Location diary
Where were you on that day?
Find visits, photos, and notes by date or place in MeTrail. Import GPX or Google Timeline history and revisit your saved days on a map, timeline, or calendar.
- Looking back
- Notes and photos on every visit
- History stays on your iPhone first
Any day
Look up a date instead of reconstructing it
Memory fades; the record does not. Pick a day in the calendar and MeTrail shows the places in order with arrival and departure times, so you no longer piece a day together from photos and receipts.
- Calendar shows at a glance which days you went out
- On This Day brings back where you were a year ago
- Search by place, pin, tag, or note, or open visits from Spotlight and Shortcuts
Every place
Each place keeps its own file
How many times have you actually been to that restaurant, and when was the first time? Every place records its first visit, latest visit, total visits, and total time, with the visit history grouped by month.
- Favorites, categories, tags, and colors for the places you return to
- Footprints can look back on each city you have lived in
- Fix a mismatched place by adjusting its location or merging duplicates
More than coordinates
Write the line that belongs to the place
Add a note to a visit, attach a few photos, or tag it. Weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly reviews then show what changed, and the year story turns twelve months into one page.
- Notes, photos, and tags on any visit
- Monthly, quarterly, and yearly reviews now include a map of the places you went
- Weekly or monthly reminders to look back
How it works
Set it up once, read it for years
- 01
Install and allow location
Grant Always location access once. There is no account to create and nothing to check in to.
- 02
Live your days
MeTrail records each place you stop at and how long you stay. Add notes or photos when you feel like it, or not at all.
- 03
Look back whenever
Open Today for the current day, Calendar for any past date, or a place’s file to see every time you were there.
FAQ
Questions about keeping a location diary
- Is my location diary uploaded anywhere?
- Visits, places, photos, and notes are stored on your device by default, with no account required. You choose whether to use iCloud sync, export, sharing, alert forwarding, family alerts, or Smart Summaries; related content goes to the service you choose. Adding visits to Calendar requires separate setup and permission, and events are stored and synced by the selected calendar account. Maps, place lookups, and weather may need a connection.
- Can I add a day that was not recorded?
- Yes. You can add a missed visit by hand, fix arrival and departure times, and merge back-to-back visits. GPX files and Google Timeline exports can also be imported to fill in earlier history.
- How far back can I look?
- Reviews use the records you already have. Import GPX files or Google Timeline exports to add earlier visits. Locations that were never recorded or imported cannot be recovered automatically.
- Can I keep the diary private from people who borrow my phone?
- Yes. App Lock puts the whole app behind Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode.
More ways to use MeTrail
The same history answers other questions too
- Google Timeline alternativeA Google Maps Timeline alternative for iPhone. MeTrail records your places automatically, keeps them on your device, and imports your Google Timeline export.
- Travel journalMeTrail turns every trip into a travel journal on its own: the cities, the places, how long you stayed, and the photos you took, laid out day by day on a map.
- Commute and office daysTrack office days and commute times on iPhone, no timesheets. MeTrail logs when you arrive and leave each place, counts visits, and runs automations on arrival.
Start today, and leave yourself something to look back on
Install it, grant the permission once, and let it run. On the day you need to look something up, you will be glad it was on.
Requires iOS 18.0 or later. Background recording, notifications, and automation depend on system permissions.