Snapchat My Data: what’s in the JSON files

Snapchat’s My Data export arrives as a zip with a json folder full of files nobody explains: chat_history.json, snap_history.json, memories_history.json. Here’s what each one actually holds, why your chats look empty, and how to read them without a computer.

Written by the developer of Sonnet · Published 28 September 2026 · Not affiliated with Snapchat or Snap Inc.

Short answer

Request the export in Snapchat under Settings → My Data, with Export JSON Files switched on. The zip has an index.html you can tap to browse, and a json folder holding the same data as raw files. Your saved messages are in chat_history.json, grouped by the other person’s username. Open it in a JSON viewer to get a readable tree instead of one endless line.

Get Sonnet free Reads the files offline, nothing uploaded.

HTML or JSON: which should you request?

The request screen offers both, and you can turn on both at once. They contain the same information in two shapes.

HTML gives you an index.html and an html folder: clickable pages you can read in any browser, including your phone’s. Pick it if you only want to look.
JSON gives you a json folder of structured data. It’s what you want for counting things, pulling out dates, feeding another tool, or reading a field the web pages don’t show.

If you already downloaded the wrong one, request it again — the choice is per export, not per account.

1. Request the export

In the Snapchat app, open your profile, tap the settings gear, and look for My Data under the privacy section. Snapchat moves and renames these screens, so treat that path as a guide rather than a map; “My Data” has been the stable name.

On the request screen, switch on Export JSON Files. There is a separate switch for exporting your Memories, chat media and shared stories — that one controls whether the actual photos and videos are prepared, which is a much bigger job than the metadata. There is also a date-range filter. Leave it off if you want everything; community export tools specifically tell people to disable it, because a date-filtered export leaves everything outside the range out of the zip.

Snapchat emails a download link when the export is ready. That can be quick or can take a few days, depending on how much you asked for.

2. Unzip it on your phone

Open the link from the email and download the zip. It lands in Downloads.
Open Files by Google or your phone’s file manager, tap the zip and choose Extract.
Open the extracted folder. Tap index.html to browse the readable version, or open the json folder for the raw files.

3. What’s in the json folder

File	What it holds	Worth opening?
`chat_history.json`	Saved text messages, grouped by the person you exchanged them with	Yes: this is usually why people export
`snap_history.json`	A log of snaps sent and received — who, photo or video, and when. Not the images themselves	Yes, if you want dates
`memories_history.json`	One entry per saved Memory: its date, whether it’s a photo or a video, and a link to download it	Yes, if you’re rescuing Memories
`location_history.json`	Timestamped latitude/longitude points	Sometimes, and it can surprise you
The rest	Account details, friends, login history, search history, purchases and similar categories, one file each	Small, quick to skim

File names as read from open-source Snapchat export parsers on GitHub, September 2026. Snapchat changes the export format from time to time, and an older download may not match.

How to read chat_history.json

This one file holds every saved conversation. At the top level it is an object whose keys are the conversations — the other person’s username — and each key holds a list of messages. A message carries who sent it, what type it was, the text, and when it happened:

{
    "someusername": [
        {
            "From": "someusername",
            "Media Type": "TEXT",
            "Created": "2026-03-14 19:02:11 UTC",
            "Content": "see you at 8"
        }
    ]
}

An illustrative entry, built from the field names community parsers read. The exact shape varies by export version.

One pleasant surprise: Snapchat writes its dates as readable UTC strings rather than as the raw second counts Instagram’s export uses, so you don’t need a timestamp converter to tell when something happened. Some exports use Date instead of Created for the same thing — the parsers accept either.

Tip: in a long chat file, Sonnet Pro’s search jumps straight to a username or a phrase. Without it, collapse the tree to the list of conversations and open just the one you want.

Why most of your chats aren’t there

This is the single most common disappointment with the export, and it isn’t a fault in the file. Snapchat deletes messages after they’re viewed, so the only text that survives to be exported is what someone pressed and held to save. Everything else was gone from Snapchat’s servers long before you asked. An export that comes back with a handful of conversations, or an almost-empty chat_history.json, is behaving exactly as designed.

The same logic applies to snaps. snap_history.json is a ledger of what was sent and received, not a copy of it: you get the other person’s username, whether it was a photo or a video, and a timestamp. The images are not in the zip.

What memories_history.json is for

Memories are the exception — they were saved on purpose, so they can be recovered. The file is a list under a Saved Media key, one entry per item:

{
    "Saved Media": [
        {
            "Date": "2026-03-14 19:02:11 UTC",
            "Media Type": "PHOTO",
            "Download Link": "https://app.snapchat.com/…"
        }
    ]
}

Illustrative. Some exports carry extra fields such as a caption or coordinates.

The download link is not a plain file URL you can tap — the scripts people write against this file send a request to it and get back the real, temporary address of the photo. Those links stop working after about a week, so if you exported your Memories to rescue them, don’t leave the zip sitting in Downloads. Check the dates in this file first and you’ll know what you’re about to lose.

Will these files open on a phone?

Almost always, yes, because the heavy part of a Snapchat export isn’t in the zip. The JSON is plain text describing your media rather than containing it, so even a long history usually comes out at a few megabytes — small by phone standards.

Concretely, in Sonnet: the full collapsible tree is free for JSON up to about 2 MB, and files up to 20 MB open as formatted text. Sonnet Pro, a one-time unlock, raises those to a 30 MB tree and 50 MB files, and adds search. So a typical chat_history.json or memories_history.json opens as a tree for nothing; a heavy user’s chat file might land in formatted-text territory instead. A file past 50 MB is unusual for a Snapchat export, and belongs in the tools listed in how to open a large JSON file on Android.

If a file won’t open at all, that’s a different problem: what “invalid JSON” means covers the usual causes. And if the whole idea of a .json file is new, start with what a JSON file is.

Before you upload it anywhere

Sites and apps offer to turn a Snapchat export into something prettier. Read the table above again before you hand the zip over: it can include your location trail, your search history and your login records alongside the chats. Reading the files yourself is slower and keeps all of that on your phone.

Read your Snapchat export on your phone

Sonnet opens JSON files as a collapsible tree, entirely offline, so nothing you open is uploaded. No ads, no account. Free on Google Play, with an optional one-time Pro unlock for bigger files and search.