Guide
Why your Snapchat export photos have no captions (and how to get them back)
Your Snapchat export photos have no captions because Snapchat saves the caption, text, stickers and drawings as a separate transparent image, an overlay, next to the photo or video rather than on it. Open the main file on its own and you see the plain picture. To get the caption back, the overlay has to be matched to the right main file and drawn on top at the same size. Lidly does that automatically when it imports your export, and keeps the caption on photos you save back to your camera roll.
What the overlay files look like
There are two naming schemes, one for chat media and one for Memories. These examples are made up, but the shapes match real exports.
| Folder | Main file | Overlay file |
|---|---|---|
chat_media/ | 2021-04-20_media~Snapchat-700000025.jpg | 2021-04-20_overlay~Snapchat-700000025.webp |
memories/ | 2022-06-25_0002fa11-…-main.jpg | 2022-06-25_0002fa11-…-overlay.png |
In both, the overlay is mostly transparent: only the caption bar, the text, the stickers and the drawing have pixels. If you open one in Photos it can look like a blank or black square, which is why people think the export is broken. Many chat overlays are WebP rather than PNG, so a tool that only looks for .png files will miss them.
Files whose names contain _b~, such as 2021-03-15_b~EiQS….jpg, are a different family. In the exports we have looked at they come without overlays, so there is nothing to put back.
Why the pieces come apart
For the simple cases, the main file and its overlay share a token. _media~Snapchat-700000025 pairs with _overlay~Snapchat-700000025, and -main pairs with -overlay on the same name. A careful script can match those.
The hard case is newer chat videos. Their overlays are often named with a fresh ID that appears nowhere else in the export, so no name-based rule can find the video they belong to. What the two files still share is the moment they were written: the same date and the same second. Lidly pairs them on that, but only when exactly one overlay and exactly one main file share that second. When two or more do, it can't tell which caption goes with which video, so it shows the video without a caption rather than putting the wrong text on it.
How Lidly puts captions back
- In the app. Every photo and video with a matched overlay is shown with its caption on top, aligned to the picture's own shape, in the conversation view and full screen. You see the snap as it was sent.
- Saving photos. When you save a photo that has a caption, Lidly combines the two layers into one image at the photo's full resolution and saves that to your camera roll. A photo with no overlay is saved as the original file, untouched.
- Saving videos. A saved video is the original video file. The caption shows on it inside Lidly, but it is not burned into the copy that goes to Photos.
If an overlay file can't be read, the photo is still saved without it rather than lost.
Can I fix captions without an app?
Yes, if you're comfortable with a computer. You can open both files in an image editor, stack the overlay over the main image at the same size, and export. For a handful of snaps that works. For hundreds it gets slow, and the videos whose overlay names don't match are the ones you would struggle to pair by hand. The roundup of ways to view your export includes desktop tools that say they merge overlays, including onto video.
What to check in your own export
- Look in
chat_media/for files containing_overlay~. If there are none, your chat snaps had no captions to restore. - Look in
memories/for files ending in-overlay. Each one pairs with a-mainfile of the same name. - If both folders are missing, the request didn't include Memories or chat media. See which data toggles to choose.
Common questions
Why is my overlay a black square?
It is a transparent image. Some viewers draw transparency as black. The caption is there; it just needs the photo underneath it.
Does Snapchat's own index.html show captions?
Snapchat's help page describes opening index.html to browse and download Memories. It doesn't say whether captions are combined with the files you download that way. The overlay files in the ZIP are separate either way.
Will saving keep the caption on videos?
Not with Lidly today. Videos keep their caption on screen in the app, and the saved file is the original video. If burned-in video captions matter most to you, the comparison pages list tools that say they do that.
Related: what's inside a Snapchat export and restoring date and location when you save.