Guide
Snapchat captions, stickers & drawings missing from your export?
You opened your downloaded Snapchat Memories and the photos are bare — no captions, no stickers, none of the doodles you added. Nothing was deleted. Snapchat simply split each memory into a clean base file and a separate overlay file, and your photos app only shows the base. Here's what's actually in the export and how to put the two halves back together.
Where did my captions and stickers go?
They're still in the export — just stored as their own files. When you add text, stickers, emoji or a drawing to a Snap, Snapchat keeps the underlying photo or video untouched and saves everything you drew on top as a separate transparent overlay image. Your export therefore contains two layers per decorated memory: the original media, and a same-shaped PNG with just the caption and art on a clear background. Apple Photos, Google Photos and your file browser only render the base media file, so the overlay never shows — which is why the picture looks stripped even though the words are right there in a neighbouring file.
Why does Snapchat split them apart at all?
Keeping the layers separate is how Snapchat stores memories internally, and the export just mirrors that structure. It's the same reason the dates and locations are missing from your files: the real metadata lives in a side file (memories_history.json) instead of inside each photo. A raw Snapchat export is essentially a pile of ingredients — base media, overlay layers, and a JSON manifest — not the finished pictures you remember posting. To get back the memory as you saw it, the overlay has to be composited onto the base, and the metadata written into the file. See how it works for the full breakdown of what's in the box.
How do I merge the overlays back onto my memories?
You composite each overlay file onto its matching base photo so the caption, stickers and drawing appear on the picture again — just as you posted it. Doing this by hand across hundreds or thousands of memories is impractical, especially when a large export arrives as multiple zip parts with the overlays scattered across them. MemoriesExport pairs every overlay with its base automatically and merges it back on. The full walkthrough is on the merge Snapchat overlays page.
What about captions on videos?
Video captions and stickers can be restored too, but that's the desktop app's job: it re-encodes the clip with the overlay baked into the frames, which the browser version doesn't do for video. If your decorated memories are mostly videos, reach for the Mac or Windows app — it also keeps everything fully offline on your own machine. Either route still writes the correct capture date and GPS into the base video regardless, including the QuickTime location atom Apple Photos needs to put a clip on the map.
Frequently asked questions
- Why are my Snapchat captions and stickers in separate files?
- Snapchat stores each memory as a clean base photo or video plus a separate transparent overlay image holding your caption, stickers and drawings. The export hands you both layers unmerged, so the words and art look 'missing' from the photo itself — they're sitting in a parallel file you have to combine back on.
- Will I lose my captions if I just import the export into Photos?
- The text isn't deleted, but it won't appear on the picture. Photos apps only show the base media file, so you'll see the plain photo without your caption, stickers or drawing until the overlay layer is merged back onto it.
- Can overlays be put back onto videos too?
- Yes, but burning a caption or sticker onto a video is the desktop app's job — it re-encodes the clip with the overlay baked in. The online version merges overlays onto photos. Either way the base video still gets its correct date and GPS.
- Do overlays count against the free 100 memories?
- No. The first 100 main memories are free, and overlays are not counted separately — merging your captions and stickers back on doesn't eat into that allowance. A one-time $9.99 unlocks unlimited memories for life.