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How to download your raw DNA data from 23andMe, Ancestry, MyHeritage and others

Every DNA company keeps the raw data file in a different corner of its settings, behind a different check, and some send it days later by email. These are the routes at eight companies, read on their own help pages on 10 October 2026, and what each file is once you have it.

Written by · 13 min read · Published 2026-10-10. Last reviewed .

Key takeaways

  • 23andMe prepares the file after a request and emails when it is ready, usually in about a week and sometimes up to thirty days[5].
  • AncestryDNA's link works once and expires after a week[3]; MyHeritage's expires after 24 hours and cannot be opened on an iPhone or iPad[4].
  • FamilyTreeDNA requires two-factor authentication before it allows a download, and its file is a CSV compressed as .gz rather than .zip[6].
  • Data transferred in from another company cannot be downloaded again at FamilyTreeDNA or MyHeritage; only kits tested there can[6, 4].
  • Of the sequencing providers, Dante offers VCF, BAM and FASTQ with seven-day links[11]; Nebula's terms put the VCF in the portal and the CRAM or FASTQ behind a request and a fee[12].

Raw data is the uninterpreted file behind a DNA test's reports: one line per position the company measured, with the two letters it found there. A chip export from an ancestry test has between 563,320 and 955,958 such lines in the ten we have measured[1], which is about 0.02 to 0.03 percent of the 3.1 billion bases in one copy of the reference genome[2] (our arithmetic). A sequencing company delivers different files, a VCF of variants and sometimes the aligned reads as a BAM or CRAM. Every company described here lets the person who took the test download them, and each puts the button somewhere different.

Before you start

Three things are common to almost every company below. The download belongs to the account that owns or manages the test, so a relative you shared results with cannot fetch it. The file arrives compressed, as a .zip or a .gz. And once it is on your computer, the company's security no longer covers it: Ancestry, MyHeritage and 23andMe each say so on the same help page that describes the download[3, 4, 5].

Figure 1. The route at each chip company as its own help pages described it on 10 October 2026[5, 3, 4, 6, 7]. Button names are the companies' own.

Menus change. Each section below names the help page it was read from and the date, and a company's own page is the one to trust when the two disagree. 23andMe's help centre, for example, has moved from customercare.23andme.com to support.23andme.org, and the old address now redirects[5].

23andMe

23andMe does not hand the file over on the spot. It prepares it after a request, and the wait is the longest of any company here: usually about a week, sometimes up to thirty days[5].

Requesting the 23andMe raw data file

  1. Open the raw data page. From Account Settings, click View under 23andMe Data, then Download at the top of the page. Two other routes reach the same page: the profile name at the top right, then Resources and Browse Raw Genotyping Data, or the address you.23andme.com/tools/data/ directly[5].
  2. Confirm the birth date. Enter the date of birth on the profile, read the notes, tick the box at the bottom and select Submit request[5].
  3. Wait for the email. 23andMe sends an email titled "Your 23andMe raw data download is ready!". Following it, the birth date is checked a second time before the download starts[5].
  4. Find the file. It is a .zip whose name begins with genome, holding a .txt file. Some computers unzip it automatically, in which case the .txt is what you will find[5].

23andMe's own page adds that only a subset of the markers in the file have been individually validated for accuracy, and that the raw data is meant for informational use only[5]. Our guide to false positives in raw data measures what that means for rare variants.

AncestryDNA

Downloading AncestryDNA data

  1. Open DNA Settings. Choose the test, scroll to the Download or Delete section and select Download DNA data. Tick the box confirming you understand, and click Continue[3].
  2. Verify the account. Either enter the account password, or have Ancestry send a code by email and type it in[3].
  3. Open the email. It can take up to 24 hours to arrive. The file is not attached; the email's Download DNA Data button leads back to Ancestry[3].
  4. Download the archive. The file is named dna-data-(date).zip and holds a .txt[3].

The link can be used once and expires after a week. If you requested the download more than once, only the newest email works[3]. Ancestry states that its file reports genotypes on the forward strand of GRCh37, the older human reference assembly[3].

