January 2027 archives Snapchat Memories. It does not delete them.

Snapchat's Help Center does not name a day when Memories are deleted. The dated change is an archive, and it does not start before January 2027.

This note is the checklist I use before that month: who is affected, what "archived" means in Snap's own wording, and how to get a My Data ZIP onto a computer while the download link still works. It is not a Snapchat login tool, and it is not affiliated with Snap Inc.

What Snap actually dated

On How do I manage my Memories storage?, Snap says it will not automatically delete Memories because you do not upgrade.

Starting in January 2027, and not before, Memories that are more than one year old and are not part of your oldest 5 GB are archived. They stay stored. In the app they show up as thumbnails. Opening, editing, or sharing an archived Memory needs a storage plan, or a download you already have.

Two groups stay open without that plan:

• Memories saved within the last year
• Your oldest 5 GB of Memories

People under 5 GB are outside this change. Snap also says the app will warn you before the archive applies to your account. The September 26, 2025 newsroom post about Memories Storage Plans announced the 5 GB cap, 12 months of temporary storage for the overflow, and a download to your device. That post does not name a deletion date either.

So "when is Snapchat deleting memories?" does not have a deletion date to put on a calendar. The date that does exist is the start of the thumbnail archive.

Request the export before you need it

The Help Center lists the download as the way to open Memories outside the app.

1. Sign in at accounts.snapchat.com, or open Settings and choose My Data.
2. Turn on Export your Memories. If you only want the camera roll archive, use Request Only Memories.
3. Pick a date range. A longer range takes longer to build.
4. Confirm the email address that should receive the ready notice.
5. Submit, then wait. Snap says it tries to deliver within 7 days. A large Memories export can take longer, and it can arrive as more than one ZIP.
6. Download on a computer. The link does not stay valid forever; if it expires, submit a new request.

My Eyes Only is not in that export. If something important is locked there, unlock it and move it into regular Memories before you submit.

What the ZIP is missing

The export gives you the media files plus memories_history.json. The capture time and location are in that JSON. They are not written into the photo or video file as EXIF. A gallery that sorts by file date will look wrong even though the history file is correct.

That is a file-format gap, not a sign that Snap deleted the Memory. I walk through the archive date and the local ZIP read on When is Snap deleting memories?. The page reads the official My Data ZIP in the browser. It does not log into Snapchat.

A few checks after the files are on disk:

• Open index.html from the export and confirm Memories is in the left navigation before you assume the ZIP is empty.
• Keep every part if Snap split the download. A partial folder will look like missing months.
• Compare a handful of items against memories_history.json before you delete anything inside the app.
• Do not treat a camera-roll save of a few Snaps as a substitute for the My Data export. The in-app save is one Memory at a time and does not rebuild the history file.

What I would not wait on

Archived does not mean deleted, and a thumbnail you can see in January 2027 is not the same as a file you can open. If the account is over 5 GB, the export is the copy that still opens without a storage plan. Request it while the queue is normal, download it when the email arrives, and keep the ZIP until you have checked the dates in the history file.

If Snap publishes an exact calendar day later, it will be on that Help Center page. Until then, January 2027 is the start of the archive, not a deletion date.

Archive, plan, and a local copy are three different things

A storage plan keeps the overflow open inside Snapchat. It does not put a dated copy on your disk. The My Data ZIP does the opposite: it is a copy you control, and it does not change what the app will archive in January 2027.

If you only need a few photos, saving them to the camera roll is enough. If you need the year-by-year set, use the export. After the files are local, sort them with the history JSON rather than the file modified time. The modified time is when the ZIP was unpacked, not when the Snap was taken.

I would also leave the Snapchat account logged in on a computer until the email arrives. The ready notice is easy to miss, and a second request is slower than downloading the one you already have.