How to clear search and location history in Google Maps on Android

Written by Kevin Liew on 09 Jul 2015
39,169 Views • Miscellaneous

There might be many reasons to clear the search and location history in Google Maps but not everyone knows how to do that. Of course if you want to remove everything from your account you will have to get on the web. But, if you just want to remove it from the app on your android device then this is how to do it.

To clear out individual searches just do the following.

  1. Open up Google Maps
  2. Swipe from the left and go to Settings
  3. Tap on Map History
  4. You will get a list of all your searches
  5. Select the one you want to delete and tap on the cross that you see next to the search
  6. You will be asked to confirm which you can do by touching delete option or you can cancel it by touching the cancel option

Now, when you start searching again, this location will not be suggested to you as a possible search option. You can do the same thing for routes. And, once a route is deleted, you will not get it as a possible option.

If you want to remove lot of searches or even remove all of the searches then this method will become tedious. So, in that case, it is better to go in for removing it completely from the web. If you are constantly using Google Maps then your security might be compromised if you don’t take adequate precautions. Precautions can be in the form of antivirus software, employing a password manager so that you aren't as likely to accidentally type your Google password into the Google search bar (it happens more often than you think), turning off your cookies, regularly clearing your cache, etc. 

To remove the history of searches on Google Maps via the web interface, ensure that you are signed in to Google and then go to the Google Location history dashboard. If your location reporting is enabled then you will be able to see all the places that you have been and searched for from any of your Android devices.

If you want a thoroughly detailed picture of where you have been, you can get a day-by-day account but be warned – if you are using more than one android device then it might all look very confusing. If you just want to look at a specific time period like, say, a week or the last 10 days or even just a single day, then use the drop down menu on the dashboard to do that. Now just press Delete history from this time period and click or touch on the link provided. This might take up to a day to complete. Google will give you a message to this effect.

Now, if you just want to delete all of the searches, location history, etc. then you have the option of clicking on the Delete all history link on the left side of the dashboard. Again, you will get a message saying it might take twenty four hours to delete the history completely.

If you do not want Google to store your location history then just go to Google Maps's settings and turn off your  Location history. This will stop saving your locations but it will not necessarily remove the previous history.

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