diff --git a/ghost/admin/app/components/editor/modals/update-snippet.js b/ghost/admin/app/components/editor/modals/update-snippet.js
index c5b15e4a04..d33d96fadf 100644
--- a/ghost/admin/app/components/editor/modals/update-snippet.js
+++ b/ghost/admin/app/components/editor/modals/update-snippet.js
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@ export default class UpdateSnippetModal extends Component {
             }
             if (lexical) {
                 snippet.lexical = lexical;
+
+                if (!snippet.mobiledoc) {
+                    snippet.mobiledoc = {};
+                }
             }
 
             yield snippet.save();
diff --git a/ghost/admin/app/controllers/editor.js b/ghost/admin/app/controllers/editor.js
index 6592aced41..a8483259fb 100644
--- a/ghost/admin/app/controllers/editor.js
+++ b/ghost/admin/app/controllers/editor.js
@@ -173,8 +173,8 @@ export default class EditorController extends Controller {
     get snippets() {
         return this._snippets
             .reject(snippet => snippet.get('isNew'))
-            .sort((a, b) => a.name.localeCompare(b.name))
-            .filterBy('lexical', null);
+            .reject(snippet => JSON.stringify(snippet.mobiledoc) === '{}')
+            .sort((a, b) => a.name.localeCompare(b.name));
     }
 
     @computed('session.user.{isAdmin,isEditor}')
diff --git a/ghost/admin/app/controllers/lexical-editor.js b/ghost/admin/app/controllers/lexical-editor.js
index afd897e244..0cc39e5e4b 100644
--- a/ghost/admin/app/controllers/lexical-editor.js
+++ b/ghost/admin/app/controllers/lexical-editor.js
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import {isBlank} from '@ember/utils';
 import {isArray as isEmberArray} from '@ember/array';
 import {isHostLimitError, isServerUnreachableError, isVersionMismatchError} from 'ghost-admin/services/ajax';
 import {isInvalidError} from 'ember-ajax/errors';
+import {mobiledocToLexical} from '@tryghost/kg-converters';
 import {inject as service} from '@ember/service';
 
 const DEFAULT_TITLE = '(Untitled)';
@@ -171,14 +172,15 @@ export default class LexicalEditorController extends Controller {
         return this.store.peekAll('snippet');
     }
 
-    @computed('_snippets.@each.{name,isNew}')
+    @computed('_snippets.@each.{name,isNew,mobiledoc,lexical}')
     get snippets() {
         const snippets = this._snippets
             .reject(snippet => snippet.get('isNew'))
             .sort((a, b) => a.name.localeCompare(b.name))
             .filter(item => item.lexical !== null);
+
         return snippets.map((item) => {
-            item.value = item.lexical;
+            item.value = JSON.stringify(item.lexical);
 
             return item;
         });
@@ -360,9 +362,10 @@ export default class LexicalEditorController extends Controller {
     }
 
     @action
-    saveSnippet(snippet) {
-        const snippetData = {name: snippet.name, lexical: snippet.value, mobiledoc: '{}'};
-        let snippetRecord = this.store.createRecord('snippet', snippetData);
+    saveNewSnippet(snippet) {
+        const snippetData = {name: snippet.name, lexical: JSON.parse(snippet.value), mobiledoc: {}};
+        const snippetRecord = this.store.createRecord('snippet', snippetData);
+
         return snippetRecord.save().then(() => {
             this.notifications.closeAlerts('snippet.save');
             this.notifications.showNotification(
@@ -388,9 +391,9 @@ export default class LexicalEditorController extends Controller {
         const existingSnippet = this.snippets.find(snippet => snippet.name.toLowerCase() === snippetNameLC);
 
         if (existingSnippet) {
-            await this.confirmUpdateSnippet(existingSnippet, {lexical: data.value, mobiledoc: '{}'});
+            await this.confirmUpdateSnippet(existingSnippet, {lexical: data.value});
         } else {
-            await this.saveSnippet(data);
+            await this.saveNewSnippet(data);
         }
     }
 
@@ -771,10 +774,46 @@ export default class LexicalEditorController extends Controller {
         }
     }
 
-    // load supplementel data such as the members count in the background
+    // load supplemental data such as snippets and members count in the background
     @restartableTask
     *backgroundLoaderTask() {
         yield this.store.query('snippet', {limit: 'all'});
+        this.syncMobiledocSnippets();
+    }
+
+    @action
+    syncMobiledocSnippets() {
+        const snippets = this.store.peekAll('snippet');
+
+        snippets.forEach((snippet) => {
+            if (!snippet.lexical || snippet.lexical.syncedAt && moment.utc(snippet.lexical.syncedAt).isBefore(snippet.updatedAtUTC)) {
+                const serializedLexical = mobiledocToLexical(JSON.stringify(snippet.mobiledoc));
+
+                // we get a full Lexical doc from the converter but Lexical only
+                // stores an array of nodes in it's copy/paste dataset that we use for snippets
+                const lexical = JSON.parse(serializedLexical);
+                let nodes = lexical.root.children;
+
+                // for a single-paragraph text selection Lexical only stores the
+                // text children in the nodes array
+                if (nodes.length === 1 && nodes[0].type === 'paragraph') {
+                    nodes = nodes[0].children;
+                }
+
+                const lexicalData = {
+                    namespace: 'KoenigEditor',
+                    nodes
+                };
+
+                // set syncedAt so we can check if mobiledoc has been updated in next sync
+                lexicalData.syncedAt = moment.utc().toISOString();
+
+                snippet.lexical = lexicalData;
+
+                // kick off a background save, we already have .lexical updated which is what we need
+                snippet.save();
+            }
+        });
     }
 
     /* Public methods --------------------------------------------------------*/
diff --git a/ghost/admin/app/serializers/snippet.js b/ghost/admin/app/serializers/snippet.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5811b72a26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ghost/admin/app/serializers/snippet.js
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+import ApplicationSerializer from 'ghost-admin/serializers/application';
+
+export default class PostSerializer extends ApplicationSerializer {
+    attrs = {
+        createdAtUTC: {key: 'created_at'},
+        updatedAtUTC: {key: 'updated_at'}
+    };
+}