You're standing on a virtual street corner in Paris, looking at a storefront. The sun is shining, the croissants look buttery, and the world feels frozen in 2014. But you need to see what that building looks like today. Or maybe you're trying to prove a renovation happened in 2021 for an insurance claim. You want to know how to change dates on Google Maps, but the interface is kind of a maze. It’s not always as simple as clicking a calendar icon and picking a day. Honestly, Google hides the "time machine" feature in plain sight, and depending on whether you’re on a desktop or a phone, the rules change entirely.
Google Street View is basically a digital archive of the world's evolution over the last two decades. Since 2007, those little 360-degree camera cars have been roaming the earth, snapping billions of photos. But here's the kicker: they don’t just overwrite the old stuff. They stack it.
The Secret to Using the Street View Time Machine
If you're on a computer, you've got the most power. Open Google Maps. Drop the little yellow "Pegman" onto a street. Once you're in the immersive Street View mode, look at the top left corner of your screen. You’ll see a small gray box with a clock icon. It usually says something like "See more dates."
Click that.
A slider pops up. This is where the magic happens. You can slide back through every single pass the Google car has made on that specific street. You might see the 2008 version where there’s a vacant lot, then jump to 2015 to see the foundation being poured, and finally hit 2023 to see the finished skyscraper. It’s wild. But—and this is a big but—not every street has a deep history. If the Google car only drove by once in 2018, that’s all you’re getting. There's no way to "force" a date that hasn't been captured.
Why mobile users get the short end of the stick
On the Google Maps app for iPhone or Android, it's a bit more finicky. You enter Street View by tapping on a location or the "Street View layer" icon. Once you're in the 360-view, you have to tap the screen once to bring up the UI. Look for a button or text at the bottom that says "See more dates" or mentions the current date.
It doesn't always show up.
Sometimes the app just refuses to show historical imagery that the desktop version handles easily. If you’re a power user or doing research for a project, just use a laptop. Seriously. The mobile experience for historical data feels like a stripped-down version of the real thing.
Changing Dates on Your Personal Timeline
Now, maybe you aren't looking at a street corner. Maybe you're looking at your own "Timeline." This is the feature that tracks everywhere you’ve been (if you let it). Sometimes the GPS glitches. It says you were at a Taco Bell in Ohio when you were actually at home in bed.
Correcting this is actually pretty straightforward.
- Open the app and tap your profile picture.
- Hit "Your Timeline."
- Select the day you want to fix.
- Tap the specific place or stop that’s wrong.
- Hit "Edit."
You can change the time you arrived, the time you left, or the date entirely if the log got scrambled. This is huge for people who use Maps to track work mileage or travel expenses. Google is currently moving Timeline data from the cloud to "on-device" storage for privacy reasons, so if you're looking for your history on a web browser, you might find it’s disappeared. You’ll have to do all your date-changing directly on your phone from now on.
The "Request a Blur" Trap
A lot of people think that if they don't like a specific date or photo of their house, they can just ask Google to "update" it. That's not how it works. You can't ask Google to drive by your house today because you just painted it.
What you can do is report a photo. If there is an image from a specific date that shows something sensitive—like a license plate, a face, or something you just don't want on the internet—you can hit "Report a problem" in the bottom right corner. But be careful. Once Google blurs your house, it is permanent. They don't un-blur it for future dates. You're basically deleting your home's history from the platform.
What Most People Get Wrong About Satellite View
Can you change dates on the 2D satellite map?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Not in the standard Google Maps app. The satellite imagery you see is usually a composite of the most recent, clearest shots Google could buy from companies like Maxar or Airbus. If you want to see historical satellite photos (like seeing how a forest was cleared over ten years), you have to use Google Earth Pro on a desktop.
In Google Earth Pro, there is a literal "Historical Imagery" button that looks like a clock with an arrow pointing counter-clockwise. It gives you a timeline slider that can sometimes go back to the 1940s or 50s using old aerial photography. It’s a completely different beast than the standard Maps app you use to find a pizza place.
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The Reality of Data Gaps
We tend to think of Google as this omniscient god that sees everything, all the time. It doesn't.
If you're trying to figure out how to change dates on Google Maps to find a specific event—like a car accident or a crime—you're probably going to be disappointed. The cars drive by once every few years in residential areas. In high-density cities like New York or London, they might go through every few months. But there are massive gaps.
In rural areas, the "latest" date might be 2012. There's nothing you can do to change that. You’re at the mercy of the Google fleet's schedule.
Why did my "See more dates" button disappear?
Sometimes you’ll be looking at a street and the option to see previous years just vanishes. This usually happens because:
- The area was recently re-mapped: Sometimes the new data hasn't been properly indexed with the old data yet.
- Camera glitches: If the latest imagery was shot with a new type of 360-camera, Google sometimes struggles to align it with the "legacy" 2007-era shots.
- Private Roads: If the car accidentally drove down a private driveway and Google later had to remove it, the whole "historical" thread for that specific coordinate might get clipped.
Practical Next Steps for Navigating History
If you need to find an old version of a location right now, follow these steps to ensure you're seeing everything Google has to offer:
- Switch to Desktop: Forget the phone app if you're doing deep research. The browser version of Google Maps is significantly more stable for historical toggling.
- Check the Bottom Right: Look for the "Image capture" date. It’s tiny text. That tells you exactly when the photo you're looking at was taken.
- Use Google Earth Pro: Download the desktop application (it's free) if you need satellite history rather than Street View history. The "Time Slider" there is the gold standard for geographical research.
- Check "User-Contributed" Photos: If Google's official car hasn't been by in years, look for the "Photos" section of a business or landmark. Local Guides often upload 360-degree "photo spheres" that might be more recent than the official Street View.
Navigating the past on a map is a bit of an art form. It requires clicking the right tiny icons and knowing when to give up on the mobile app and grab a mouse. While you can't force Google to show you a date they didn't record, you can almost always find more than what's shown on the default screen if you know where to dig.