Some AncestryDNA samples have been analysed by sequencing instead, and for those Ancestry offers a second download: a VCF of "tens of millions" of bases, listed in DNA Settings as Download Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Data. Only the test's owner can download it, it arrives as dna-download-{date}.zip holding a .vcf.gz and a readme, and Ancestry describes the uncompressed file as about 3 GB[8]. We have not yet seen one. Our free file check reads its header in your browser and says which report it supports before anything is uploaded.

MyHeritage

Downloading MyHeritage raw DNA data

  1. Find the kit. From the DNA menu, open Manage DNA kits. On the right of the kit, click the three dots and choose Download[4].
  2. Accept the terms. Read the notice, click Continue, accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and click Continue again[4].
  3. Use the emailed link within a day. MyHeritage emails a link to the account's registered address. It is valid for 24 hours; after that the process starts again[4].
  4. Enter the password and download. The link opens MyHeritage, which asks for the password before the Download button saves the file[4].

The restrictions are stricter than elsewhere. Only the kit's manager can download, not the person it is assigned to, and only to a computer or an Android device, never to an iPhone or iPad. The option appears once results are published, and a kit uploaded from another company cannot be downloaded from MyHeritage at all[4].

MyHeritage has changed how it tests. Samples processed from January 2026 onwards are sequenced instead of typed on a chip, and those customers still get the same kind of raw data file for other services[9]. MyHeritage says a much larger CRAM file of the full sequence will follow, and as of its page dated 21 July 2026 it was still "working hard on supporting CRAM downloads"[9]. The raw data file from a sequenced kit works here the same way as the old one, though its genotypes are worked out from the sequencing instead of read straight off an array. When the CRAM arrives, the Deep Read will measure its depth first; on a low-pass genome it stops there instead of calling genes from reads too thin to support them.

FamilyTreeDNA

FamilyTreeDNA refuses the download until two-factor authentication is turned on for the account[6]. There is no email step after that: the files come straight from the page.

Downloading Family Finder raw data

  1. Open the downloads page. Sign in to the kit. Either use the Autosomal DNA Results & Tools widget on the dashboard, click See More and select Data Download, or go to Results & Tools, then Autosomal DNA, then Download Raw Data in the navigation bar[6].
  2. Pick the autosomal file. Build 37 Concatenated Raw data holds every autosomal SNP plus those on the X chromosome. A separate Y-SNP file exists for genetic males[6].
  3. Keep it compressed. It is a comma-separated file inside a .gz. FamilyTreeDNA notes that the built-in Windows and Mac unzip tools do not open .gz files[6]; for an upload here there is no need to open it.

Two newer rules matter. Data transferred in from another company is not available for download, because incompatible SNPs were removed on import[6]. And Family Finder moved from a chip to a targeted sequencing panel for samples processed from 2 March 2026. Those tests offer the same autosomal downloads, "substantially the same set" of SNPs as the chip, and an existing customer who orders the sequencing upgrade has the old chip data overwritten once the new results are complete, so the old file has to be downloaded before then if a copy is wanted[10].

Living DNA

Downloading Living DNA raw data

  1. Open Profiles. Log in at my.livingdna.com, click the name at the top right and select Profiles[7].
  2. Choose the profile. Profiles are listed on the left. The Download button sits beside the profile's name and picture, on the right[7].
  3. Consent and choose the file. Read the information, tick the consent box, and pick from the data options. For use on other sites, Living DNA points to the autosomal (family ancestry) file[7].

The download is free for anyone who took a Living DNA test and covers autosomal, mitochondrial and Y-DNA data[7]. The autosomal file is the one the chip report reads.

The five chip exports side by side

Table 1. What each chip company's download involves, as its help page described it on 10 October 2026
CompanyCheck before downloadHow it arrivesWindowFile
23andMeBirth date, twiceEmail when readyPrepared in about a week, up to 30 daysgenome… .zip with a .txt
AncestryDNAPassword or emailed codeEmail within 24 hoursLink works once, for 7 daysA .zip with a .txt, named by date
MyHeritageTerms, then passwordEmail link24 hoursRaw data file; computer or Android only
FamilyTreeDNATwo-factor authentication onDirect from the pageNone stated.csv inside a .gz
Living DNAConsent boxDirect from the pageNone statedAutosomal file among three

Source: The companies' own help pages, read 10 October 2026[5, 3, 4, 6, 7].

