Snapchat Memories export not working: what to do at each step

Snap's help page says: “We strive to deliver data within 7 days, but large downloads can take longer.” A Memories export that covers several years is a large download. Snap sends an email with a link once your data is ready, and the same export appears under “See exports” on the My Data page, so you can check there instead of waiting for the email.

• Log in to your account on accounts.snapchat.com and click “My Data”. In the app, tap the gear icon at the top of your Profile, then select “My Data”.
• If you typed the wrong email address, the request is not lost. Snap says you can still access it when you log in and go to My Data.
• Snap's page also says data download requests cannot be canceled. Check the email address before you send another one.

Your export arrives as one or more ZIP files, and a Memories export that covers several years can run to gigabytes. Snap's page says that if you run into problems, try using a computer rather than a mobile device, or a different browser. On a computer the ZIP files land in your Downloads folder, where you can check that every part arrived before you do anything else with them.

If you have to use an iPhone, save the ZIP files to On My iPhone in the Files app rather than to iCloud Drive, so the whole file is on the phone when a tool opens it. Photo Date Fixer reads ZIP files in Safari, and a ZIP that is still in iCloud Drive may not open.

Some exports include a page called index.html. Snap's help page says that after you extract the ZIP file, you open index.html in your browser, click “Memories” in the navigation bar on the left and download your Memories one at a time or all at once. All at once means the page starts many downloads in a row, and browsers treat that as a permission: Chrome lists automatic downloads among the permissions you allow or block for each site. If you blocked it, or the prompt went away, the rest of the files are not downloaded.

1. Click the icon to the left of the address, open the site settings and allow automatic downloads.
2. Reload index.html and start the download again.
3. If it still stops, try a different browser, which Snap's page also suggests.

If the button gives you error pages instead of photos, the links in your export may have stopped working. Snap does not say how long they last, so request a new export. With “Export your Memories” switched on, the photos and videos come inside the ZIP files themselves, in a folder called memories, and nothing has to be fetched one by one.

Open the first ZIP file. A Memories export has a folder called memories with the photos and videos, and the memories list in a json or html folder. If you see only json and html, either Memories were not part of the request or the photos are in the other parts.

• Check the file names. A large export comes in numbered parts, such as mydata~1739000000000.zip and mydata~1739000000000-2.zip. The first part holds the list, and the later parts hold more photos and videos, so download every one of them.
• If no part has a memories folder, request again on My Data. Snap's page describes the Memories-only request: under “Select data to include”, toggle “Export your Memories” to on and click “Request Only Memories”.

Photo Date Fixer checks this for you. If the ZIP files you add list memories but hold no photos or videos, it says so and asks for a new export with Memories switched on. If the list is missing, it asks for the first part, the one without -2 in its name.

Some people see a message about a security restriction when they request or download their data. Snap's help pages, checked on 29 October 2026, do not describe this message or say how long it lasts. Google's search suggestions for it include “72 hours”, so a wait of about three days is what people search for, but that figure does not come from Snap.

• Wait before you try again, rather than sending request after request.
• If the restriction does not clear, contact Snapchat Support.
• If you did not ask for a data download yourself, Snap's page says to change your password, turn on Login Verification and store your Recovery Code somewhere safe.

Keep the ZIP files as they are. The photos in them carry no capture date inside the file, so a gallery can put years of memories on one day, and captions, stickers and drawings come as separate overlay files. Photo Date Fixer reads the ZIP files in your browser, writes each memory's real date, local time and place into the file, and can put the captions back onto the photos. It uploads nothing. The guide Why your Snapchat Memories show the wrong date explains the dates, and Snapchat Memories overlay files explains the captions.

If you are downloading because of Snap's storage changes: Snap's help page says that starting in January 2027, Memories that are more than one year old and are not part of your oldest 5GB of Memories will be archived and remain stored on Snapchat. It also says no Memories will be archived before January 2027, and that downloading your Memories is one of your options for keeping access to them outside the app.