After the fix
How do I put Snapchat Memories in their own folder on Android?
Updated
Android makes this easier than iPhone does, because the gallery follows real folders. Move the fixed memories into a folder named Snapchat Memories under Pictures, and Google Photos lists it as its own device folder. From there you choose whether it gets backed up to your Google account or stays on the phone, which is a decision iPhone never really offers you.
The steps
- 1. Unzip the fixed ZIP with the Files app. You get a folder of photos and videos with their real dates on them.
- 2. Create Internal storage, then Pictures, then a new folder called Snapchat Memories.
- 3. Move the fixed files into it. Move, not copy, or you will have two of everything and no easy way to tell which is which.
- 4. Open Google Photos and pull down to refresh. Under Library it appears as a device folder called Snapchat Memories.
- 5. Tap the folder and decide on backup. On means they sync to your Google account and merge into your main timeline by their real dates. Off means they stay on this phone only, in this folder.
Backed up or not is the real choice
With backup on, the memories join your main photo grid and sort by when they were taken, so a 2018 memory sits with your other 2018 photos. That is usually what people want, and it is what the fixed dates are for. It also counts against your Google storage, and a full Memories library is not small. With backup off, the folder stays a folder: visible in Google Photos under your device folders, absent from the main grid, and gone if you lose the phone. If that is the route you take, copy the folder to a computer or a drive as well, because a folder on one phone is not a backup.
If you want an album as well
A device folder and an album are different things in Google Photos. The folder is where the files actually are. An album is a collection you make. If you back the folder up and then want them grouped, select the memories and add them to a new album, which you can then share as one link without sharing your whole library.
Two things not to move in
The CSV index of your memories and their dates belongs somewhere else, in Documents or on a computer, not in a folder the gallery scans. And if the ZIP has a captions subfolder, which holds the video captions that could not be drawn back into their videos as transparent PNGs, keep that out too. Google Photos will happily index them as a run of blank images.
iPhone
iPhone has no equivalent of a device folder, so it is an album instead, and the order of the steps matters more. That is its own guide. The phone-only walkthrough for Android is here.
Fix the dates first
A folder full of files all dated the day you downloaded them is a folder you will never open again. Put the real dates back first: the first 500 files are free, and nothing is uploaded.