Almost everyone uses Google services in some capacity, be it the search engine, cloud storage, or YouTube. And, for every service you use, a history of your Google activity is stored.
Considering Google is the most popular search engine, your activities are also saved to your account. But how do you access your Google activity history? And how can you delete all your activities across several Google services?
Types of Google Activity Stored
If you use a smartphone along with Google services, there are several activities that are being tracked by Google.
Here's a brief snapshot of the types of activities Google stores:
- YouTube history.
- Google search history.
- Map history.
- Location history.
- Device access or usage history (for Android).
Having your usage data not only prompts you to recall what you were searching for, but it also helps you spot unauthorized use in some cases.
It is worth noting that the same set of steps used to manage your Google activity apply no matter whether you are using a mobile or a desktop web browser.
You may find the options using the Google mobile app, but to access and manage the activity, you need to use the web browser.
How Do You Access Your Google History?
To get started, go to My Activity page of your Google account.
Here, you will be able to access all your activity across multiple services and can choose to search for something specific.
If you scroll down, you can find all your recent activities and also filter them based on the product/service you use.
What You Need to Know Before Deleting Your Google Activity History
Now that you know about your history, there are a few things to note before you start deleting all your activity history.
- Once you delete your history, you cannot recover it.
- Even if you delete the history, newer activity may be automatically recorded.
- Even if you are not logged in, some Google apps may track your activity on the device itself.
- You can choose to auto-delete the history tracked.
- You can choose to disable activity tracking.
Considering you cannot recover your history, it may be a good idea to perform a backup of your data.
You need to think twice if you really need to have the history of your Chrome activity, Android device usage, Google search, or your YouTube search history. If you haven't deleted it before, it can be something significant to look back to.
How to Back Up Your Google Activity History
Here's how to make a back up of your data, something you may wish to do before deleting your Google activities log:
1. Head to your Google account management page.
2. From the options available, you need to click on Data & personalization.
3. Next, you will need to scroll down to find the Download your data option. Click on it to proceed.
4. You will now need to select the services you want to back up your activity for. By default, everything is selected; if you do not need all the data, you can deselect your options.
5. Next, you will be asked to choose the file type and method of receiving the back-up. You can choose to directly get the back-up in your Google Drive account, or get a download link via email among other options.
If you have a lot of data associated, this process can take days to complete. So you should wait for it to finish before deleting your search history and other activities.
How to Delete All Your Google Activity
You can easily delete any of your Google activities or all of it in one go. Google does provide granular levels of settings to make it convenient.
Here is how you can delete all your activity.
Delete One Activity At a Time
When you go to My Activity page, you will find all your recent activities listed.
You can simply delete an item that you want off your activity history, no matter whether it's Google search history or device access data.
All you need to do is just click on the X button, and it will be deleted.
Delete All Your Activities Within a Time Range
In the My Activity page, you can choose to delete all your data specified by a time range. Use the delete button as shown below.
You can also filter your activity if you do not want all your activity history to disappear.
The available options let you choose a specific time range or everything. Go with what you think is the best for you.
Deleting the search activity or any other google history will not ask for an additional confirmation; your data will be instantly deleted as you proceed.
Delete Google Search and Device Access Activity
You can visit the My Activity page and navigate your way to the Web & App Activity option.
Scroll down to find Manage activity and proceed to delete all the search history or just the device access history.
You can also choose to delete individual searches if you want.
Auto-Delete Activity
You can auto-delete each category of activity listed in your My Google Activity page.
Suppose you click on Web & App Activity; you need to head to the auto-delete option (which is disabled by default) and then choose the time range of activity you want to be deleted automatically.
You can only auto-delete activities older than 3 months or older. To delete more recent activity, you need to follow the other steps mentioned above.
How to Disable Google Activity Tracking
Moving forward, if you do not want your activity to be stored, you can choose to pause the type of activities that are saved to your account.
Do note that if you disable all the activity tracking, you cannot access any of your history when you enable it again, and you will also lose personalized recommendations.
To do that, you will have to visit My Activity and then click on any of the activity that you want to disable tracking for:
- Web & App Activity: disables saving your search history and your device access history.
- YouTube History: disables saving your recent YouTube search history and videos watched.
- Location History: prevents storing your device location data.
Once you toggle any of those off, you will see an additional confirmation with further information. If you are comfortable with that, go ahead.
Manage Your Google History to Keep Tabs on Your Activity
While you may find an overwhelming amount of data in your activity history, it helps you keep tabs on what you do online and recall something that you were searching for.
Usually, people do not take time to review their activities or manage them, but if you are conscious about your privacy, it is a good habit to delete or check your history regularly.
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