Moving them
How to move Snapchat memories to Google Photos with the right dates
Updated
Fix the dates first, then upload. Google Photos files a photo under the date stored inside it, and Snapchat's export ships photos with none, so an unfixed upload puts years of memories on the day you uploaded them. Once the capture date is written into each file, they sort into the years they came from.
From a laptop or desktop
- 1. Export from Snapchat with Export JSON Files ticked, download every part, and run them all through this site together.
- 2. In Chrome or Edge the fixed photos land straight in a folder you pick, so there's nothing to unzip. In Safari or Firefox you get a ZIP: unzip it first.
- 3. Open photos.google.com and drag the folder into the window, or use Upload.
From a phone
The Google Photos app backs up whatever is in your phone's photo library. So fix the export in your browser, save the finished files into your photo library, and let backup pick them up. On Android you can also point backup at the folder you unzipped them into.
Videos are the part to check
Google documents how it dates photos more clearly than videos. The fixed videos carry the capture time in the movie's own header (the field photo apps generally read) and in the filename, so they should land on the right day. But since Google doesn't spell out its fallback, open a handful of videos after uploading and check before deleting anything.
Storage
A free Google account's 15GB is shared between Gmail, Drive and Photos. Anyone who was over Snapchat's 5GB limit has a decent chance of running out here too, so check your space before starting an upload that stops halfway.
Locations
Some memories will have no location, on purpose. Snapchat's export doesn't say which photo a coordinate belongs to, so where a day's memories were scattered the field is left empty instead of guessed. The CSV in the ZIP shows which are exact, approximate or blank.
Fix them before they go up
Dates, captions and locations back into every file, in your browser, with nothing uploaded. The first 500 files are free.