snapback

Restore EXIF metadata (dates, GPS coordinates) and overlays (captions, drawings, stickers, etc.) to exported Snapchat memories.

Snapchat data exports strip EXIF metadata from your photos and videos and provide it separately in a JSON file. Overlays are stored as separate WebP images (misleadingly named .png). snapback reads the metadata JSON, applies it back to your media via exiftool, composites overlays via ffmpeg, and moves the processed files to a unified output directory.

Quickstart

1. Request a data export from the My Data page in the Snapchat web application. When selecting export options, you must choose "Export your Memories" and "Export JSON Files" at minimum (snapback does not currently support exported chat media, but adding support for this shouldn't be super complicated; PRs welcome)
2. Once you receive an email notification that your export is ready, return to the "My Data" page above and download all of the .zip files.
3. Run the following commands:

mkdir ~/path/to/snapchat_export
cd ~/path/to/snapchat_export
mv ~/Downloads/mydata~*.zip .
# If you're tight on space you can try to find and extract the json directory
# first and then unzip the archives one at a time, running snapback after each
# unzip. By default, it will unzip all the archives in the current directory.
nix run github:carschandler/snapback -- --help
# Read the help menu and decide how many processes you want to run
# simultaneously & how to handle overlays
nix run github:carschandler/snapback -- --processes 3
# Results here
ls ./processed_media

Overlay modes

Snapchat splits overlays (captions, drawings, stickers, etc.) into their own images when exporting. Choose how to handle these files using the --overlays option:

• overwrite (default): apply the overlay directly to the original file
• copy: create a _with_overlay copy and move both it and the original to --output-dir
• ignore: skip overlays entirely, only move the originals to --output-dir

Processes

If you aren't sure how many processes your system can handle, don't push it too far; you'll reach a point of diminishing returns. On an M3 Pro chip, I'm just using 5 and my machine does get a bit toasty after a while. When in doubt, just omit this argument and a single process will be used, then just leave it running for longer.

Prerequisites

If using nix, all runtime dependencies are bundled automatically. Otherwise, ensure the following are installed:

• exiftool
• ffmpeg (headless variant is fine)

While many versions of these tools may work, this package has only been tested using exiftool v13.39 and ffmpeg v8.0.1.

Installation

❄️ Nix Flake (recommended)

Run directly without installing:

nix run github:carschandler/snapback -- --help

🦀 Cargo

cargo install --git https://github.com/carschandler/snapback

Ensure exiftool and ffmpeg are on your PATH.

From source

git clone https://github.com/carschandler/snapback
cd snapback
cargo run --release -- --help