How to View Your Google Search History

Do you want to find a webpage or website you visited a while ago but cannot remember how to get back to it? Perhaps you found a URL on your phone back then, but you’re having trouble locating it again on your PC. Luckily, Google keeps track of all websites and links you’ve ever opened.

You can use the history feature to find any webpage you’ve explored and revisit it as if you never lost it in cyberspace. Here’s how to use Google’s search history function.

Note: You can access your Google account history anytime on any device, as long as your Gmail profile is synced on all your devices. Google keeps a detailed history of web and product searches, viewed images, watched videos, apps used, and read blog posts.

Viewing Your Google Search History with Your Google Account

You can access your Google account history from any device with a browser, such as a Windows PC, Mac, mobile phone, or tablet. The process is straightforward as you only need your username and password. Here is what you need to do:

1. Open the “Google” homepage. Click on your “profile icon” located in the top right corner. You may need to log in first.
   
2. Select “Manage your Google Account.”
   
3. Choose the “Data & Privacy” tab.
   
4. Scroll down and select the “Things you’ve done and places you’ve been” section.
   
5. Click on the “My Activity” option.
   
6. Scroll down the page to use the general search bar or the Filter by date & product option (Android, Maps, YouTube, etc.), or scroll down the list and browse by date and time.
   

When using the various view options above, you get a list that includes websites, apps, and updates for all devices tied to your Google Account. The “search bar” allows you to find specific activities, apps, or websites. The “filtered options” include sorting by date, date range, and apps.

The activity page above remembers everything you did through your Google account since the last time you deleted the history, if ever.

Viewing Your Google Search History on Android

Even though the process is similar to viewing your Chrome history on a computer or phone, you cannot access the option in the settings. Here’s how to do it.

1. Open the “Chrome” app, then type “myactivity.google.com” without quotes into the address bar or search box.
   
2. Scroll down the page until you get to the “Search your activity” box. From there, conduct a search, apply filters, or scroll down to view your browsing history.
   

Viewing Your Google Search History on an iPhone or iPad

Although Google does a great job streamlining its applications, the instructions are pretty different for iOS users. Here’s how to recover your search history:

1. Open the “Chrome” app and tap on the “gear icon” (Settings) next to “discover” at the bottom of the screen.
   
2. Choose “Manage Activity.”
   
3. At the top of the page, use the search box or apply filters. You can also scroll down the page to view all history.
   

Overall, the Google Account history feature can be handy if you can’t remember the name of a particular website you want to visit again or if you need to find a specific page from a website you visited. Google saves everything for you, and you can quickly return to any link anytime. You can also delete your Google search history to clear your locations, device updates, and other items.

Google Search History FAQs

Why don’t I see my Google search history?

If you don’t see any history when accessing Google My History, the most likely culprit is that you aren’t logged into the correct Google account. Tap on the profile icon in the upper right-hand corner and select the option to “Add Another Account.”

Another problem may be that you’ve set your history for automatic deletion. This setting gets done on the “My Activity” page. Google lets its users turn off search history on their accounts or set it to delete data every 3, 18, or 36 months. No previous browsing entries appear when Google isn’t storing your search history or if you recently deleted all records.

Can I recover my deleted Google Search history?

For assistance with this matter, check out how to recover your deleted Google history. First, you can check your “My Activity” page. If there still isn’t any history available, you can search for data in your computer’s drive or use data recovery software.