How do I export all my Snapchat Memories?

Go to accounts.snapchat.com (or Snapchat app → Settings → My Data), switch the Memories option on, keep the JSON data files, set the date range to cover everything, confirm your email and submit. Snapchat emails a download link when it's ready, and large libraries arrive as several mydata~*.zip parts you download and keep in separate folders.

How long does a Snapchat data export take?

Snapchat's published wording is that it strives to deliver data within 7 days, and that large downloads can take longer. Reported waits range from a few hours to several days, with big Memories libraries at the slow end. Re-submitting repeatedly doesn't speed it up — check your spam folder, and only re-request if nothing arrives at all.

Does the Snapchat export include my actual photos and videos?

Only if you turned the Memories option on when you submitted. With it on, your request includes the real media plus a memories_history.json describing each one. Leave it off and you get account data with no photos or videos — the most common reason an export looks empty.

My export zip is only a few dozen megabytes — where are my photos?

That's a links-only export: instead of your media it contains the index, with each memories_history.json entry carrying a Snapchat download link rather than the file itself. Those links go stale, which is why bulk-download scripts die partway through with 403 errors. Re-request the export with the Memories media included. MemoriesExport cannot rescue a links-only export — it never contacts Snapchat's servers, so there is nothing for it to fetch.

Do I need the JSON files in the export?

Yes. memories_history.json is the only place the true capture date and GPS for each memory exist — the media files themselves come out with those fields blank. Without it, no tool can restore your timeline or your map pins, because the information simply isn't there.

Does the export include My Eyes Only?

As far as anyone can tell, no — it's passcode-gated and doesn't come through, though Snapchat doesn't document it either way. Move anything you want to keep back into normal Memories before you request. And note Snapchat's own warning: Snapchat Support cannot recover a forgotten My Eyes Only passcode, and resetting the passcode deletes the Snaps saved under the old one. Neither Snapchat's export nor MemoriesExport can bring those back.

Why did my Snapchat export come as multiple zip files?

Because it's large. Snapchat splits a big Memories export into several parts named mydata~*.zip. The memories_history.json manifest lives in only one part while the media is spread across the rest, so you need every part — and each part must stay in its own folder, because the parts reuse identical internal paths and merging them overwrites files.

How long does the download link stay active?

Snapchat doesn't publish a figure, so be wary of guides that state one. The widely repeated '7 days' is Snapchat's delivery target — how quickly it aims to prepare your data — not a stated lifetime for the finished link. The link does lapse eventually, so download every part as soon as the email lands.

Can I do this on my phone?

You can submit the request on your phone. Downloading several multi-gigabyte zip parts and then working with them is a job for a computer. If you do end up fixing an export from a phone, the zip route is the only one — folder upload needs a desktop browser.

Why are my exported memories all on today's date with no location?

Because the exported photos carry no capture date of their own and nothing in the export carries location; the real values sit in memories_history.json instead. Apple Photos and Google Photos read the metadata inside each file, not that side JSON, so a raw import stamps undated photos with the import date and leaves the map empty. Writing the metadata into the files before you import fixes both.

Does MemoriesExport download my memories from Snapchat for me?

No. You request and download the export from Snapchat yourself; MemoriesExport is the step after. You hand it the export you already downloaded and it writes the real capture dates, GPS and overlays back into your files — it never signs into your account and never fetches anything from Snapchat's servers.

Guide

How to export (and download) all your Snapchat Memories — 2026 step-by-step

Guides · Snapchat export

Downloading your Snapchat Memories is a request-and-wait job: you ask Snapchat for your data, it emails you a link, and you download one or more zip files. Two things go wrong for almost everyone. The export comes back with no photos in it, because one toggle was off. Or the photos arrive fine and then land in Apple or Google Photos all stamped with today’s date and no locations, because the export ships the media without a usable capture date and without any location at all. Here is the full flow, and how to fix the metadata before it becomes a mess. If you landed here after an in-app notice, that is a different thing entirely: “Your Snap was exported” is about a Snap someone saved out of a chat, not about your data download.

