FAQ

FAQ

Why is the scraper so slow?

Instagram tries to prevent scraping. To that end, when it detects automatic access to its data it will block access. One way to prevent this is to leave enough time between requests to the site that Instagram's scrape detection is not triggered. Unfortunately, this has the obvious side effect of making scrapes slower.

Scraping comments will also make scraping considerably slower as each comment requires extra requests to Instagram.

Why is the app so big?

The app itself is relatively small, written in the Python programming language. To run Python code, your computer needs all kinds of extra data and files. These are included with the stand-alone apps you can download for Windows and macOS, making the downloads relatively large for such a small app. If this is an issue, check whether you have Python installed on your computer already, and run the app through the 'Via pip' method described in the readme.

What should I do if I found a bug?

Please create an issue or send an e-mail to [email protected]. It helps to include a screenshot of the app at the moment the bug occurred.

Why can't I do [x] with this app?

This app was created for a number of specific use cases - particularly the scraping of posts from user or hashtag pages. Instaloader, the scraping technology underlying this app, can do more than that. Some of this functionality may be implemented in the future, but for now the app does what it was meant to do. Feel free to post a feature request as an issue, though!