Snapchat’s My Eyes Only feature allows users to save snaps, stories, and memories in a passcode protected space within the app. While the snaps and stories saved to My Eyes Only are not visible within the app without entering the passcode, the data is included when requesting a download of your Snapchat data.
What is Snapchat’s My Eyes Only Feature?
The My Eyes Only feature within Snapchat acts as a private gallery space where users can save their snaps and stories that they want to keep private from others. This could include private photos, videos, conversations, or memories that you don’t want visible in your regular Snapchat memories or stories.
To enable My Eyes Only, go into your Snapchat settings and toggle on the “My Eyes Only” option. You will then be prompted to set a 4-digit passcode. This passcode will be required any time you want to access or view the snaps saved in My Eyes Only through the Snapchat app.
Once enabled, you can save individual snaps, stories, or memories to My Eyes Only by tapping on the My Eyes Only icon when viewing the snap. The snap will then only be visible if you enter your My Eyes Only passcode.
How to Download Your Snapchat Data
While snaps and stories saved to My Eyes Only are protected within the Snapchat app itself, the data from My Eyes Only is included when you request to download your Snapchat data.
Here are the steps to download your Snapchat data:
- Open the Snapchat app and go to your profile page
- Tap the gear icon to access your settings
- Go to the “My Data” section
- Tap “Submit Request” – note this may take up to 30 days to process
- Once ready, open the email from Snapchat titled “Your Snapchat data is ready”
- Click the “Download my data” button in the email
- Unzip the downloaded folder on your computer
This will provide you access to all of your Snapchat data from your account including your snaps, stories, conversations, memories, and My Eyes Only content.
Finding My Eyes Only Content in Downloaded Data
Once you have downloaded your full Snapchat data archive, you will find the My Eyes Only content included alongside your other Snapchat data.
Specifically, look in the following folders:
- My Memories – this contains all of your saved Snapchat memories including those saved to My Eyes Only
- Stories – this contains any Snapchat stories saved to My Eyes Only
- Snaps – this contains individual snaps saved to My Eyes Only
The My Eyes Only snaps, stories, and memories will be mixed in with your regular Snapchat data in these folders – there is no separate My Eyes Only folder.
You can identify the My Eyes Only content by the “My Eyes Only” text that appears on the snaps, stories, and memories.
How to Access My Eyes Only Content Outside of Snapchat
While you can locate and identify the My Eyes Only content by going through your Snapchat data archive, the content itself remains locked and not viewable outside of the Snapchat app.
Even with the downloaded data, you still need to enter your My Eyes Only passcode within the Snapchat app to actually view the images, videos, and conversations saved in My Eyes Only.
So accessing the data provides a list of the My Eyes Only content, but it does not allow you to bypass the passcode-protection on the content itself.
Removing My Eyes Only Protection
If you do want to access your My Eyes Only content outside of Snapchat, you have two options:
- Temporarily remove the My Eyes Only protection within Snapchat by unlocking the content, viewing it, taking screenshots, then re-adding it to My Eyes Only if desired.
- Permanently remove the My Eyes Only protection by deleting the content from My Eyes Only within Snapchat.
To temporarily access and remove the My Eyes Only protection:
- In Snapchat, go to your My Eyes Only protected content
- Enter your My Eyes Only passcode to unlock the content
- Tap and hold on the snap, story, or memory to save it to your camera roll or memories
- The content will now be accessible in your camera roll outside of Snapchat
- Once done viewing, you can re-save the content to My Eyes Only for passcode protection
And to permanently remove My Eyes Only protection:
- Go to your My Eyes Only content in Snapchat and unlock it
- Tap and hold on the snap, story, or memory and select the “Remove from My Eyes Only” option
- The content will be deleted from My Eyes Only and only the version in your memories or camera roll will remain
Conclusion
While Snapchat My Eyes Only provides passcode protection on private content within the app, the data itself is included if you download your full Snapchat data archive. You can identify My Eyes Only content in the data by looking for the “My Eyes Only” text indicator.
However, the My Eyes Only passcode protection remains in place even with the downloaded data. You would need to remove the content from My Eyes Only within Snapchat to actually access the images, videos, and conversations outside of the app.
Downloading your Snapchat data provides visibility into My Eyes Only content but does not unlock the content itself. Ultimately, My Eyes Only still requires access via the Snapchat app to view the protected snaps, stories, memories, and conversations.
This article has provided detailed instructions on finding and accessing My Eyes Only content by downloading Snapchat data and removing the My Eyes Only protection when needed. Let me know if you have any other questions!
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Download full Snapchat data |
| 2 | Identify My Eyes Only content |
| 3 | Remove My Eyes Only protection (if desired) |
Key Points
- My Eyes Only provides passcode protection within Snapchat
- My Eyes Only data is included in full Snapchat data download
- Passcode still required to view content outside of Snapchat
- Remove from My Eyes Only in app to fully access content