Before you request: empty My Eyes Only

My Eyes Only is passcode-gated, and it does not appear to come through in the standard data export — Snapchat does not document it either way, and every report we have seen says the vault is left behind. If you leave snaps in there, you will only find out after the wait. So move anything you want to keep back into normal Memories before you submit the request. Snapchat’s own warning is worth repeating while you are in there: Snapchat Support cannot recover a forgotten My Eyes Only passcode, and resetting the passcode deletes the Snaps saved under the old one. The full procedure, and what a forgotten passcode costs you, is in getting My Eyes Only out before you export. Deleted memories are gone too. Nothing Snapchat did not put in the export can be recovered afterwards, by us or by anyone else — every tool in this space, including MemoriesExport, works only on the files Snapchat hands you. If your export arrives looking incomplete, start with why a Snapchat export comes back empty.

Step by step: request your Memories from Snapchat

The whole request takes about a minute. The order matters less than two details in the middle of it — the Memories toggle and the JSON files — which are the difference between a usable export and a wasted wait.

Move anything out of My Eyes Only first. My Eyes Only is passcode-gated, and by every account it does not come through in the standard data export — Snapchat does not spell this out either way. Move whatever you want to keep back into normal Memories before you submit the request, so it is in the zip when it arrives.
Open Snapchat's My Data page. Sign in at accounts.snapchat.com, or open the Snapchat app and go to Settings → My Data. Both reach the same request page.
Turn on the Memories option. At the data-selection step, switch on the option that exports your Memories. This is the step everything else depends on: leave it off and your request comes back with account data and none of your actual photos and videos.
Make sure the JSON data files are included. The export can include the machine-readable JSON files alongside the browsable HTML pages. Keep them. The real capture dates and GPS for every memory live in memories_history.json — without that file nothing can restore them, including us.
Set the date range to cover everything. Snapchat lets you narrow the request to a date range, or turn the range off so you receive all your data. Unless you deliberately want a slice, take everything.
Confirm the notification email and submit. Check the address Snapchat will email when the export is ready, then submit. Snapchat's own wording is that it strives to deliver data within 7 days, and that larger requests take longer.
Download every part, into separate folders. When the email arrives, download the whole export — not just the first file. Large libraries arrive as several mydata~*.zip parts. Keep each part in its own folder, don't rename them, and don't repackage them.
Restore the metadata before importing. The photos come out with no capture date at all, and nothing in the export carries GPS; the real values sit in memories_history.json. Write them into the files first, then import the corrected copies into Apple or Google Photos.

Snapchat documents the request itself on its own support page, including the line people quote most: it strives to deliver data within 7 days, and larger downloads can take longer. What that page does not tell you is which files inside the result actually carry your dates — that is memories_history.json, and it is the file everything else in this guide depends on.

How long does it take, and what if nothing arrives?

Reported waits run from a couple of hours to several days, roughly in proportion to how big your library is. Snapchat’s only published figure is that 7-day delivery target, with the explicit caveat that longer ranges and bigger downloads take longer to process. Treat reports of “24 to 48 hours” as other people’s experience, not a guarantee.

While you wait, do nothing. Re-submitting the request repeatedly does not push you up a queue, and it makes it harder to tell which email belongs to which request. Check your spam folder, and confirm the notification address on the My Data page is one you actually read. If a week or more passes with nothing at all, request it again. There is more detail in what to do when a Snapchat export takes too long.

One correction, because nearly every guide repeats it: the 7 days is Snapchat’s delivery target, not a published lifetime for the download link. Snapchat does not state how long the finished link stays live, so no one else can either. What is clear is that links in a Snapchat export do lapse — the mechanism behind 403 errors partway through a download. Download everything the day the email arrives and none of it matters.

Your export is tiny and has no photos in it

If the zip is a few dozen megabytes, your media is not in it. What you have is the index: HTML pages plus a memories_history.json whose entries carry a Snapchat download link instead of the file. That is what a request produces when the Memories media was not included, and it is the most common “my export is empty” outcome. (In a media-included export those link fields are simply empty, because the files are right there.)

This has a hard consequence: MemoriesExport does not fetch anything from Snapchat’s servers. It never signs into your account and never follows those links, so a links-only export cannot be repaired by us, or by any tool that works on files rather than on your live account. Bulk-download scripts that do follow the links often fail partway through, when links expire while the script is still running. The fix is to re-request the export with the Memories media included. A correct media-included export is measured in gigabytes, not megabytes.

