Targets

A target is what you want to download: a profile, a post, a hashtag and so on. Targets are given after the options on the command line, and any number of them can be given at once.

Contents

• Overview
• Profiles
• Followees of a profile
• Single posts
• Hashtags
• Locations
• Your feed
• Stories of the accounts you follow
• Your saved posts
• Metadata files
• Several targets at once
• Invalid targets

Overview

Target	Downloads	Folder	Login required
profilename	All posts and the profile picture of a profile	profilename	Only for private profiles
@profilename	All profiles that profilename follows	one folder per profile	Yes
-- -SHORTCODE	A single post	-SHORTCODE	Only for private posts
"#hashtag"	Posts with a hashtag, and the hashtag's picture	#hashtag	Yes
%location_id	Posts tagged with a location	%location_id	Yes
:feed	Posts in your feed	：feed	Yes
:stories	Current stories of all accounts you follow	：stories	Yes
:saved	Posts you saved	：saved	Yes
file.json, file.json.xz	A post or story item again, from a metadata file saved earlier	the file's folder	Depends on the item

The folder is where the files go with the default --dirname-pattern of {target}; see File and folder names to change it. Colons are not allowed in Windows folder names, so :feed becomes ：feed with a full-width colon (U+FF1A), and the same for :stories and :saved.

Profiles

InstaloaderSharp.exe instagram

A profile is given by its username, exactly as in its URL (https://www.instagram.com/instagram/). Usernames are not case-sensitive. A trailing / is ignored, so you can use the auto-completion of your command prompt on a folder that was downloaded before.

By default this downloads the profile picture, the profile's metadata and all its posts. The options in Choosing what to download add stories, highlights, tagged posts and reels, or leave out the posts.

Private profiles can only be downloaded if you are logged in with an account that follows them. Otherwise only the profile picture and the profile's metadata are saved, and the error Login required. or Private but not followed. is reported.

Restricted profiles, for example age-restricted ones, are only shown to logged-in users. Without a login they are reported as not existing.

Renamed profiles are found again: the first download stores the profile's numeric ID in a file named id in its folder. If you later give the old name, the program looks the profile up by its ID, prints that it was renamed, and renames the folder to the new name. See Downloaded files.

Profiles that blocked you: when you are logged in and a profile cannot be found or has blocked your account, the program tries again without logging in. If the profile is public, it is then downloaded anonymously, with a warning.

Followees of a profile

InstaloaderSharp.exe --login YOUR-USERNAME @profilename

Downloads every profile that profilename follows, as if you had given all their usernames. This requires a login, and it can be a very large download. To download the posts of the accounts you follow, :feed is usually a better choice than @YOUR-USERNAME.

Single posts

InstaloaderSharp.exe -- -DdwalmrkTSK

A post (or reel) is given by its shortcode, the part after /p/ or /reel/ in its URL, written with a leading -. Because the target starts with -, it must come after --, which tells the program that no options follow. Put all options before the --:

InstaloaderSharp.exe --no-videos --comments -- -DdwalmrkTSK -DePb6WLuVae

Each post is saved in a folder named after the target, here -DdwalmrkTSK. Use --dirname-pattern "{profile}" to save it in the folder of its owner's profile instead.

Hashtags

InstaloaderSharp.exe --login YOUR-USERNAME --count 50 "#sunset"

Downloads posts with a hashtag, and the hashtag's picture. Put the target in double quotes. Instagram lists a hashtag's posts only to logged-in users. Popular hashtags have millions of posts, so use --count to limit the number.

With --no-posts only the hashtag's picture is downloaded, and with --no-profile-pic only the posts.

Locations

InstaloaderSharp.exe --login YOUR-USERNAME --count 100 %123456789

Downloads posts tagged with a location. The location is given by its numeric ID, the number in its URL https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/123456789/.... You can find the ID in the geotag file or metadata of a post tagged with the location, or by opening the location in a web browser.

Your feed

InstaloaderSharp.exe --login YOUR-USERNAME --count 100 :feed

Downloads the posts in your feed: the posts of the accounts you follow, newest first. Posts that Instagram suggests from accounts you do not follow are skipped. The feed is endless in practice, so use --count or --fast-update.

Stories of the accounts you follow

InstaloaderSharp.exe --login YOUR-USERNAME :stories

Downloads the current stories (those of the last 24 hours) of every account you follow that has one, into the folder ：stories. To download the stories of particular profiles into their own folders instead, use --stories with the profiles as targets; see Choosing what to download.

Your saved posts

InstaloaderSharp.exe --login YOUR-USERNAME :saved

Downloads the posts you saved (bookmarked) in the Instagram app or website, newest first. Only your own saved posts can be downloaded, so this needs a login.

Metadata files

InstaloaderSharp.exe instagram\2026-09-26_16-01-00_UTC.json.xz

Every downloaded post and story item has a metadata file (.json.xz or .json). Giving such a file as a target downloads the item again into the file's folder, using the information in the file. This is useful to get back pictures or videos you deleted, or to add comments or geotags to an earlier download.

The download links stored in a metadata file expire after a while. If downloading from an old file fails (for example with 403 Forbidden), download a post by its shortcode instead. Story items disappear from Instagram after 24 hours, unless they are part of a highlight.

--post-filter and --storyitem-filter apply to these targets too. A profile's metadata file (profilename_12345.json.xz) cannot be used as a target: give the username instead.

Several targets at once

Targets of any kind can be mixed:

InstaloaderSharp.exe --login YOUR-USERNAME --stories profile1 profile2 "#cats" :saved

Hashtags, locations, single posts, :feed, :stories, :saved and metadata files are downloaded in the order given. Profiles are collected first and then downloaded one after the other, in the order given ([1/2] Downloading profile profile1). Stories of all profiles requested with --stories are downloaded together after the profiles.

An error with one target does not stop the others: it is printed, the program continues with the next target, and all errors are repeated at the end. The exit code is then 1.

Long lists of targets can be kept in a text file; see Command-line options.

Invalid targets

Usernames can contain letters, digits, . and _; hashtags can contain letters, digits and _; location IDs only digits. Anything else is reported as an error such as Invalid username my-profile. A shortcode given without -- in front is taken as an option and reported as an unknown argument.