Command Line Options¶

Targets¶

Specify a list of targets. For each of these, Instaloader creates a folder and stores all posts along with the pictures’s captions there.

Instaloader supports the following targets:

• profile

  Public profile, or private profile with --login.

  If an already-downloaded profile has been renamed, Instaloader automatically finds it by its unique ID and renames the folder accordingly.

  Besides the profile’s posts, its current profile picture is downloaded. For each profile you download,

  • --stories

    instructs Instaloader to also download the user’s stories,

  • --highlights

    to download highlights of each profile that is downloaded,

  • --tagged

    to download posts where the user is tagged, and

  • --igtv

    to download IGTV videos.

• "#hashtag"

  Posts with a certain hashtag (the quotes are usually necessary),

• %location id

  Posts tagged with a given location; the location ID is the numerical ID Instagram labels a location with (e.g. https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/362629379/plymouth-naval-memorial/). Requires --login.

  New in version 4.2.

• :stories

  The currently-visible stories of your followees (requires --login),

• :feed

  Your feed (requires --login),

• :saved

  Posts which are marked as saved (requires --login),

• @profile

  All profiles that are followed by profile, i.e. the followees of profile (requires --login).

• -post

  Replace post with the post’s shortcode to download single post. Must be preceeded by -- in the argument list to not be mistaken as an option flag:

  instaloader -- -B_K4CykAOtf
  

  New in version 4.1.

• filename.json[.xz]

  Re-Download the given object

• +args.txt

  Read targets (and options) from given textfile. See +args.txt.

What to Download of each Post¶

--no-pictures¶

Do not download post pictures. Cannot be used together with --fast-update. Implies --no-video-thumbnails, does not imply --no-videos.

New in version 4.1.

--no-videos, -V¶

Do not download videos.

--no-video-thumbnails¶

Do not download thumbnails of videos.

--geotags, -G¶

Download geotags when available. Geotags are stored as a text file with the location’s name and a Google Maps link. This requires an additional request to the Instagram server for each picture. Requires --login.

--comments, -C¶

Download and update comments for each post. This requires an additional request to the Instagram server for each post, which is why it is disabled by default.

--no-captions¶

Do not create txt files.

--post-metadata-txt¶

Template to write in txt file for each Post. See Metadata Text Files.

--storyitem-metadata-txt¶

Template to write in txt file for each StoryItem. See Metadata Text Files.

--no-metadata-json¶

Do not create a JSON file containing the metadata of each post.

--no-compress-json¶

Do not xz compress JSON files, rather create pretty formatted JSONs.

What to Download of each Profile¶

--profile-pic-only, -P¶

Deprecated since version 4.1: Use --no-posts.

Only download profile picture.

--no-posts¶

Do not download regular posts.

New in version 4.1.

--no-profile-pic¶

Do not download profile picture.

--stories, -s¶

Also download stories of each profile that is downloaded. Requires --login.

--highlights¶

Also download highlights of each profile that is downloaded. Requires --login.

New in version 4.1.

--tagged¶

Also download posts where each profile is tagged.

New in version 4.1.

--igtv¶

Also download IGTV videos.

New in version 4.3.

--stories-only¶

Deprecated since version 4.1: Use --stories --no-posts.

Rather than downloading regular posts of each specified profile, only download stories. Requires --login. Does not imply --no-profile-pic.

Note

If possible, use :stories target rather than --stories-only with all your followees. :stories uses fewer API requests.

Which Posts to Download¶

--fast-update, -F¶

For each target, stop when encountering the first already-downloaded picture. This flag is recommended when you use Instaloader to update your personal Instagram archive.

--post-filter filter, --only-if filter¶

Expression that, if given, must evaluate to True for each post to be downloaded. Must be a syntactically valid Python expression. Variables are evaluated to instaloader.Post attributes. Example: --post-filter=viewer_has_liked. See Filter Posts for more examples.

--storyitem-filter filter¶

Expression that, if given, must evaluate to True for each storyitem to be downloaded. Must be a syntactically valid Python expression. Variables are evaluated to instaloader.StoryItem attributes. See Filter Posts for more examples.

--count COUNT, -c¶

Do not attempt to download more than COUNT posts. Applies only to #hashtag, %location id, and :feed.

Login (Download Private Profiles)¶

Instaloader can login to Instagram. This allows downloading private profiles. To login, pass the --login option. Your session cookie (not your password!) will be saved to a local file to be reused next time you want Instaloader to login.

--login YOUR-USERNAME, -l YOUR-USERNAME¶

Login name (profile name) for your Instagram account.

--sessionfile SESSIONFILE, -f SESSIONFILE¶

Path for loading and storing session key file. Defaults to ~/.config/instaloader/session-YOUR-USERNAME.

--password YOUR-PASSWORD, -p YOUR-PASSWORD¶

Password for your Instagram account. Without this option, you’ll be prompted for your password interactively if there is not yet a valid session file.

Warning

Using --password option is discouraged for security reasons. Enter your password interactively when asked, or use the sessionfile feature (--sessionfile to customize path).

How to Download¶

--dirname-pattern DIRNAME_PATTERN¶

Name of directory where to store posts. {profile} is replaced by the profile name, {target} is replaced by the target you specified, i.e. either :feed, #hashtag or the profile name. Defaults to {target}. See Filename Specification.

--filename-pattern FILENAME_PATTERN¶

Prefix of filenames, relative to the directory given with --dirname-pattern. {profile} is replaced by the profile name, {target} is replaced by the target you specified, i.e. either :feed, #hashtag or the profile name. Defaults to {date_utc}_UTC. See Filename Specification for a list of supported tokens.

--user-agent USER_AGENT¶

User Agent to use for HTTP requests. Per default, Instaloader pretends being Chrome/51.

--max-connection-attempts N¶

Maximum number of connection attempts until a request is aborted. Defaults to 3. If a connection fails, it can be manually skipped by hitting Control-c. Set this to 0 to retry infinitely.

--commit-mode¶

Tries to ensure downloaded images avoid corruption in case of unexpected interruption. If the last picture is corrupted, Instaloader will fix the picture the next time it is run.

New in version 4.2.

Warning

We discourage from using the “commit mode” due to its bugs when being used with other command line options (e.g. Issue #257 with --fast-update and Issue #483 with --tagged).

--request-timeout N¶

Seconds to wait before timing out a connection request.

New in version 4.3.

Miscellaneous Options¶

--quiet, -q¶

Disable user interaction, i.e. do not print messages (except errors) and fail if login credentials are needed but not given. This is handy for running Instaloader as Cronjob.

+args.txt¶

Read arguments from file args.txt, a shortcut to provide arguments from file rather than command-line. This provides a convenient way to hide login info from CLI, and can also be used to simplify managment of long arguments.

Note

Text file should separate arguments with line breaks.

args.txt example:

--login=MYUSERNAME
--password=MYPASSWORD
--fast-update
profile1
profile2

New in version 4.1.