Guide
How to download Snapchat Memories without losing the dates, GPS or metadata
Saving your Snapchat Memories sounds simple — export, download, import. But do it that way and every photo lands on today's date with no location. The metadata isn't lost; Snapchat just tucks it into a side file instead of your photos. Here's how to export properly and restore it so Apple and Google Photos get everything right.
Why "just downloading" loses your dates and locations
The export itself doesn't delete anything — but it doesn't put your metadata where photo apps look for it. Snapchat writes each memory's real capture date and GPS into a single file called memories_history.json, and leaves the actual JPGs and MP4s with blank metadata. Apple Photos and Google Photos never read that JSON — they read the EXIF date and GPS inside each file. So when you import the raw export, your gallery falls back to the import date and an empty map. The information is sitting right there in the export; it's just not joined to the files yet.
Step one: export everything from Snapchat the right way
Request your data in Snapchat with Memories actually included. Go to My Data → Export Your Memories, choose to include your memories (not just account data), and wait for the email. When it's ready, download every part. Large libraries don't arrive as one file — they come as multiple zips named mydata~….zip (part 1, part 2, and so on), and the all-important memories_history.json lives in only one of them while the media is spread across the rest. Skip a part and you'll be missing either files or the metadata that describes them, so grab the full set before any download links expire.
Step two: restore the metadata before you import
This is the step that prevents the wrong dates — do it before the files touch your photo library. SnapMemories takes the export you downloaded (it doesn't fetch anything from Snapchat — you give it the zips you already have), reads memories_history.json, matches each entry to its photo or video, and writes the real metadata back into the files: the EXIF capture date for photos, the QuickTime creation-date atoms for videos, and the GPS into both. For video it also writes the specific QuickTime Keys:GPSCoordinates atom that Apple Photos requires before it will pin a clip on the map — the atom most other tools can't write. It even merges your Snapchat overlays and captions back onto the photos. Multi-part exports are handled in one pass. See how it works for the full flow.
Step three: import the corrected files into Apple or Google Photos
Import the fixed export, not the raw one. Because the dates and GPS now live inside each file, Apple Photos and Google Photos sort your memories on the day they were actually captured and drop them on the map in the right place — no manual date edits, no "adjust location" per clip. One honest caveat: Snapchat groups memories by day without a per-item timestamp, so for several memories captured on the same day the exact minute-by-minute order can't always be perfectly reconstructed. The correct date and location come back reliably; the within-a-day ordering is the one thing the export simply doesn't record.
You can run it in the browser or fully offline
There are two ways to do the fix. Online, you upload your export in the browser; large libraries are processed in batches and not stored indefinitely. Or use the Mac/Windows desktop app, where your media never leaves your computer at all. Either way the first 100 main memories are free, and a one-time $9.99 unlocks unlimited for life (overlays don't count toward the free 100). It's the same restore either way — pick whichever fits how private you want the process to be.
Frequently asked questions
- Does just downloading my Snapchat export keep the dates and GPS?
- No. Snapchat puts the real capture dates and locations in a separate memories_history.json file and leaves the photos and videos themselves blank. The download itself doesn't lose anything — but if you import those files straight into Photos, the dates and GPS aren't in them yet.
- What's the right order — export, fix, then import?
- Export from Snapchat (My Data → Export Your Memories), download every zip part, restore the metadata from the JSON into the files, then import into Apple or Google Photos. Fixing before you import means everything sorts and maps correctly the first time.
- I already imported into Photos — is it too late?
- No. Keep your original export (especially memories_history.json), run it through the fix, then re-import the corrected files. The metadata lives in the JSON, not the imported copies, so you can redo it as long as you still have the export.
- Does SnapMemories download my memories from Snapchat?
- No. You export and download from Snapchat yourself; SnapMemories is the after step. You hand it the export you already downloaded, and it writes the real dates, GPS and overlays back into your files.