What's Inside Your Snapchat "My Data" Export
Last updated October 2026 · Free · Works in any browser
When Snapchat emails you your data archive, unzipping it feels like opening a ransom note: cryptic folders, files named like hashes, half of it JSON. It's built to satisfy data-portability rules, not to be browsed. Here's the map — what each piece is, and where the stuff you actually care about (your photos and videos) hides.
The headline: it's a metadata archive, not an album
The export is organized around records, not pictures. For every Memory, Snapchat includes a line of metadata (when it was captured, whether it's a photo or a video) and — if you requested the Memories export — the media file itself. If you didn't enable the Memories option when requesting, the archive contains only the metadata, with no media in it at all.
The file that matters: memories_history.json
This is the index of your Memories. It's plain JSON — openable in any text editor — with one entry per Memory: the capture date and time, the media type, and Snapchat's internal references. It is also the only place the true capture dates live, which matters because the media files themselves don't carry them (more on that below).
Snapkeep reads dates from this file first, falls back to dates in filenames when an entry is missing, and then to the archive's own timestamps — it never invents a date that isn't in your export somewhere.
Where the media actually lives
The photos and videos are in the archive's media folders, under machine-generated names. Two quirks to know about:
- Longer videos are split into consecutive MP4 parts. One Snapchat memory of a two-minute video can arrive as several MP4 segments that play back-to-back.
- Photos and videos of the same moment aren't labeled as pairs. The pairing only becomes obvious once the metadata is applied.
Everything else in the ZIP
| What you see | What it is | Do you need it? |
|---|---|---|
memories_history.json |
The index of your Memories with true capture dates | Yes — this is where dates come from |
| Media folders | The actual photo and video files, hash-named | Yes — this is the payload |
| Split MP4 files | Longer videos chunked into consecutive parts | Yes — they belong to real Memories |
| Account, login, and friend records | Account details, login history, friend list, and similar records | No — not needed for your photos and videos |
Why the dates are such a mess
If you extract the media files directly, your camera roll or photo library sorts them by the file's own timestamp — which is the moment the archive was created or downloaded, not the moment you captured the Memory. Years of photos collapse into one meaningless pile. That's why the date belongs inside the file (EXIF for photos, MP4 metadata for videos), which is exactly what Snapkeep writes back.
Questions people ask
Can I open memories_history.json myself?
Yes — it's plain JSON. Any text editor will show it, and it's the fastest way to sanity-check how many Memories your export should contain.
Why does Snapchat split videos into parts?
Long recordings are chunked into consecutive segments when the archive is built. They play in sequence; they just arrive as separate files.
Is it safe to upload my export to an online converter?
Be careful: the ZIP contains personal data well beyond your photos. Snapkeep processes the file entirely inside your browser — nothing is uploaded — but any service that does ask you to upload this archive is asking for your login history and friend list too.
Want the export as clean, dated, sorted files instead of a puzzle?
Open Snapkeep — it's free