Download every part, and don’t rearrange them

A large library does not arrive as one file. Snapchat splits it into several parts named mydata~….zip — part 1, part 2, and so on. memories_history.json lives in only one of them; your media is spread across all of them. Skip a part and you are missing either files or the data that describes them.

Download all the parts in one sitting, on a desktop, on a connection that will not drop halfway through a multi-gigabyte file.
Keep each part in its own folder. The parts reuse identical internal paths, so unzipping them into one directory silently overwrites files.
Do not rename the zips. The part number in the filename is what preserves the ordering of your memories across part boundaries.
Do not repackage them into a new archive, and do not re-zip an unzipped part.

The full handling guide is multi-part Snapchat exports, and if the zip itself is giving you trouble, opening a Snapchat export zip.

What a correct export looks like on disk

Before you spend time on anything else, check you actually got everything. A good export has:

exactly one memories_history.json, across the whole set of parts;
a browsable HTML index (an index.html and a memories.html among the other pages);
media named like …-main.jpg and …-main.mp4, with matching …-overlay.png companions;
a total size in gigabytes, not megabytes.

Those overlay PNGs are why your captions and stickers look like they vanished: Snapchat exports the artwork as a separate transparent file rather than burned into the photo. Nothing is missing, it is just not composited yet — see missing captions and stickers. For the full tour of the folder, read what’s inside a Snapchat export.

Fix my Snapchat export →

What about exporting a few snaps from the app instead?

You can. Press and hold a snap in Memories and choose Export, or use the selector icon to pick several and export them together. For a handful of snaps you want on your camera roll right now, that is the quickest route.

It does not scale to a whole library, and it hands you bare files with no memories_history.json beside them. If a saved snap lands on the wrong date, nothing on your computer knows the right one, so there is nothing to restore from. The My Data export is the only route that also gives you the data needed to put the real dates back.

Why the exported files still have the wrong date and no location

A photo stores its capture time in EXIF DateTimeOriginal; a video stores it in QuickTime creation-date atoms. In the exports we work with, the photos arrive with no capture date at all, the videos with at most a bare creation date, and nothing carries location. The true date and GPS for every memory sit in memories_history.json instead. Photo apps read the metadata inside each file and never look at a side JSON, so a raw import stamps undated photos with the import date and leaves the map empty.

Some guides claim the export preserves EXIF creation dates and GPS coordinates on each file. It does not: the photos have no date field to read, and no file has coordinates in it at all. That mistake is why people import first and discover the problem afterwards. The symptoms have their own pages: everything on today’s date in Google Photos, a nonsense year like 1970 or 2052, and videos with no location in Apple Photos— the same missing metadata behind all three.

Restore the dates, GPS and overlays before you import

This is the step that turns a downloaded export into a library you can actually use, and it works on the export you already have. MemoriesExport reads memories_history.json, matches every entry to its photo or video, and writes the real values into the files: EXIF DateTimeOriginal and CreateDate for photos, the QuickTime creation-date atoms for videos, plus the Keys:GPSCoordinates atom Apple Photos specifically requires before it will pin a clip on a map — the atom most other tools leave alone. In the same pass it composites each -overlay.png back onto its media so your captions and stickers return, handles a multi-part export in one go, and lets you choose the output layout: one flat folder, or grouped by year, year/month, or year/month/day.

It never contacts Snapchat and never touches your account. And one honest limit, stated up front: the day and the location come back right, but Snapchat’s media-included export does not carry a reliable per-item time within a single day, so the exact minute-by-minute order of several memories from the same day is not guaranteed. Full mechanics in how it works, or the focused guides on restoring GPS and merging overlays. When the corrected files come back, the import itself still has a couple of traps in it — see importing them into Apple or Google Photos.

Online, or on your own computer

Two routes, same result. In the browser you upload the export, it is processed in batches, and the finished download auto-deletes about an hour after it is ready; that is the easiest option and the only one on a phone, where you must use the zip route because folder upload needs a desktop browser. The Mac and Windows desktop app does the identical work entirely on your machine, so the media never leaves it — the better answer if a decade of private photos going anywhere makes you uneasy. The trade-offs are laid out in online versus desktop and is it safe to upload your export, with the specifics on security and retention. The first 100 main memories are free either way (overlays don’t count toward the 100), and a one-time $9.99 unlocks unlimited for life. If you are weighing us against the alternatives, that comparison is on the compare page.

