You exported your Snapchat memories to beat the 5GB storage limit. You unzipped the folder. You opened your photos, excited to see years of memories properly organized.
Every single photo is dated today.
Your 2019 vacation photos show January 2026 timestamps. Your high school graduation from 2021 appears to have happened this week. Photos from last summer are dated the same as ones from five years ago. Your entire timeline is destroyed because Snapchat stripped all the date information when it generated those download files.
The timestamps aren’t actually gone. They’re sitting in a file called memories_history.json that came with your export. The problem is that file looks like gibberish when you open it, and even if you could read it, manually matching 3,000 timestamps to 3,000 files would take days.
I spent hours trying to recover timestamps from a 4,200-photo export before I realized the manual approach was impossible. Here’s what actually works.
JSON files are text files where Snapchat stores information about your memories in a structured format. When you request your data from Snapchat, you get two separate things:
The main file is called memories_history.json. It’s basically a database of every single snap you’ve ever taken, with precise timestamps for each one. But it’s formatted for computers to read, not humans.
Think of it like this: your photos are unlabeled pictures dumped in a box. The JSON file is the detailed inventory list that says “Beach photo – July 15, 2023 at 2:30:45 PM – Latitude 33.768321, Longitude -118.195617.”
Snapchat uses JSON because it’s the standard format tech companies use for data exports. They’re legally required to give you your data, but they’re not required to make it easy to use.
When you request a Snapchat data export, you get a ZIP file that includes a memories folder (your photos and videos) and memories_history.json. That JSON file stores every piece of metadata that should have been in your photos: the exact date and time each memory was captured, the file name that matches each media file, GPS coordinates if you had location enabled, and whether the snap had text overlays or stickers.
Open memories_history.json in Notepad or TextEdit, and you’ll see rows of text that look like computer code. Buried in that mess are lines that say things like “Date: 2021-08-10 14:23:19” next to “File: memory_00287.jpg”. The information exists. Gallery apps just can’t read it because JSON is a data format, not something you can import into Apple Photos or Google Photos. You need to extract those dates and embed them back into the actual image files as EXIF metadata.
You can technically do this by hand. Open the JSON file in a text editor, search for each date, copy it, find the matching photo in your memories folder, and then use a metadata editor to manually change the date on each photo.
For a 500-photo export, this takes roughly six hours of uninterrupted work. I know because I tried. You have to search for each entry in the JSON, scroll through your files to find the matching name (which are cryptic identifiers like “memory_00287”), open a tool like ExifTool or Photoshop, paste the date, and save it. At photo 112, I gave up. If you have 5,000 memories, this approach is physically impossible unless you want to spend your entire week doing data entry.
The other problem: one typo breaks everything. If you accidentally paste “2022-06-15” as “2022-06-51”, your gallery app either crashes or shows an invalid date. There’s no validation. No safety net. Just you, a text file, and thousands of opportunities for human error.
ExportSnaps is a desktop app that does what the manual process can’t: it reads memories_history.json, extracts all the timestamps and GPS coordinates, matches them to the correct files, and embeds the metadata directly into each photo and video.
You point it at your Snapchat export folder. It scans the JSON file. It processes every memory and writes the correct capture date into the EXIF fields that gallery apps actually read. Then you import the processed files to Apple Photos or Google Photos, and your timeline is restored.
The processing happens locally on your computer. Files never leave your device. For a 2,000-photo export, processing takes about eight minutes on a MacBook Air M1.
The app opens your memories_history.json file and reads through every entry to understand which photo matches which date. Then it goes through your memories folder and, for each photo or video, finds the correct timestamp from the JSON file, converts it from Snapchat’s universal time format to your local timezone (so a photo taken at 6:32 PM in India shows as 6:32 PM, not some confusing UTC time), and writes that date directly into the photo’s hidden metadata fields that gallery apps use to organize your library.
If a memory has an overlay (text, stickers, filters), the app extracts the overlay file that Snapchat includes separately, combines it with your base photo, and exports a single image with the correct date already embedded.
After processing, you get a folder of memories with all the dates fixed. Import that to any gallery app and everything sorts correctly. No manual work. No spreadsheets. No copying and pasting dates one by one.
Not every memory in your JSON file might still have a working download link. Snapchat’s servers occasionally expire URLs, or files get corrupted during export. When ExportSnaps encounters a file it can’t process, it creates a failed.json file in your output folder.
This failed list shows exactly which memories didn’t process and why (missing file, broken link, corrupted data). You can try processing that failed.json separately, or at a minimum, you know which specific memories are missing instead of wondering if your export is incomplete.
Before Snapchat introduced the 5GB limit, most users never thought about exporting. Your memories stayed in the app. But now, with Snapchat’s 5GB storage restriction forcing people to delete old content or export it, suddenly thousands of users are discovering their exported photos have no dates.
One user on Reddit exported 8 years of memories only to find out weeks later that their entire Google Photos library was now sorted by upload date instead of capture date. They had to manually go through 12,000 photos, trying to remember when each was taken. Others have given up and left their exports on an external drive, unsorted and unusable.
The JSON file is Snapchat’s way of including metadata without embedding it in the files themselves. It’s technically accurate and complete. It’s just completely unusable unless you have a tool that can read it and apply it.
The app costs $15 one-time. No subscription. Unlimited exports. Works on both Mac and Windows.
I tested three other Snapchat export tools before ExportSnaps. One claimed to “restore metadata” but only renamed files based on dates, which doesn’t help gallery apps at all. Another was browser-based and crashed on exports larger than 2GB. A third required you to manually upload the JSON to their server (absolutely not doing that with my personal data).
Some people recommend command-line tools if you’re comfortable writing code, but you still have to manually parse the JSON, write a script to match file names to timestamps, handle timezone conversions, and deal with edge cases like missing files or corrupted data. If you’re a developer, that’s doable. For everyone else, it’s not realistic.
Snapchat doesn’t warn you when approaching 5GB. You just start seeing “Storage Full” errors when trying to save new memories. By then, you’re forced to delete content immediately or wait 24-48 hours for an export to process.
Export before hitting the limit. Keep the JSON file safe. Process it with ExportSnaps to ensure your timeline stays intact. Then you can delete older memories from Snapchat, knowing you have properly dated backups.
Your memories deserve accurate dates. The JSON file makes that possible. You just need something that can actually read it.
JSON files are text files that store your Snapchat data in an organized format.
They include details like when a photo was taken, file names, and location data.
You do not need technical knowledge to use them.
Snapchat saves dates as long numbers instead of normal calendar dates. These numbers are not automatically converted when you download your data. Also, saved photos often show the download date instead of the original capture date.
Yes. The original dates are still stored inside the JSON files. You can convert them into real dates using simple tools without losing any data.
After downloading your Snapchat data, open the ZIP folder and look for a file named memories_history.json. This file contains all your metadata, which you can use to recover Snapchat timestamps for each Snap.
Yes. ExportSnaps securely processes your exported data locally or through encrypted upload. It only reads metadata from your JSON file to recover Snapchat timestamps, without sharing or storing your personal Snaps.
Absolutely. As long as your exported folder includes the memories_history.json file, you can recover Snapchat timestamps for all your saved Snaps — no matter how old they are.
No. There are beginner-friendly tools that handle everything for you. You just upload the files and follow a few steps.
