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Time Travel

View historical data snapshots using BigQuery's Time Travel feature.

What It Does​

Query data as it existed at a specific point in the past (up to 7 days).

Use cases: Recover deleted data, audit changes, debug historical issues

Accessing Time Travel​

  1. Open table → Preview tab
  2. Click Time Travel button (TT)
  3. Select time: Now, 1h ago, 6h ago, 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, or Custom

Banner shows: "Viewing data as of YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS"

Time Travel Window​

  • Default: 7 days
  • Configurable: 2-7 days per table
  • Not supported: Views, external tables

Query Syntax​

Absolute time:

SELECT * FROM `project.dataset.table`
FOR SYSTEM_TIME AS OF TIMESTAMP('2025-01-10 14:30:00 UTC')

Relative time:

SELECT * FROM `project.dataset.table`
FOR SYSTEM_TIME AS OF TIMESTAMP_SUB(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL 1 DAY)

Recovering Deleted Data​

INSERT INTO `project.dataset.table`
SELECT *
FROM `project.dataset.table`
FOR SYSTEM_TIME AS OF TIMESTAMP_SUB(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(), INTERVAL 3 HOUR)
WHERE id IN (12345, 67890)

Limitations​

  • Cannot query beyond Time Travel window
  • Each table has independent snapshots (no cross-table consistency)
  • Deleted tables: recoverable for 7 days via support