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Create Fixed Trips In Your Mileage Log From Your Google Timeline
(Maximum file size for each month is 20 MB)
NEW: Manual action required to save your Timeline
In order to enhance privacy, Google is gradually rolling out major changes regarding the storage of Location History & Maps Timeline – namely it will store your location history (your trips) directly on your phone instead of Google cloud.
By default, Google will auto-delete your trips just after 3 months instead of 18 months, which means that you’ll have to decide how long you’ll want to keep your trips.
If you’re driving for business purposes, those trips are extremely valuable due to mileage tax deduction or mileage reimbursement, so I strongly suggest that you turn Auto-delete off in the Google Maps app as the IRS might check your mileage log retrospectively for up to 3 years.
In order to save your trips from Google deleting them, turn Location History ON & Auto-delete OFF:
Export your location history files via Google Takeout
1. Open Google Takeout
2. De-select all the automatically selected items and select Location History.
3. Choose the file type ZIP to compress, and choose the export frequency, and destination of your liking. – You will receive an access link to the email address associated with your Google Account (IMPORTANT! This email address is not necessarily the same as the one associated with your MileageWise account, the two are independent.)
Extra help for file extraction:
Check out our video that shows you how to convert your Google Timeline file into an IRS-compliant mileage log via MileageWise:
Here’s the complete walkthrough of the import process, step by step:
To import your fixed trips, go to the Trips tab under the Monthly trips menu, and click the red ‘Import trips’ button near the top-right corner of the screen.
Select Google Timeline from the available data sources.
Select your desired vehicle and time period, then click on Next step.
Select your ZIP or JSON file on your computer to upload.
Once the file has been recognized click on ‘Upload file, next step’.
The program will pair the columns automatically.
The import process may take 10-15 minutes, you will be notified via email. You can keep working within the system in the meanwhile.
Clicking on the View current status button, a list of the fixed trips will be displayed, and in the upper fields, we will indicate where the process is: how many trips have been imported successfully, how many are in progress, and how many trips could not be imported.
When the import process has finished, go back to the Trips tab via the Monthly trips menu to view your trips.
The system records the date and time of the trips from the imported timeline file, which appears in the daily trip view:
Similarly, we insert imported trips under previously recorded fixed trips.
If needed, you can edit the days for which you have imported your fixed trips. Open the day in Calendar or List view. Imported trips are marked with the 
icon. You can delete trips individually, change the purpose of the trips, change the order of the trips, and add new fixed trips.
You also have the option to delete all imported fixed trips at once for the month by clicking the ‘Import trips’ drop-down menu and selecting ‘Delete all imported trips’.
General information about importing fixed trips
- Even if your file contains trips for multiple months, you can only import one month at a time, make sure that you select the correct year and month within the system before starting the process. You can use the same document to import your trips separately for each month.
- Only one import can run at a time, and do not edit the given period during the import process!
- You can upload up to 500 fixed trips / month / file. You can upload as many files as you want.
- IMPORTANT! Daily departure / arrival point does not have to be on the list since the software can identify the clients and the import can still be completed. The imported trips will be inserted between your daily departure and arrival points.
- The program does not duplicate during the import process! So, if a client is already listed on a given day, it will not duplicate.
- The software does not change the order of the imported trips, if there already are some recorded trips on a specific day, the imported trips will be added in after them. The order of the trips can be changed as needed after the import process has finished.
- Days off and holidays are not taken into account during the import process. If you’ve specified certain days as days off, but the files contain trips for those days, the trips will still be added as fixed trips for those days.
- For previously recorded refuelings / chargings, insert the imported trips after the refuelings / chargings. As this order may differ from the actual route, we recommend that you record the refuelings / chargings after importing.
- Refuelings / chargings may be included in an import file based on GPS tracking. If this is recognized, we will indicate it in a comment in List view. These trips will not be imported, refuelings / chargings must be entered manually.
- Clients visited in the import file are compared with existing clients. We can identify the client if the name and address details are the same or if the coordinates are close enough to an existing client (within 0.1 miles). If the client is not in the database, we add it as a new client. If new clients with the same name but different addresses are listed, we create new clients by numbering them differently.
- In the case of an existing client identified in the client database, we will match it with the trip purpose already included in the database, regardless of what is listed in the import file.
- If you use your MileageWise account with multiple users, all users except “mobile app” users can import fixed trips. Notification of successful import will be received by the Administrator.
Download the MileageWise mobile app now, start tracking your miles,
and save thousands on your taxes!
As mentioned above, Google has made updates to the Location History feature that could disable your yearly Retrospective Trip Recovery from Google Timeline!
Steps you should take to save your Google Timeline data:
Turn auto delete OFF: Google will change the automatic deletion of the Timeline from 18 months to 3 months by default
Turn location history ON: Location History is turned off by default
Back up your Timeline in the Cloud: Instead of the Google Cloud, the Timeline will be stored on your device by default
Google will introduce these changes gradually on iOS and Android devices and will notify you when your account receives the update.
Is your Google Timeline History missing?
No worries! If you lost data, reconstruct your trips with MileageWise’s very own AI Recommendation Wizard!
With our AI Wizard feature, you can recreate your past miles and fill in the gaps with ease while ensuring IRS compliance. Embrace the simplicity and accuracy of our solution and maximize your tax savings.