You click “Download All Memories” on Snapchat’s export page. Your browser starts downloading files. Hundreds appear in your Downloads folder. Then your browser freezes. You refresh the page, try again, and now you have no idea which files actually downloaded versus which ones failed.
This is happening to thousands of users right now. With Snapchat’s 5GB storage limit pushing people to export their memories, the platform’s browser-based download system is breaking under pressure. A user on December 12 reported trying to download a 64GB archive across multiple devices and browsers, only to end up with 500 videos when they should have had 12,000.
When you open the memories_history.html file from your Snapchat export, you see a “Download All Memories” button. It looks simple. But when you click it, your browser tries to download thousands of files simultaneously.
Web browsers have built-in protections against sites downloading multiple files at once. Chrome blocks automatic downloads by default because malicious sites used to force-download viruses this way. Even when you allow it, browsers struggle with the scale.
Your browser tab is now managing hundreds or thousands of concurrent downloads. Each file needs memory. Each needs network bandwidth. Your Downloads folder fills with randomly-named files like “memories_00342.jpg” with no preview and no organization.
For large exports (50GB to 150GB), the browser tab eventually crashes. You’re left with a Downloads folder full of files, but no way to know which memories are missing.
Here’s the bigger problem: when files fail to download, you don’t know which ones. There’s no preview. No checklist. No “failed downloads” report. You just have thousands of files with cryptic names scattered in your Downloads folder.
If you try to rerun “Download All,” you’ll download everything again, including the files you already have. No intelligent retry. No resume functionality. Just start from scratch.
According to Snapchat’s official support documentation, download links expire 7 days after your data is ready. If you realize days later that files are missing, you might need to request an entirely new export, which can take 24-48 hours to process.
Let’s say your browser doesn’t crash. You somehow downloaded all the files successfully. You import them to Apple Photos or Google Photos, excited to see your memories properly organized.
They’re all dated today.
When Snapchat provides download links, the files come stripped of EXIF metadata. Gallery apps read a photo’s EXIF data to determine when it was taken. Fields like DateTimeOriginal and CreateDate tell your photo library “this was captured on June 15, 2019 at 3:42 PM.”
Without that data, gallery apps fall back to the file creation date, which is when you downloaded it. Your 2016 graduation photos now show as taken in 2025. Your vacation from last summer appears to have happened yesterday.
Your timeline is destroyed. Finding photos from specific events becomes impossible. You can’t search by date because all the dates are wrong.
The same thing happens with location data. Your Snapchat export’s JSON file contains GPS coordinates for each memory (latitude 22.621292, longitude 88.448205 for a photo taken in Kolkata, for example). But those coordinates never make it into the downloaded files.
Map view doesn’t work. Location-based search returns nothing. Years of geotagged memories become generic files with no place information.
If you used Snapchat’s text, stickers, or filters, those overlays come as separate files. The base photo downloads as one file. The overlay downloads as another, usually inside a zip file.
To see your photo the way you created it, you need to manually extract the overlay zip and merge it with the base image. Once. For every single memory with an overlay. If you have 5,000 memories with text captions, that’s 5,000 manual merges.
One developer who built a Python script to fix this specifically mentioned a user who couldn’t delete Snapchat because of photos of their late father, but manual downloads would take forever.
Your Snapchat export includes a file called memories_history.json. This file contains everything the HTML page shows you, but in a format apps can actually process:
Apps that read this JSON can download files directly from Snapchat’s servers without going through a browser. They can handle concurrent downloads properly because they’re built for it. They can track which files succeed and which fail.
Most importantly, they can embed the correct metadata into each file as they download it.
ExportSnaps is a desktop app (macOS and Windows) that processes the memories_history.json file directly:
Direct JSON Processing: Bypasses browser limitations entirely. Downloads files directly from Snapchat’s servers using the CDN links from the JSON. Tested with exports up to 150GB.
Automatic Metadata Embedding: Reads capture dates from the JSON and writes them into EXIF fields. Embeds GPS coordinates into the proper metadata fields. Your photos sort correctly in every gallery app.
Overlay Merging: Automatically extracts overlay zips and merges them with base photos. No manual work required, even for thousands of overlays.
Smart Failure Handling: Creates failed.json for any downloads that don’t complete. Clear tracking of which files succeeded and which need another attempt. Reprocess only what failed, not everything.
Local Processing: Everything stays on your computer. No cloud uploads. Files never leave your device. More secure than browser downloads because you’re not managing thousands of files manually.
The app costs $15 one-time (no subscription), includes unlimited processing, and works with both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs plus Windows.
When a desktop app processes your memories_history.json, and some downloads fail (network timeout, temporary server error, etc.), it creates a file called failed.json in your output folder.
This file contains only the memories that didn’t download. Same format as memories_history.json. You process this failed.json file the same way, and only those specific memories download. No need to re-download 50GB of files you already have.
Multiple attempts are often needed. Files that failed due to a network hiccup usually succeed on the second try. Having a failed.json makes retry attempts practical instead of painful.
If you already clicked “Download All”:
Stop if it’s still running. Don’t try to figure out manually which files failed. Request a new export from Snapchat with “Export JSON Files” toggled ON. Use ExportSnaps to process the memories_history.json instead.
If you’re about to request an export:
Go to accounts.snapchat.com and navigate to My Data. Toggle ON both “Export your Memories” AND “Export JSON Files” (the JSON is critical). Select your date range and submit the request. When the email arrives (24-48 hours), download the ZIP and extract it.
If you have a failed.json file:
Process it with ExportSnaps to retry just the failed files. The app handles retries intelligently. Repeat if needed until all memories download successfully.
Additional resources:
Learn more about fixing Snapchat metadata issues and what’s actually in the JSON file.
The browser-based “Download All” button was never designed to handle what Snapchat users are now trying to do with it. The 5GB limit created an urgent need for large exports. The HTML download page creates failure scenarios that are difficult to recover from.
Processing the memories_history.json file solves these problems because it gives apps the information they need to download intelligently, embed correct metadata, and handle failures gracefully. Your memories stay organized. Your timeline stays intact. Your photos work properly in every gallery app.