563,320 to 955,958

lines in the ten chip exports on our measured data page[1]

3.1 billion

bases in one copy of the reference genome, GRCh38[2]

Those lines are the whole of what a chip reads. Everything between the measured positions goes unread, which is why the chip report covers traits, ancestry and medication response but not the rare variants behind the clinical-findings and carrier panels.

Sequencing providers: Nebula, Dante Labs and Sequencing.com

A sequenced genome comes as several files of very different sizes, and the providers differ in which ones they let you fetch yourself. None of the three publishes a click-by-click route like the chip companies', so here is what each says in its own words.

Dante Labs. Raw data appears under the profile it belongs to once the report is published. Three formats are offered: the VCF, "a few hundred megabytes"; the BAM of aligned reads, roughly 50 to 90 GB; and the FASTQ of unaligned reads, roughly 100 GB. Download links expire after seven days and can be regenerated from the profile page[11].

Nebula Genomics, now selling as DNA Complete. Its terms of use say "you may download your VCF file through the portal", while the CRAM or FASTQ needs a request to customer service and, if approved, a data transfer fee[12]. The current product page lists CRAM and VCF as the files available for download and sells the genome at 1x, 30x and 100x[13]. The depth matters more than the brand: a 1x genome's VCF is a low-pass file, which the report reads at the chip tier, not the full one.

Sequencing.com. Its knowledge centre says raw files such as VCF, BAM and FASTQ are stored in the account free of charge and can be downloaded from it at any time[14]. It names no menu path, and its site refused our automated reads on 10 October 2026, so we read the page through a text copy and describe no buttons here. The Sequencing.com gVCF on our measured data page confirmed 99.0 percent of the bases our report examines[1]; if the account offers a gVCF, it is the variant file worth having.

Table 2. What the three sequencing providers say you can download
ProviderVariant fileAligned readsUnaligned readsHow
Dante LabsVCF, a few hundred MBBAM, about 50 to 90 GBFASTQ, about 100 GBFrom the profile page; links last 7 days
Nebula / DNA CompleteVCF in the portalCRAM on request, with a feeFASTQ on request, with a feePortal, then customer service
Sequencing.comVCF named among stored filesBAM named among stored filesFASTQ named among stored filesFrom the account; no published menu path

Source: Dante Labs support, updated 12 August 2026; Nebula's terms, dated 4 February 2025, and the DNA Complete product page; Sequencing.com knowledge centre; all read 10 October 2026[11, 12, 13, 14].

A BAM or CRAM is only half of what the Deep Read upload asks for. It also wants the matching index, a .bai beside a BAM or a .crai beside a CRAM, so fetch that small file with the reads. The browser then cuts out the regions the panel reads, about 1.7 percent of it, and uploads only those.

Which file fits which report

Figure 2. One file, one route. A sequenced genome can use two at once: the variant file for the full report and the reads for the Deep Read.

Send the file the way the company sent it. The upload reads a .zip or a .gz directly and picks the genotype file out of the archive by its contents, not its name, so a readme packed beside it does no harm. Unzipping, renaming or opening the file in a spreadsheet and saving it again are the usual ways a good export gets broken. A FASTQ is the one download we cannot use, because aligning a whole genome is outside what the report does; the VCF from the same provider is the file to send.

What Aimosti would (and wouldn't) show you

A chip export from any of the five chip companies gets the chip report: traits, ancestry, medication-response positions and a few named single variants such as Factor V Leiden, but not the clinical-findings or carrier panels. A plain VCF gets the full report, with positions the file is silent about labelled as inferred; a gVCF gets the full report and lets it say a gene was examined. A BAM or CRAM with its index adds the Deep Read: read depth per gene, CYP2D6 copy number, HLA-DQ typing, two recurrent deletions called from depth and the 29-target medication panel. FASTQ is not read.

What we won't claim

We won't describe a menu we did not read on the company's own page that day, or promise a step will look the same next month. Where a company publishes no step-by-step route, we say so instead of guessing one. We don't speak for any of these companies, and we don't call a low-pass genome a 30x one because the download looks the same.

