To see location history on iPhone, you can use iPhone settings, Apple or Google Maps, and phone trackers for remote tracking.
People might want to know the person’s location history for various reasons and purposes. Some legal reasons you may need to track the location history of another person could be for any or all of the following:
- to ensure that a child is safe and secure while they are away from home;
- to monitor an employee’s movements during work hours;
- to find a lost or stolen device;
- to check where your partner has been;
- to monitor a suspect in a criminal investigation.
While Find My allows you to see someone’s location (if they share it with you), providing a history of location is not a feature of this iPhone app. It only shows the location at the time you check.

Thus, to get someone’s iPhone location history, we need special services. HeyLocate team found such, tried, and chose the best.
Find iPhone location history in Settings
To find iPhone location history in settings, go to the Privacy and Security section of the target iPhone. Here are the steps how to check iPhone location history:
- Open Settings and scroll down to Privacy and Security.
- Then check on Location Services turned on.
- Further, click on System services and select Significant Locations.
- At the location history section, you will get a list of all the frequent locations, including the last vacation that was visited in the past few weeks or months.
But due to our practical knowledge, this way of tracking someone’s location history is complicated.
“When an iPhone user enables location services, their device tracks their location and stores it in a database called “consolidated.db”. This database is located in the iPhone’s file system under the path /private/var/root/Library/Caches/locationd/. It’s worth noting that the iPhone uses encryption to protect the consolidated.db file and location data. This means that the data can only be accessed with the user’s passcode or Touch ID/Face ID.“

Location History in Google/Apple Maps
Another great way to get the iPhone location history is through Google or Apple Maps app. If the location service was enabled on both apps, you can view a detailed map of all your movements over the past few weeks or months, including exact coordinates and addresses for each location.
However, the same goes with Maps – you need physical access to the target iPhone, but you also can use it if you know the Google account or the Apple ID of the other person you want to check. To do this for Apple Maps, you need to follow the following steps:
- Open the Apple Maps app on iPhone.
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to check recent location.
- Click more to view the extended location history.
- You can also tap directions, to get the directions and distance, to the location.

You can also try using Google Maps app to see Google location history:
- Open the Google Maps app.
- Tap your profile picture in the top-right corner of your Google account to access Your timeline view.
- After clicking the Google Maps timeline feature, on the next screen, you can view the location history data that your device has been to.
- From the timeline view, you can also check previous days by clicking on the calendar icon in the top-right corner.
- Tap a location to get additional information, such as coordinates and distance from your current location.
Track where an iPhone has been with apps
Our findings showed that some iPhone phone tracking apps can also be used for tracking location history, but you need to install them on the other phone. And it’s ok when you intend to track a child or elderly parents easily, or you are the employer and need to track the location of your employee with their consent.
For example, mSpy is a professional and powerful monitoring app that offers plenty of features, including GPS location history. It can track the location of a cell phone number in real time with its advanced GPS tracking feature. Parents, employers, and law enforcement agents can use this app.

Conclusion
Now you know how to see your location history on iPhone. It can be useful in different situations when you need to remind yourself where you have been. Just make sure that necessary settings have been enabled in advance.
As a parent or guardian, you can also take your children’s iOS device and follow the same instructions. Still, for remote control, use family trackers.
FAQ
Generally no — you can’t view someone else’s location history unless they’ve explicitly shared it with you, you have lawful access (e.g., you control their device or account, they’ve enabled family/location sharing like Apple’s Find My or Google Location Sharing, or a court/order compels a provider), or you obtain it through authorized channels; accessing it without permission (hacking, installing spyware, or stealing credentials) is illegal and unethical.
The longest iPhone can store location history is 36 months. After that time, it will automatically be deleted.
To see Apple Maps’ history, you need to open Apple Maps > Swipe up the gray bar at the bottom of your screen > Tap on More, and you will see your recent location history.



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