Should you export now?

Probably, but not because of a countdown. Snapchat caps free Memories storage at 5 GB, and its help centre now says that from January 2027, Memories over a year old outside your oldest 5 GB are archived: kept, but locked until you pay or download them. Nothing is deleted, and nothing changes for people under 5 GB. The practical argument is simpler: a request can take days, links lapse, and multi-gigabyte downloads fail at the worst moment. We keep the detail current on the Snapchat storage deadline page, alongside the cost of paying Snapchat for storage versus exporting once.

Fix my Snapchat export →

Frequently asked questions

How do I export all my Snapchat Memories?: Go to accounts.snapchat.com (or Snapchat app → Settings → My Data), switch the Memories option on, keep the JSON data files, set the date range to cover everything, confirm your email and submit. Snapchat emails a download link when it's ready, and large libraries arrive as several mydata~*.zip parts you download and keep in separate folders.
How long does a Snapchat data export take?: Snapchat's published wording is that it strives to deliver data within 7 days, and that large downloads can take longer. Reported waits range from a few hours to several days, with big Memories libraries at the slow end. Re-submitting repeatedly doesn't speed it up — check your spam folder, and only re-request if nothing arrives at all.
Does the Snapchat export include my actual photos and videos?: Only if you turned the Memories option on when you submitted. With it on, your request includes the real media plus a memories_history.json describing each one. Leave it off and you get account data with no photos or videos — the most common reason an export looks empty.
My export zip is only a few dozen megabytes — where are my photos?: That's a links-only export: instead of your media it contains the index, with each memories_history.json entry carrying a Snapchat download link rather than the file itself. Those links go stale, which is why bulk-download scripts die partway through with 403 errors. Re-request the export with the Memories media included. MemoriesExport cannot rescue a links-only export — it never contacts Snapchat's servers, so there is nothing for it to fetch.
Do I need the JSON files in the export?: Yes. memories_history.json is the only place the true capture date and GPS for each memory exist — the media files themselves come out with those fields blank. Without it, no tool can restore your timeline or your map pins, because the information simply isn't there.
Does the export include My Eyes Only?: As far as anyone can tell, no — it's passcode-gated and doesn't come through, though Snapchat doesn't document it either way. Move anything you want to keep back into normal Memories before you request. And note Snapchat's own warning: Snapchat Support cannot recover a forgotten My Eyes Only passcode, and resetting the passcode deletes the Snaps saved under the old one. Neither Snapchat's export nor MemoriesExport can bring those back.
Why did my Snapchat export come as multiple zip files?: Because it's large. Snapchat splits a big Memories export into several parts named mydata~*.zip. The memories_history.json manifest lives in only one part while the media is spread across the rest, so you need every part — and each part must stay in its own folder, because the parts reuse identical internal paths and merging them overwrites files.
How long does the download link stay active?: Snapchat doesn't publish a figure, so be wary of guides that state one. The widely repeated '7 days' is Snapchat's delivery target — how quickly it aims to prepare your data — not a stated lifetime for the finished link. The link does lapse eventually, so download every part as soon as the email lands.
Can I do this on my phone?: You can submit the request on your phone. Downloading several multi-gigabyte zip parts and then working with them is a job for a computer. If you do end up fixing an export from a phone, the zip route is the only one — folder upload needs a desktop browser.
Why are my exported memories all on today's date with no location?: Because the exported photos carry no capture date of their own and nothing in the export carries location; the real values sit in memories_history.json instead. Apple Photos and Google Photos read the metadata inside each file, not that side JSON, so a raw import stamps undated photos with the import date and leaves the map empty. Writing the metadata into the files before you import fixes both.
Does MemoriesExport download my memories from Snapchat for me?: No. You request and download the export from Snapchat yourself; MemoriesExport is the step after. You hand it the export you already downloaded and it writes the real capture dates, GPS and overlays back into your files — it never signs into your account and never fetches anything from Snapchat's servers.