Bottom line. The chip companies all hand over a compressed text file, three of them by emailed link with a deadline. The sequencing providers differ more: Dante offers VCF, BAM and FASTQ from the profile page, Nebula's terms put only the VCF in the portal, and Sequencing.com says its files can be downloaded from the account. Whatever arrives, the archive works here as delivered.

Questions people ask

How long does it take to get raw data from 23andMe?

23andMe emails when the file is ready, usually after about a week and sometimes up to thirty days[5]. AncestryDNA's email can take up to 24 hours[3]; FamilyTreeDNA and Living DNA serve the file straight from the page[6, 7].

My AncestryDNA or MyHeritage download link stopped working. What happened?

Both links expire. Ancestry's works once and lasts a week, and only the most recent email's link is valid[3]. MyHeritage's lasts 24 hours[4]. In both cases the fix is to request the download again from the start.

Can I download MyHeritage raw data on an iPhone?

No. MyHeritage allows the download only to a computer or an Android device, and only by the kit's manager[4].

Can I download data I uploaded to FamilyTreeDNA or MyHeritage from another company?

No. Both refuse to export transferred data; FamilyTreeDNA says incompatible SNPs were removed when it was imported[6, 4]. The original file has to come from the company that ran the test.

Does downloading my raw data affect my matches or results?

Ancestry says downloading the sequencing VCF does not affect ethnicity estimates, matches or future updates, and results stay in the account[8]. Downloading is separate from deleting: at Ancestry the two sit together under Download or Delete, so it pays to read which button is which[3].

Which file should I upload to Aimosti?

From a chip company, the raw data archive exactly as it arrived. From a sequencing provider, a gVCF if there is one, otherwise the VCF, plus the BAM or CRAM with its index for the Deep Read. The free file check names what you have before you pay anything.

References

  1. What your DNA file can actually read: measured on 14 real files. Aimosti, 2026. Measured 6 October 2026; ten chip exports of 563,320 to 955,958 rows; data under CC BY 4.0.
  2. Genome assembly GRCh38.p14. NCBI Datasets, 2022. Total sequence length 3,099,441,038 bases, read 10 October 2026.
  3. Downloading DNA Data. Ancestry Support, 2026. Read 10 October 2026 through the help centre's article API; page last edited 30 July 2026.
  4. How do I download my raw DNA data file from MyHeritage?. MyHeritage Help Center, 2026. Read 10 October 2026; the page said it had been updated the day before.
  5. Accessing Your Raw Genetic Data. 23andMe Customer Care, 2026. Read 10 October 2026; page last edited 24 August 2026. The old customercare.23andme.com address redirects here.
  6. Downloading Your Family Finder Data. FamilyTreeDNA Help Center, 2026. Read 10 October 2026 through the help centre's article API; page last edited 18 June 2026.
  7. How do I download my raw data?. Living DNA Support, 2026. Read 10 October 2026 through the help centre's article API; page last edited 31 March 2026.
  8. Downloading Your NGS Variant Call Format File. Ancestry Support, 2026. Read 10 October 2026 through the help centre's article API; page last edited 30 July 2026.
  9. What does the Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) upgrade mean for my DNA results?. MyHeritage Help Center, 2026. Read 10 October 2026; the page is dated 21 July 2026.
  10. Family Finder Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) FAQ. FamilyTreeDNA Help Center, 2026. Read 10 October 2026 through the help centre's article API; page last edited 18 August 2026.
  11. Downloading your raw data: VCF, FASTQ and BAM. Dante Labs Support, 2026. Read 10 October 2026; page updated 12 August 2026.
  12. Nebula customer and user terms of use. Nebula Genomics, 2025. Updated 4 February 2025; read 10 October 2026.
  13. DNA Complete: whole genome sequencing. DNA Complete, by Nebula Genomics, 2026. Read 10 October 2026: CRAM and VCF listed for download; Essential 1x, Pro 30x, Elite 100x.
  14. DNA Data Storage. Sequencing.com Knowledge Center. Read 10 October 2026 through a text-extraction copy; the site returns 403 to automated requests.

Last reviewed . Every number on this page links to the source it comes from; if one of them has moved, tell us.

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