You download your Snapchat export. Extract the ZIP file. Open the folder and see thousands of files named “memories_00001.jpg”, “memories_00002.jpg”, “memories_00003.jpg” with no indication of when each was taken or what it contains.
Your 2019 graduation photo is memories_02847.jpg. Your best friend’s wedding from 2022 is memories_07312.jpg. That vacation to Thailand last year is scattered across memories_04521.jpg through memories_04687.jpg. Good luck finding anything.
You can’t browse chronologically. You can’t organize by event. You can’t even tell which photos are from which year without opening each file individually. Snapchat exports dump everything into a single flat folder with sequential filenames that have nothing to do with when photos were actually taken.
When Snapchat prepares your export, they assign filenames based on the order memories appear in their database. Not chronological order. Not alphabetical. Just whatever order their system processes them.
A typical Snapchat export contains files like this:
The numbers mean nothing. They don’t correspond to dates. They don’t indicate content. They’re just sequential integers assigned during export processing.
If you have 8,000 memories spanning five years, you get 8,000 files with meaningless names in one massive folder. Windows File Explorer and macOS Finder can’t help you because sorting by filename is useless when filenames are random.
You might think, “Just sort by date modified.” That doesn’t work either. Snapchat exports strip all EXIF metadata from your files. The DateTimeOriginal field that tells gallery apps when a photo was taken is completely missing.
When you sort by “Date Modified” in your file browser, you’re sorting by the day you downloaded the files. Everything shows the same date. Sorting by “Date Created” does the same thing—all files were created on your computer today, regardless of when the actual photos were taken.
The date information exists. It’s sitting in memories_history.json. Snapchat just didn’t embed it in your actual files, where operating systems and gallery apps can read it.
Most people give up on organizing Snapchat exports and just import everything to Apple Photos or Google Photos, hoping the gallery app will sort things out.
Apple Photos looks for EXIF metadata to determine when photos were taken. When that metadata doesn’t exist, it uses the file creation date. Your entire export imports showing today’s date. Five thousand memories stacked on January 13, 2026.
Google Photos does the same thing. So does Amazon Photos, Microsoft Photos, and every other gallery app. They all rely on EXIF data that Snapchat exports don’t include.
Your timeline gets destroyed. You can’t find photos from specific years or events. Searching by date returns useless results because all dates are wrong. The chronological browse feature that makes photo libraries useful becomes completely broken.
Some users try manually renaming files based on content. Open memories_00347.jpg, see it’s from your 2021 birthday, rename it to “2021-04-15-birthday.jpg”. Repeat for 3,000 more files.
At 30 seconds per file (open, identify date, rename), sorting 3,000 photos takes 25 hours of work. And you still don’t have proper EXIF metadata, so gallery apps still won’t sort them correctly even after all that manual effort.
Your Snapchat export includes memories_history.json. This file has exact timestamps for every single memory:
{
"Date": "2023-06-15 14:32:18 UTC",
"Media Type": "Image",
"Download Link": "https://…./memories_00847.jpg"
}Each entry shows when the photo was taken, what type of media it is, and which randomly-named file it corresponds to. The information to sort Snapchat exports by date exists. It’s just not in a format your operating system can use.
Opening memories_history.json in a text editor shows you the data, but doesn’t help organize your files. The JSON is machine-readable, not human-readable at scale. A 5,000 photo export creates a JSON file with 100,000+ lines.
Even if you could parse it manually, what would you do with that information? Rename 5,000 files by hand based on JSON entries? Create folders for each year and manually move files? That’s still hours of work.
You need a tool that reads memories_history.json, extracts the date for each file, and automatically renames or organizes your files accordingly.
ExportSnaps processes memories_history.json and automatically organizes your entire export based on actual capture dates.
The app costs $15 one-time (no subscription) and works on both macOS and Windows. Tested with exports exceeding 60,000 files without issues.
Go to accounts.snapchat.com and navigate to My Data. Toggle ON “Export your Memories” and critically. “Export JSON Files”. Submit the request and wait 24-48 hours for Snapchat to prepare your data.
Download the ZIP file when ready and extract it. Make sure memories_history.json is in the extracted folder. Without this file, there’s no date information to sort by.
Open ExportSnaps and load your memories_history.json file. The app shows a preview of all your memories with correct dates and times.
Read the complete process here- “How ExportSnaps Works.“
If some files fail to download due to network issues, ExportSnaps creates failed.json in your output folder. This file contains only the memories that weren’t complete. Process failed.json the same way to retry just those files.
Network hiccups happen. The failed.json system means you don’t have to restart your entire 50GB download because three files timed out.
Open your output folder and sort by filename. Files now appear in chronological order from oldest to newest. Your 2019 photos appear first, then 2020, then 2021, progressing to your most recent memories.
Check a few files to confirm dates are correct. Open in Preview (Mac) or Photos (Windows) and verify the EXIF data shows the right capture time. Import a few test photos to your gallery app to confirm they sort correctly.
Import the processed files to Apple Photos, Google Photos, or your preferred gallery app. Because EXIF metadata is embedded correctly, photos automatically sort into your timeline at the right dates.
Your 2021 graduation photos appear in April 2021. Your 2023 vacation appears in June 2023. Map view works because GPS coordinates are embedded. Search by date returns accurate results.
Once Snapchat exports are sorted by date with proper EXIF metadata, they become usable as actual photo libraries. Gallery apps rely on chronological sorting. Your “On This Day” feature shows memories from past years. Yearly recaps compile photos from specific time periods. None of these features works when dates are wrong.
Search for “photos from summer 2022” and actually get results from summer 2022. Filter by date range to find photos from specific events. Proper dates make your photo library searchable instead of just browsable. Upload sorted files to iCloud or Google Drive, and the organization persists. Access photos on multiple devices, and they sort correctly everywhere. The EXIF data travels with the files.
Ten years from now, when you switch to a different gallery app, your photos will still sort correctly. Standard EXIF metadata has existed since 1995 and will keep working across platforms.
If you have under 100 files, manual renaming might be reasonable. At 30 seconds per file, you’re looking at 50 minutes of work.
If you already know Python, writing a custom script could be a learning exercise. We’ve covered how to fix Snapchat exports on Mac using manual tools like ExifTool. It’s educational and free, but significantly more time-intensive.
For everyone else with 1,000+ files, automated tools save dozens of hours. The time investment for manual sorting exceeds the cost of automation by 10-20x depending on library size.
Snapchat exports arrive as disorganized file dumps because the export system prioritizes legal compliance over usability. Processing memories_history.json transforms those dumps into properly organized photo libraries. Your files are sorted chronologically. Gallery apps work correctly. Your timeline stays intact for years.
Additional resources: Learn about fixing metadata in Snapchat exports and what’s inside the JSON file.
You can automatically sort your Snapchat export by date using tools like ExportSnaps, which read your export’s JSON file and organize every photo and video by its original date.
When you export your Memories, Snapchat removes the original date and time metadata. That’s why your Snapchat export by date appears jumbled when viewed in your gallery.
Yes. With ExportSnaps, you can restore the exact dates and times from the JSON file, allowing your Snapchat export by date to match your original Memories timeline perfectly.
You can edit metadata manually using your JSON file, but it’s time-consuming and risky. A tool like ExportSnaps automates the Snapchat export by date process safely and accurately.
Yes. When you sort your Snapchat export by date using ExportSnaps, it can also restore location data if available, giving you a complete timeline of your memories.
Absolutely. Once you organize your Snapchat export by date correctly, Google Photos and iCloud will display your snaps in perfect chronological order.
