Timeline Inaccuracy

[Nickcc08]

Dating back to at least 2014 Google Maps has me stopping at locations that I have never been to before and on multiple occasions. These are all places around the area I have lived over the past several years but again, I've never been to these said places before. This was pointed out by my, soon to be ex-wife, unless I can get this resolved as soon as possible. So as you can assume this is very important for me to get resolved.

I have read several previous writings from others having the same issues but none of which seem to be helping me with my issue because it is having stopping at the same spots over and over. It will even say that I am at these places for several hours and it just doesn't make sense.

To give you a little insight as to what devices I use; I've only used Samsung Galaxy phones no hot spots, I always have my locations on as well as wifi is always turned on.

I've read of people saying that GPS is accurate and if using wifi it can get very inaccurate but it doesn't make sense if I am driving who's wifi would I be on? I do have a couple friends in the area who have wifi so I guess it is possible I linked to their wifi but the locations showing are a few miles away.

This is extremely stressful and straining on a family of 6, so please ANY insight would be helpful. I've tried contacting Google but with no responses. And please, me not being as tech savy as some, please explain so that both my wife and I can understand

Thanks

 

[Xyro]

I've read of people saying that GPS is accurate and if using wifi it can get very inaccurate but it doesn't make sense if I am driving who's wifi would I be on? I do have a couple friends in the area who have wifi so I guess it is possible I linked to their wifi but the locations showing are a few miles away.

Wifi-based location only requires that you detect (but not connect to) routers around you. Google figures out where each router is in the world (see the explanation here), and thus your phone just needs to list the available wifi networks to figure out a rough location.

In my own, anecdotal experience, wifi-based location detection is far from perfect. At home and at work, I typically keep my phone with wifi on, but with the phone in flight mode and GPS off to save on the battery. When set like this, one room at work was consistently reported as being in South America, despite the rest of the building being in the UK.

 

[mikedt]

ays turned on.

I've read of people saying that GPS is accurate and if using wifi it can get very inaccurate but it doesn't make sense if I am driving who's wifi would I be on? I do have a couple friends in the area who have wifi so I guess it is possible I linked to their wifi but the locations showing are a few miles away.

I don't think it has to be actually connected and only has to see and log nearby WiFi APs. And Google has been collecting a heck of a lot of WiFi data as they've been driving around.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/may/15/google-admits-storing-private-data

This issue has come up before here on AF.
https://androidforums.com/threads/w...fi-networks-for-location.919523/#post-6974973
WiFi location can be hopelessly inaccurate sometimes. Like having me in Hong Kong or Moscow, when in fact I'm in Inner Mongolia, PRC. Someone else posted a few weeks ago, they're in New Zealand, but WiFi location had them as being somewhere in Russia. GPS, once it's got a fix, should always be accurate.

...posted by yours truly in 2015.

This is extremely stressful and straining on a family of 6, so please ANY insight would be helpful. I've tried contacting Google but with no responses. And please, me not being as tech savy as some, please explain so that both my wife and I can understand

Thanks

I think blame inaccurate WiFi location data, and that's it.