Hi all,
Does anyone know of any apps that track your location over time and map it so that you can see where you were at a given time? Preferably one that doesn’t upload any of this information to a/the cloud?
I’m a forgetful person and often wonder “what was I don’t last Tuessday?” or “When did I get home?” or “How long was I at X?”. Sometimes I also just want to contribute to things like OpenStreetMaps for less mapped areas (though I know this requires very frequent pings).
I used to use this feature using Google Location History but stopped because I decided I didn’t want to give them any more of my data than necessary.
If anyone plays Legend of Zelda BOTW or TOTK, I’m thinking of it as a sort of personal “Hero’s Path Mode”.
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Have a look at https://owntracks.org/ . Has apps for android and ios and you can self-host the server component
You can run https://owntracks.org/ but you need a server to run it on.
If you’re using Android, there’s a couple privacy-friendly apps on F-Droid:
I’ve only tested GPSLogger though, which was a little on the battery-hungry side.
OsmAnd has a recording feature. I’ve used it for brief periods over hikes and such, but I’m not sure how functional it would be as a running all the time thing.
I’m running PhoneTrack which has a Nextcloud component. The data can be imported into HomeAssistant and also Prometheus.
What do you do with the data in home assistant? By import, do you mean a near synchronous automatic import or something you have to do manually at the end of the day? Do you use it for geo fencing?
By import I mean “automatic sync”, yes.
I just use it to “track” myself. You can use it for geofencing, yes. You just attach it to your user and it adds your location to you.
The main reason I use it over the Home Assistant app’s built-in sensors is that PhoneTrack is able to store your location data if you’re offline (out of cell network range, etc.) whereas the HA app just discards it.
Nice. Good to know, thanks
I’d also love that… I use Life Cycle on iOS which does this but doesn’t have a map, and it says all data is local only.
I got SW Maps Android app to use with a RTK device and NTRIP servers for very precise positioning.
Even without the RTK, the app will record a track. Settings let you choose what distance or time interval to record points.
But it’s not the sort of thing that runs automatically in the background all the time. It’s meant for deliberate start/stop recording your position.
If you enable location history, google maps will do this
I think the whole point of the question was to have it not be uploaded to cloud and keep the information on device itself…
Home Assistant has some functionality similar to what your asking for and I think there is something like that available in Nextcloud as well.
There is also a project called Traccar (I think that’s what it’s called) that you might look into.
I mostly use location data for triggering reminders and smart home events but I know more is possible, just haven’t looked into it more deeply.
I completely understand what you are saying! I’ve been using OwnTracks for this. I’ll post that in the self hosted community later for other people that might be searching for the same. All you need is to setup your own server and it’ll upload your location there to keep it safe and private. Search and views are not as great as google’s IMO, but I’m tinkering with the available data that I have now to create something more friendly.
