Home/Snapchat Memories wrong date after export
The actual product
Why exported Snapchat Memories have the wrong date
This is the job. Not “how do I press download.” The ZIP you already have sorts as today. Capture time was never in the filesystem date Snapchat wrote.
Where the real date lives
Filename prefix: YYYY-MM-DD, sometimes with a time. memories_history.json: Date as 2017-04-03 22:11:04 UTC. ZIP extra timestamps on some parts. None of those are DateTimeOriginal until a fixer writes them.
What we write
We do not invent GPS. If the JSON has no Location, the file stays without coordinates.
- JPEG: EXIF DateTime, DateTimeOriginal, DateTimeDigitized, GPSLatitude/Longitude when present.
- MP4: mvhd / tkhd / mdhd creation and modification times (Mac epoch) so Apple Photos and Google Photos both see the year.
- ZIP entry dates so Finder/Explorer sort by capture day even before an importer runs.
Wrong date and lost timestamp are the same bug, checked in two places
Photo apps sort on metadata inside the file. Finder and Explorer also show a filesystem time that unzipping often rewrites to today. Fixing one and ignoring the other is why a file can look correct on the desktop and wrong in Google Photos, or the reverse.
The full path from the Snapchat email to a dated library is download Memories with the original date. The checklist for what to verify after unzip is keep the original timestamps.
A wrong date is not the January 2027 storage change. What Snapchat archives, and what it does not delete.