Open source · GPL-3.0 · Zero network calls

Your Snapchat memories, restored — not just exported.

Snapchat's export gives you a folder of dateless, GPS-less files with edits and originals scattered apart. SnapVault puts it all back together — offline, on your machine, for free.

Applies to accounts with more than 5GB of Memories on Snapchat's free tier — Snap hasn't published an exact deletion date, so this counts down to the end of the announced 12-month grace period. Source.

Dashboard
Library
Settings
~/Downloads/mydata~export
70%syncing
Write Date Metadata
Merge Video Overlays
Clean Duplicate Files
[OK] Matched GPS + time for 1,204 files
[INFO] Merging overlay pairs · h264_videotoolbox
[WARN] 3 files skipped, no timestamp match
The export problem

Snapchat hands you files. Not memories.

Every export is a pile of 2GB zip files. Photos and videos come out with only a bare capture date — no time, no location — and the sticker or caption overlay Snapchat applied ships as a separate file you have to match up yourself, by hand, across thousands of items.

2024-03-11_8f2c-main.jpgno time · no gps
2024-03-11_8f2c-overlay.pngseparate file
↓ SnapVault ↓
2024-03-11_8f2c.jpg2:41 PM · 39.96°N, 82.99°W · merged
How it works

Four steps, start to finish.

01

Request your export

From accounts.snapchat.com → My Data → Export Memories (or Settings → My Data in the app). Snapchat emails you a download link.

02

Point SnapVault at it

Download and install SnapVault, then hand it your export zip files — no extracting, no CLI, no Python required.

03

Choose your pipeline

Toggle date/GPS tagging, overlay merging, and duplicate cleanup. Every step runs entirely on your machine.

04

Get your library back

Organized, correctly-dated, geotagged files — ready to drop straight into Photos, Lightroom, or a hard drive.

What it actually does

The parts that are genuinely hard, done for you.

Not a file mover — a real recovery pipeline built around how Snapchat's export format actually works.

Precise time + GPS recovery

Filenames only carry a capture date — but each file's exact timestamp is buried in the zip archive's own metadata. SnapVault cross-references that timestamp, second-for-second, against your export's JSON history to recover the time of day and GPS coordinates. When two records collide and disagree, it omits GPS rather than guess.

1. read extended-timestamp from zip entry
2. match timestamp → memories_history.json
3. on exact match → write EXIF GPS + time
4. on conflict/no match → date-only, never guessed

Overlay merging

Recombines every -main / -overlay pair — stickers, captions, drawings — into one finished photo or video.

NVENC · VideoToolbox · QSV · VAAPI

Duplicate cleanup

Finds byte-identical copies and keeps the earliest-dated one. A dry-run mode shows exactly what would go, before anything does.

Two import modes

Modern multi-zip exports and the older link-based HTML/JSON format are both handled natively, with the same pipeline underneath.

Privacy by construction

Nothing to upload, because nothing gets uploaded.

SnapVault makes zero network requests to process your export. There's no server to trust, because there's no server involved — and because it's fully open source, you don't have to take that on faith.

Every byte of processing happens on your machine
No account, no sign-in, no telemetry
GPL-3.0 licensed — read every line before you trust it
Native installers for macOS, Windows, and Linux
Network calls made0
LicenseGPL-3.0
Runs onmacOS · Windows · Linux
Account requiredNo
CostFree
Get SnapVault

Native installers, every platform.

macOS

.dmg installer · macOS 12+ · FFmpeg & ExifTool bundled

Download .dmg

Windows

.msi installer · Windows 10+ · FFmpeg & ExifTool bundled

Download .msi

Linux

.deb package · Ubuntu 20.04+ · install FFmpeg via your package manager

Download .deb
Questions

Before you export

Your memories are already yours. Get them back in one piece.

Free, open source, and it never phones home. Download SnapVault and point it at your export.