Memories Dated

All your Snapchat Memories show today’s date? Here is how to fix it

For anyone who already exported or imported their Memories and found the problem afterwards. Not exported yet? Start with the export guide: done right, this never happens.

In short: the real dates are not inside the photos but in a separate file of the Snapchat export, memories_history.json. Run your original mydata~….zip files through Memories Dated: it writes the date, time and place into every photo and video, in a new folder. Import that folder, check a few old memories, then delete the wrongly dated copies: they are all on the same day, the day of your first import. Nothing to edit by hand. The first 500 files are free, then US$6.99 once (before tax).

Why every photo shows the same date

Google Photos, Apple Photos and your phone’s gallery read the capture date stored inside each file. Snapchat’s export does not write it there: it keeps the dates and places in memories_history.json, next to the photos. Finding nothing in the file, the photo app falls back on the date the file was created, which is the day you downloaded or unzipped the export. This is not a Google Photos bug, and it happens the same way on iPhone, Android, Windows and OneDrive.

Find your case

Fix the dates, step by step

  1. Open Memories Dated: the Windows app, or the online version in Chrome or Edge.
  2. Drop all your mydata~….zip files at once, without unzipping them.
  3. The check screen shows how many memories will be dated to the second, and how many only to the day.
  4. Click “Put the dates back” and choose where to save. You get a new folder, “Snapchat Memories (dated)”. Your original files are not modified.
  5. Import that folder: at photos.google.com, “Upload”; in Apple Photos, File, Import. Memories land on their real day, and on the map when Snapchat recorded a place.
  6. Check a few old memories, then clean up (below).

Clean up Google Photos or Apple Photos

Why not change the dates by hand?

Google Photos lets you edit the date of a photo (info, then the pencil next to the date), and shift a selection by the same amount. But every memory has a different date, so it means one photo at a time, from memory. And the change stays inside Google Photos: the file itself keeps the wrong date if you download it later or move to another service. Fixing the files before importing them avoids both problems.

Frequently asked

Will I get duplicates?

Until you delete the old copies, yes: the fixed files are different files, so the photo app imports them next to the old ones. That is why the clean-up step comes last.

Can Memories Dated fix the photos already in Google Photos?

No. It works on the files of the Snapchat export, which hold the dates. The copies stored in Google Photos do not.

My videos are in several pieces

Snapchat splits long videos into segments. The Windows app joins them, and so does the online version in Chrome or Edge.

The times are a few hours off

Snapchat stores universal time. Memories Dated converts it to the time zone you choose, by default your computer’s.

Sources

This site is not affiliated with Snap Inc. or Google.