Choosing what to download

On the Download page, two sections decide what is saved: What to download of each profile and What to save of each post. By default, the program saves posts with their pictures, videos, video thumbnails, captions and compressed metadata, and the profile picture.

Contents

• What to download of each profile
• What to save of each post
• Images of multi-image posts
• Captions and caption templates
• Examples
• Combinations that are not allowed

What to download of each profile

These switches apply to every profile target (and to the profiles of a followees target):

Switch	Default	Effect	Login	Command line
Posts	On	The profile's regular posts		--no-posts when off
Profile picture	On	The profile picture. It is saved again only when it has changed since the last download.		--no-profile-pic when off
Stories	Off	The profile's current stories, into the profile's folder	Required	--stories
Highlights	Off	The profile's story highlights, each into a subfolder named after the highlight, with its cover picture	Required	--highlights
Tagged posts	Off	Posts in which the profile is tagged, into the subfolder ：tagged (with a full-width colon)	Recommended	--tagged
Reels	Off	The profile's reels, into the profile's folder	Recommended	--reels

"Recommended" means that the program does not require you to be signed in, but Instagram may answer these requests only for signed-in users.

• To download only the profile picture, turn off everything except Profile picture (the console's --profile-pic-only).
• To download only stories, turn on Stories and turn off Posts (the console's --stories-only).
• Stories are only available for 24 hours, so download them regularly if you want to keep them. Highlights stay until the owner removes them.
• The Look up page shows whether a profile has a current story before you download it.
• Instagram refuses to list the items of some highlights (400 "invalid request"). With InstaloaderSharp 1.1.1 or later, such highlights are downloaded through Instagram's app interface instead, when you are signed in and Use iPhone API is on (Settings → Connection). If one highlight still fails, the other highlights are downloaded; older versions stop downloading the profile's highlights then.
• Reels loads each reel with a request of its own. With InstaloaderSharp 1.1.3 or later that is one request per reel when you are signed in; older versions need two. For a profile with many reels, the first download therefore takes many requests; see Troubleshooting and FAQ.
• Tagged posts loads each tagged post with a request of its own, so it takes longer than the profile's own posts. Downloading all tagged posts needs InstaloaderSharp 1.0.5 or later; older versions stop after the first few. For updates, see Tagged posts.

These switches do not affect hashtag, location, feed, saved and single-post targets, which always download posts.

See What is downloaded of each profile in the InstaloaderSharp manual.

What to save of each post

These options apply to every downloaded post, story item and reel:

Option	Default	Effect	Command line
Pictures	On	Pictures. Turning this off also skips video thumbnails. It cannot be combined with Fast update.	--no-pictures when off
Videos	On	Videos	--no-videos when off
Video thumbnails	On	The thumbnail picture of each video	--no-video-thumbnails when off
Captions	On	A .txt file with the caption of each post	--no-captions when off
Geotags	Off	The post's location, with a Google Maps link, as …_location.txt. This may need one extra request per post.	--geotags
Comments	Off	The comments of each post as …_comments.json; existing files are updated. This needs one extra request per post, and sign-in.	--comments
Metadata JSON	On	A metadata file per post with likes, comment count, location and more. It is needed to re-download posts later with a JSON target.	--no-metadata-json when off
Compress JSON	On	Store metadata as compressed .json.xz instead of readable .json. Only available while Metadata JSON is on.	--no-compress-json when off
Images of multi-image posts	All	See below	--slide

The files and their names are described in Downloaded files in the InstaloaderSharp manual, and their formats in File formats.

Images of multi-image posts

A post with several pictures or videos (a sidecar) gets one numbered file per picture or video. Images of multi-image posts downloads only some of them:

Value	Downloads
(empty)	All pictures and videos
2	Only the second
last	Only the last
2-4	The second to the fourth
3-last	From the third to the last

The value is checked as you type. An invalid value, such as 0, 4-2 or first, is reported under the targets and keeps the download from starting: Images of multi-image posts: Invalid data for --slide parameter.

See Parts of posts with several pictures.

Captions and caption templates

By default, each post's .txt file contains its caption. What is written into the file can be changed under Settings → Caption text files, for example to add the number of likes; see File and folder names. Turning Captions off creates no text files at all, and cannot be combined with a caption template.

Examples

You want	Set
Everything of a profile, including stories and highlights	Sign in; turn on Stories and Highlights
Only the stories of some profiles, to collect them daily	Sign in; turn on Stories, turn off Posts and Profile picture; see Keeping an archive up to date
Only pictures, no videos	Turn off Videos
Just the videos	Turn off Pictures (and leave Fast update off)
Readable metadata for your own tools	Turn off Compress JSON
As little as possible besides the media	Turn off Captions and Metadata JSON
The first picture of every multi-image post	Images of multi-image posts: 1

Combinations that are not allowed

Combination	Why
Pictures off with Fast update on	Fast update decides that a post was downloaded before by its picture file, which is not created. Use Remember latest downloads instead.
Captions off with a caption template	They contradict each other.

The program shows these problems under the targets and in the status bar, and does not start until they are fixed. See Combinations that are not allowed in the InstaloaderSharp manual.