# How to save your "start" location in Google Maps **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 8, 2024, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430 "2024-08-08T16:36:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/1 "2024-08-08T16:36:16Z")
This is on my computer, not a cell phone. Every time I look up directions to some place I have to manually enter my home address. I haven’t found a way to save that location so far. And I don’t want it to transfer to my phone since I use that on the go and not from home. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/2 "2024-08-08T16:40:41Z")
From Google Maps click the **menu button** : _The 3 lines_ Click **Your Data in Maps** Go to the **Home & work addresses** and set either or both. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/3 "2024-08-08T16:40:59Z")
In the search window, click the hamburger (the three parallel lines) to open the menu. Click “Saved”, then click “Favorites” under Lists. You can then edit the favorites and add frequently used locations (the list is private to you). ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/4 "2024-08-08T19:58:36Z")
I’ve done both of those things (set a Home address, and made that address a Favorite) and it still doesn’t come up as the default starting location when I start a route map, or indeed have any effect at all on the route map. I think that’s what @mixdenny was asking for. It’s certainly something I would like. (Windows PC, Opera browser, if that makes a difference). ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/5 "2024-08-08T20:01:22Z")
Now whenever you ask for directions, just type **Home** in the box. I should have mentioned that part. I think after you do that once, it should come up as a suggestion in the future. There is no way to default a location in through Google settings. You would probably need some sort of script. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/6 "2024-08-08T20:01:42Z")
Another possibility: Ask it for directions to somewhere from “home”. If it doesn’t know for sure where that is, it’ll ask you to confirm. And it’ll probably have a pretty good guess. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/7 "2024-08-08T20:03:39Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Now whenever you ask for directions, just type **Home** in the box. And then click the magnifying glass Search icon. At least that’s what I had to do. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/8 "2024-08-08T20:15:56Z")
Another option is to plug your address into google maps and bookmark the resulting page. Then use the bookmarked page as your map “start” page. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/9 "2024-08-08T20:22:47Z")
I usually just use my zipcode for a start address in Google nav. That’s not the part of the route I need help with and saves half the tedious keyboard entry. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/10 "2024-08-08T22:23:39Z")
I really struggle with this too. Though I definitely have all the settings correct, and it does start on the right place sometimes, it’s also drawing info from my IP address which is not only dynamic and updates every few months, but is so wide a range, basically it could be anywhere across a quarter of the city, and as it fights between the two options of my setting and an IP it ends up just as a best guess. Which makes it kind of futile. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2024, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/11 "2024-08-08T23:24:53Z")
After setting up your route just go to **options** , below your location choices, and choose **copy link**. It will give you a shortened URL that is that specific trip, Save it wherever and just paste into a browser. You don’t even need Maps open. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2024, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/12 "2024-08-14T15:47:27Z")
Pretty sure Google’s default is always “from your current location”. Which can be pretty inaccurate if you’re on a desktop computer and it’s locating you by IP. If you want directions from somewhere you’re not currently at, you’ll have to take the separate step of changing the starting address. If you’ve saved your Home and/or Work addresses, they should be at the top of the list when you click the “from” bar to choose. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/13 "2024-08-22T21:41:16Z")
If you use Chrome, there’s a browser trick you can use to make this process easier: saving a Google Maps directions URL as a “site search”. For example, given a URL like: `https://www.google.com/maps/dir/source/%s` (where you’d modify `source` to be your actual home address, or simply the word `home` if you’d already saved it to your Google Maps as your home location) You can add it as Chrome site search and give it a keyword like “gmaps”: > **[Set default search engine and site search shortcuts - Computer - Google...](https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95426?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop)** > > You can use the address bar (omnibox) to search the web. In some countries, Google Search is Chrome's default search engine. In others, you may be asked to choose your default search engine. You can c Then, you can type in the address bar “gmap airport” or “gmap safeway” or whatever and it’ll show you directions to the nearest airport/Safeway from your home. It’s not always perfect at guessing the destination, so if you prefer, you can also leave out the `/%s` part of that URL so it’d look something like: `https://www.google.com/maps/dir/home/` (you can also just bookmark that if you don’t want to use the site search). If you just open that link, it’ll pop up the directions page with home pre-set and you can type in whatever destination you want (with autocomplete suggestions). I don’t think the SDMB allows images or I’d post some, sorry ☹ But it shouldn’t be hard to set up and can be a real time saver. * * * I’m not sure if a similar feature is available in other browsers. Firefox used to have it and called it Quicksearch, but it seems like they discontinued that in recent versions? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/14 "2024-08-22T22:20:29Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > I don’t think the SDMB allows images You must have been away. You can post images, they just have to be remotely hosted somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-save-your-start-location-in-google-maps/1005430/15 "2024-08-23T00:38:17Z")
Ah, it’s been a while. How times have changed 🙂