phone is really making these trips and you don't know how or why. You've ruled out some of the more likely tech failures. It'd be nice to rule out some of the more likely actual-trip explanations too.
If this were happening to me, I'd set up some personal surveillance to rule out the possibility that my phone is actually making the trips. Maybe write down odometer readings for my car and check them in the morning. Or set up a camera recording a good view of anyone coming or going from the house. Or maybe just point a camera at the phone and see if it moves during the night.
posted by Nelson at 3:18 PM on September 8, 2023
There's two broad categories of explanation. Either the tracking tech is failing and generating plausible-but-incorrect trips. Or else the phone is really making these trips and you don't know how or why. You've ruled out some of the more likely tech failures. It'd be nice to rule out some of the more likely actual-trip explanations too.
If this were happening to me, I'd set up some personal surveillance to rule out the possibility that my phone is actually making the trips. Maybe write down odometer readings for my car and check them in the morning. Or set up a camera recording a good view of anyone coming or going from the house. Or maybe just point a camera at the phone and see if it moves during the night.
posted by Nelson at 3:18 PM on September 8, 2023
At this point I’m going with ghosts. Your ghost went on a date with your phone that first night. It didn’t go well….hence the trip to Hallmark the next night to get a sorry card.
But honestly the next thing I would try is probably the easiest. Turn your phone off at night before you go to sleep for the next few days and maybe hide it in your sock drawer or under your mattress while you sleep.
If you see any mystery trips during the periods it is off it rules out your phone as the issue. On the off chance someone is regularly taking your phone - it would deter them if suddenly they can’t find it. If you start later leaving it on at night and see random trips start again - them it is most likely a Google / network weirdness (and my guess would still be late network tower maintenance near you given the trips start at midnight and finish early morning).
But more likely ghosts on dates.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 7:11 PM on September 8, 2023
But honestly the next thing I would try is probably the easiest. Turn your phone off at night before you go to sleep for the next few days and maybe hide it in your sock drawer or under your mattress while you sleep.
If you see any mystery trips during the periods it is off it rules out your phone as the issue. On the off chance someone is regularly taking your phone - it would deter them if suddenly they can’t find it. If you start later leaving it on at night and see random trips start again - them it is most likely a Google / network weirdness (and my guess would still be late network tower maintenance near you given the trips start at midnight and finish early morning).
But more likely ghosts on dates.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 7:11 PM on September 8, 2023
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posted by klausman at 7:55 PM on September 5, 2023