What technical evidence exists (app research or audits) about whether default‑to‑My Eyes Only saves bypass Memories indexing?

1. What “default‑to‑My Eyes Only” means in practice and where the data lives

Snapchat’s own support copy and product coverage make clear that My Eyes Only is a folder inside Memories that users move Snaps into and unlock with a passcode, so content saved there is still conceptually and technically part of Memories rather than a separate cloud service ^{[2] [1]}; contemporaneous reporting from 2016 framed MEO as a private layer on top of Memories rather than a ground‑up separate archive ^[4].

2. Concrete technical evidence that MEO items are indexed or flagged in Memories

Forensic analysis of Snapchat artifacts shows a Memories database with an “is_private” column marking My Eyes Only status, demonstrating that entries for MEO items persist in the same Memories schema and can be enumerated by forensic tools that parse the database ^[5]. Community and vendor notes report that the MEO PIN and related data are stored in app data—examples include claims that the PIN hash is kept (bcrypt) in memories.db on Android, which further proves that MEO metadata lives on the device in an inspectable form ^{[6] [5]}.

3. What happens to indexing and recoverability when items are moved to MEO

Multiple forensic vendors and practitioners report that moving Snaps into MEO does not erase the underlying media or metadata from device storage; instead, tools such as Magnet AXIOM and Cellebrite added support to recover MEO-marked entries and in some scenarios decrypt images or opening frames if the files were cached or the device was physically extracted ^{[3] [5]}. Public forum threads from examiners describe successful decryption of MEO media after physical acquisition or when items remained in local caches, indicating that passcode protection is a layer that can be bypassed under certain forensic acquisition models rather than an absolute block to indexing or recovery ^[3].

4. Limits, vendor claims, and the company position

Snapchat’s support emphasizes that content moved to My Eyes Only requires the user’s passcode to view and that Snapchat cannot assist with lost passcodes, asserting a privacy boundary for end users ^{[2] [1]}. However, third‑party forensic tooling providers and reviewers have documented practical exceptions: physical device extractions, caches of previously viewed media, and platform‑specific implementation details have allowed recovery or partial decryption in lab conditions, which suggests the company’s user‑facing claim is accurate for normal app use but not an absolute guarantee against forensic recovery ^{[3] [5] [6]}.

5. How to interpret the balance of evidence

The technical record in public forensic reporting shows that MEO does not make My Eyes Only items invisible to Memories‑level indexing or to low‑level forensic inspection: database flags, cached media, and stored hashed PIN material are tangible artifacts that third‑party tools and researchers have used to find or sometimes decrypt MEO content under specific circumstances ^{[5] [3] [6]}. At the same time, Snapchat’s product documentation and mainstream guides present MEO as a meaningful privacy control for everyday threats, and warnings about scams claiming universal bypasses are echoed in later consumer‑facing commentary ^{[1] [2] [7]}. Public sources do not provide a definitive, vendor‑agnostic audit showing universal bypass methods that work across all OS versions and device states, so conclusions must be limited to documented tool support and forensic case reports rather than a blanket statement that MEO is always breakable ^{[3] [5]}.