Issue with downloading Instagram pictures and videos

[far14c]

OS: Windows 11 24H2 (OS Build 26100.7462) x86_64 v2

C:\Downloaded>gallery-dl https://www.instagram.com/steezystudio/ --cookies C:\Users\Lenovo\Downloads\cookies.facebook.txt --verbose
[gallery-dl][debug] Version 1.30.10 - Executable (stable/windows)
[gallery-dl][debug] Python 3.13.7 - Windows-11-10.0.26100-SP0
[gallery-dl][debug] requests 2.32.5 - urllib3 2.5.0
[gallery-dl][debug] Configuration Files ['%APPDATA%\\gallery-dl\\config.json']
[gallery-dl][debug] Starting DownloadJob for 'https://www.instagram.com/steezystudio/'
[instagram][debug] Using InstagramUserExtractor for 'https://www.instagram.com/steezystudio/'
[instagram][debug] Using InstagramPostsExtractor for 'https://www.instagram.com/steezystudio/posts/'
[instagram][debug] cookies: Loading cookies from 'C:\Users\Lenovo\Downloads\cookies.facebook.txt'
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] Starting new HTTPS connection (1): www.instagram.com:443
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] https://www.instagram.com:443 "GET /api/v1/users/web_profile_info/?username=steezystudio HTTP/1.1" 200 1905
[instagram][debug] Sleeping 9.17 seconds (request)
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] https://www.instagram.com:443 "GET /api/v1/feed/user/1551933355/?count=30 HTTP/1.1" 302 0
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] https://www.instagram.com:443 "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 None
[instagram][error] An unexpected error occurred: JSONDecodeError - Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0). Please run gallery-dl again with the --verbose flag, copy its output and report this issue on https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl/issues .
[instagram][debug]
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "gallery_dl\job.py", line 152, in run
  File "gallery_dl\extractor\instagram.py", line 77, in items
  File "gallery_dl\extractor\instagram.py", line 953, in _pagination
  File "gallery_dl\extractor\instagram.py", line 944, in _call
  File "gallery_dl\extractor\common.py", line 273, in request_json
  File "json\decoder.py", line 345, in decode
  File "json\decoder.py", line 363, in raw_decode
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

Get this on any URLs despite cookies always renewed

[mikf]

For whatever reason, you are getting redirected to the home page when requesting user posts:

[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] https://www.instagram.com:443 "GET /api/v1/feed/user/1551933355/?count=30 HTTP/1.1" 302 0
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] https://www.instagram.com:443 "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 None

Works on my machine ™️ by the way:

$ gallery-dl -v https://www.instagram.com/steezystudio/
[gallery-dl][debug] Version 1.31.1-dev - Git HEAD: 7362e8ac
[gallery-dl][debug] Python 3.13.11 - Linux-6.17.9-arch1-1-x86_64-with-glibc2.42
[gallery-dl][debug] requests 2.32.5 - urllib3 2.6.2
[gallery-dl][debug] Configuration Files ['${HOME}/.gallery-dl.conf']
[gallery-dl][debug] Starting DownloadJob for 'https://www.instagram.com/steezystudio/'
[instagram][debug] Using InstagramUserExtractor for 'https://www.instagram.com/steezystudio/'
[instagram][debug] Using InstagramPostsExtractor for 'https://www.instagram.com/steezystudio/posts/'
[instagram][debug] cookies: Loading cookies from '/home/mike/cookies-instagram-com.txt'
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] Starting new HTTPS connection (1): www.instagram.com:443
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] https://www.instagram.com:443 "GET /api/v1/users/web_profile_info/?username=steezystudio HTTP/1.1" 200 1904
[instagram][debug] Sleeping 7.05 seconds (request)
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] https://www.instagram.com:443 "GET /api/v1/feed/user/1551933355/?count=30 HTTP/1.1" 200 133721
./instagram/idl.co/3654223537755407656.mp4
./instagram/idl.co/3652791038571463392.mp4
./instagram/steezystudio/3022294257957946006_3022294252169726619.jpg

[far14c]

Is there a likelihood this is the case is where Instagram ban gallery-dl per browser/user agent/device due to botting behavior?

[hrxn]

Not sure, any issues with using Instagram in your browser?

[EuropaYou]

This error occurs when you get rate limited on an endpoint. When rate limited, it redirects you to the homepage. You might get this error on the /posts endpoint, but not on the /stories endpoint. The error resolves itself if you don't send requests to that endpoint for a certain period of time.

Replacing https://www.instagram.com/steezystudio/ with https://www.instagram.com/id:1551933355 may fix the issue.

As far as I can remember, when JSONDecodeError is thrown it stops and skips. To continue downloading profile regardless if one endpoint is rate limited I have done some changes to this line.

try:
    data = self._call(endpoint, params=params)
except json.JSONDecodeError:
    self.extractor.log.warning("Instagram API returned empty response")
    raise ValueError("Instagram API returned empty response") from None