User Guide

User guide

The map and timeline

• Map: your latest position, the path for the selected day or period, saved places and family members. Use the date picker for any day or range, and the playback bar to replay a day.
• Timeline: each day as visits (where you stayed, with place names) and trips (how you moved: walk, cycle, drive, train, flight). Tap a trip's transport mode to correct it, or the time next to it for trip details: the route highlighted on the map, average and top speed, and speed and elevation charts.
• Fixing the timeline: the ⋯ menu on a visit lets you rename it, say which saved place it really was (or that it was none of them), merge it with the next visit (when one stay was split in two), or delete it from the timeline. Every change can be undone from the message that follows. Corrections survive timeline rebuilds and never change your recorded points.
• Insights: distance, time moving, places and countries over any period, with a year heatmap of tracked days. Click a place, country or city to open it on the map or the last day you were there.
• Monthly recap: Insights → Monthly recap shows a month in review: totals compared with the month before, a map of everywhere you went, highlights (favourite place, busiest day, longest trip) and the places, towns and countries that were new that month. With notifications set up, a short recap also arrives on the 1st of each month (Settings → Notifications → Monthly recap).
• Places: name the places that matter (home, work, school). Your timeline becomes easier to read and arrival alerts become possible.
• Search: Ctrl/Cmd + K jumps to any page, place, person, or a date like 2024-07-15. It also searches your history: ask "when was I last at the office?" (or just type office) to see when you were last there and how often, and press Enter to open that day.
• Phone health: Settings → Devices → Health shows a phone's battery over the last two weeks and every time it went quiet for 2 hours or more, with the likely reason: the battery ran out, the phone was lying still (most apps only report movement), or it moved without reporting (app stopped, no signal, location off).

Place names come from reverse geocoding of your visits only, never your full track (see Configuration → Place names).

Importing your history

Settings → Import & export, then drop the file. Imports are streamed (multi-GB files are fine, up to 8 GB), duplicates are skipped, and Undo import removes exactly what an import added.

Source	How to get it
Android (on-device Timeline, 2024+)	Settings → Location → Location services → Timeline → Export Timeline data → Timeline.json
iPhone (on-device Timeline)	Google Maps → profile → Your Timeline → ⋯ → Location and privacy settings → Export Timeline data
Older Google Takeout	takeout.google.com → Location History (Timeline) → upload the .zip as is (Records.json is preferred automatically)
Others	GPX, GeoJSON, CSV (columns named lat/lon/time), OwnTracks Recorder .rec, GeoTracker exports

After importing a lot of old data, use Rebuild timeline if visits look split or trips look wrong. Behind nginx keep client_max_body_size 8g (HTTPS).

Exporting your data

Settings → Import & export: a lossless GeoTracker archive, or GPX, GeoJSON and CSV. Choose a format and period and press Create export. It is built in the background, so you can keep using GeoTracker (or close the page), and a Download button appears when it is ready. Finished exports are kept for 7 days. Your data is yours at any time.

Family groups

Family → New group, then invite people by email (they need an account; admins create accounts under Admin → Users).

• Consent first: invited people share nothing until they accept and choose. They decide live location on or off, how much history (none, 24 hours, 7 or 30 days, a year, or everything), and exact or approximate (~1 km) precision.
• Pause sharing for 1–24 hours at any time. Others see "paused", not a stale position. Everyone sees who can see them.
• Family members appear on the map as avatars. With their permission you can open their timeline and set arrive/leave alerts on your saved places ("tell me when Sam arrives at School"). Alerts need exact sharing.
• The instance admin has no special access to anyone's location.

Share links

Sharing → New share link: share your live location or a time period with anyone, without them needing an account. Links expire (1 hour to 90 days), can be revoked any time, and can show an approximate position rounded to about 1 km.

Automations

Run actions when you arrive at or leave a saved place: tell family, call a webhook, message ntfy, Telegram, Discord or Slack. See Automations.

Notifications

Settings → Notifications. Choose email, Gotify, ntfy and/or Telegram, and which events you want: arriving at or leaving a saved place, a phone that stopped sending locations, low battery, import finished, and backup failed (admins). Email needs an admin to set up SMTP first (Configuration → Email).

Photos from Immich

Settings → Integrations: enter your Immich address and an API key (Immich → Account settings → API keys). Photos taken on a day appear at the top of that day's timeline. Requests go through GeoTracker, so the key stays on the server.

Install as an app

• Android / desktop Chrome and Edge: use Install app in the browser menu.
• iPhone: Share → Add to Home Screen.

The app opens offline; your data loads when you're back online. Location data is never cached on the device by the app shell.

Privacy and security

• Privacy zones: mark a place as a Privacy zone (Places → edit). While you're inside it, family members and share links don't see your position, path, visits or arrive/leave alerts there. You still see everything yourself.
• Data retention: Settings → Import & export → keep raw points for 30 days to 5 years. Visits and trips stay. Shortening the period asks for confirmation, because older points are deleted for good.
• Signed-in devices: Settings → Profile lists every browser you're signed in on; sign out any of them. Changing your password signs out all other sessions.
• Audit log: admins see sign-ins and sensitive changes for one year (Admin → Audit log). Coordinates are never logged.