What should I download from Snapchat?

This is the easiest thing to get wrong, and the most expensive one if you do. When you ask for your data, Snapchat shows a list of things you can choose to include. You need two of them:

Export your Memories: the photos and videos themselves. Without it you get no media at all, only text files.

Export JSON Files is described as being "for data portability purposes", which sounds optional and is not. This is where the information about each individual file lives: the original date with the time of day, and the GPS position where there is one. That is exactly the information we read in order to restore your memories.

If you tick only Memories you get the pictures but almost no information about them. We have tested that exact scenario on real exports: the filenames contain a date, but no time and no location. We can then sort the archive by day, but not restore the time or the map. We never invent details that are not in the export.

If you tick only JSON you get a description of your memories without the memories. They are two halves of the same thing, and both are needed.

The other options (chat history, Spotlight, shopping, account information) are not needed by us, and you can leave them switched off. We only read what relates to your Memories. If you want them for your own sake, feel free to include them; it disturbs nothing, the export just gets bigger and takes longer to prepare.

If you have already asked for an export without the JSON files, you need to order a new one with both ticked. There is no problem doing it again, and it costs nothing. But you have to wait in the queue again, so do it as soon as you notice.