Getting your export
Do I need to unzip the file first?
No. Hand over the ZIP files exactly as you got them from Snapchat.
No. Leave them as they are. We read the contents straight out of the ZIP files, exactly as Snapchat packed them, so there is nothing for you to prepare.
It is not only more convenient, it is also safer, and it removes a step where things commonly go wrong. If you unpack a large archive first you need roughly twice as much free disk space, because both the ZIP file and the unpacked contents sit on the disk at the same time. For a 30 GB archive that means 60 GB, and many computers do not have that to spare.
There is a practical risk too. When you unpack several ZIP files into the same folder it is easy to move, rename or lose individual files by accident. And those files are then the ones that cannot be matched to the right date. The less you touch the material before processing, the less can go wrong.
If you have already unpacked everything, that is not a problem. We handle both ZIP files and an ordinary folder with the files in it. What matters is that everything is included, including the small text and data files that sit alongside the pictures. Those are where the dates and locations live, and they are the easiest thing to leave behind when you tidy a folder by hand.
If you got several ZIP files, hand over all of them. They belong together and are needed together, and we check that nothing is missing before the upload starts.