Seesaw export not working? How to fix the most common problems

The download option isn't showing in Account Settings

This is the most common problem. It means the teacher hasn't enabled Family Access downloads for your account. One message to the teacher fixes it. It's a single toggle on their end.

What to say: "Hi, I'm trying to download [child's name]'s Seesaw journal. Could you enable Family Access downloads? It's in your class settings."

Note: some schools or districts may have disabled Family Access at the admin level, which overrides what individual teachers can do. If the teacher says they can't enable it, the school admin is the next contact.

Per Seesaw's own documentation, Family Access must be enabled for the download option to appear in Account Settings.

I'm using the Seesaw app and can't find the download

The download option doesn't appear in the Seesaw app. Go to app.seesaw.me in a browser (Chrome, Firefox, or Safari) and sign in there. The Account Settings path only appears on the web.

Once you're in, go to your name, then the gear icon, then Account Settings, then Download Journal Archives.

The zip downloaded but it's very small or seems empty

A few things to check.

Check your email. For large journals, Seesaw offers to send you a download link by email rather than downloading directly in the browser. If you accepted that option, check your inbox (and spam folder) for a message from Seesaw. Journals range widely in size. A full school year with videos can be several gigabytes, so a large file is normal.

Check the tagging. If you opened the zip and see only a few files, the likely cause is how posts were tagged, not a failed export. A child's journal is built from two kinds of posts: ones tagged with your child's name, and ones tagged "Everyone" (class-wide work). A post tagged only to another student won't appear in your child's journal at all. If the teacher didn't tag your child in many posts individually, the journal will look sparse even if the class was active. See "Some photos are missing from the zip" below.

If it's genuinely empty and your child was regularly tagged in posts, contact Seesaw support.

Some photos are missing from the zip

The most common reason is tagging. Your child's journal shows posts tagged with your child's name, and posts tagged "Everyone" (class-wide work). A post tagged only to a different student won't appear, and a teacher-private post may not appear either. Teachers vary in how consistently they tag, so two kids in the same class can end up with very different-looking journals.

If photos you expected aren't there, it usually means your child wasn't tagged in them, not that the export failed. For detail on how Seesaw handles post visibility and tagging, see Seesaw's classroom settings documentation.

One other thing to check: if the class was archived before you downloaded, confirm you're selecting the correct class from the list in Account Settings.

A note on file size and quality. Seesaw caps what can be uploaded in the first place, so nothing in the zip will exceed these limits: video is capped at 5 minutes, audio recordings at 2 to 5 minutes, and photos are automatically resized to 2000px on the longest side. If a photo looks smaller than you expected, Seesaw's standard resize is the likely reason, not a missing file.

The download keeps failing or timing out

Large journals (a full school year with videos) can be several gigabytes. A few things to try:

• Download on a laptop or desktop rather than a phone. Mobile browsers can drop large downloads mid-way.
• Use a wired or strong Wi-Fi connection.
• Try a different browser if one is failing consistently.
• If the download stops at the same point every time, the journal may be too large for a single browser download. Contact Seesaw support and ask whether they can send you the download link by email instead.

I downloaded the zip but I can't open it

• On Mac: double-click the zip file. It should unzip automatically. If it doesn't, right-click and choose Open With, then Archive Utility.
• On Windows: right-click the zip and choose Extract All.
• On mobile: you'll need a file manager app that handles zip files. This is one reason downloading on a laptop is the better option.
• If the zip won't open at all: the download may have been interrupted. Try downloading again from Account Settings.