Bulk Downloader for Reddit
This program downloads imgur, gfycat and direct image and video links of saved posts from a reddit account. It is written in Python 3.
PLEASE post any issue you had with the script to Issues tab. Since I don't have any testers or contributers I need your feedback.
Table of Contents
Requirements
- Python 3.x*
You can install Python 3 here: https://www.python.org/downloads/
You have to check "Add Python 3 to PATH" option when installing in order it to run correctly.
*Although the latest version of python is suggested, you can use 3.6.5 since it runs perfectly on that version
Configuring the APIs
Because this is not a commercial app, you need to create an imgur developer app in order API to work.
Creating an imgur app
- Go to https://api.imgur.com/oauth2/addclient
- Enter a name into the Application Name field.
- Pick Anonymous usage without user authorization as an Authorization type*
- Enter your email into the Email field.
- Correct CHAPTCHA
- Click submit button
It should redirect to a page which shows your imgur_client_id and imgur_client_secret
*Select OAuth 2 authorization without a callback URL first then select Anonymous usage without user authorization if it says Authorization callback URL: required
Program Modes
All the program modes are activated with command-line arguments as shown here
saved mode
In saved mode, the program gets posts from given user's saved posts.
submitted mode
In submitted mode, the program gets posts from given user's submitted posts.
upvoted mode
In submitted mode, the program gets posts from given user's upvoted posts.
subreddit mode
In subreddit mode, the program gets posts from given subreddits* that is sorted by given type and limited by given number.
Multiple subreddits can be given
You may also use search in this mode. See py -3 script.py --help.
multireddit mode
In multireddit mode, the program gets posts from given user's given multireddit that is sorted by given type and limited by given number.
link mode
In link mode, the program gets posts from given reddit link.
You may customize the behaviour with --sort, --time, --limit.
You may also use search in this mode. See py -3 script.py --help.
log read mode
Two log files are created each time script.py runs.
- POSTS Saves all the posts without filtering.
- FAILED Keeps track of posts that are tried to be downloaded but failed.
In log mode, the program takes a log file which created by itself, reads posts and tries downloading them again.
Running log read mode for FAILED.json file once after the download is complete is HIGHLY recommended as unexpected problems may occur.
Running the script
WARNING DO NOT let more than 1 instance of script run as it interferes with IMGUR Request Rate.
Using the command line arguments
If no arguments are passed program will prompt you for arguments below which means you may start up the script with double-clicking on it (at least on Windows for sure).
Open up the terminal and navigate to where script.py is. If you are unfamiliar with changing directories in terminal see Change Directories in this article.
Run the script.py file from terminal with command-line arguments. Here is the help page:
ATTENTION Use .\ for current directory and ..\ for upper directory when using short directories, otherwise it might act weird.
$ py -3 script.py --help
usage: script.py [-h] [--link link] [--saved] [--submitted] [--upvoted]
[--log LOG FILE] [--subreddit SUBREDDIT [SUBREDDIT ...]]
[--multireddit MULTIREDDIT] [--user redditor]
[--search query] [--sort SORT TYPE] [--limit Limit]
[--time TIME_LIMIT] [--NoDownload]
DIRECTORY
This program downloads media from reddit posts
positional arguments:
DIRECTORY Specifies the directory where posts will be downloaded
to
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--link link, -l link Get posts from link
--saved Triggers saved mode
--submitted Gets posts of --user
--upvoted Gets upvoted posts of --user
--log LOG FILE Triggers log read mode and takes a log file
--subreddit SUBREDDIT [SUBREDDIT ...]
Triggers subreddit mode and takes subreddit's name
without r/. use "frontpage" for frontpage
--multireddit MULTIREDDIT
Triggers multireddit mode and takes multireddit's name
without m/
--user redditor reddit username if needed. use "me" for current user
--search query Searches for given query in given subreddits
--sort SORT TYPE Either hot, top, new, controversial, rising or
relevance default: hot
--limit Limit default: unlimited
--time TIME_LIMIT Either hour, day, week, month, year or all. default:
all
--NoDownload Just gets the posts and store them in a file for
downloading later
Examples
Don't include py -3 script.py part if you start the script by double-clicking
py -3 script.py .\\NEW_FOLDER --sort new --time all --limit 10 --link "https://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/search?q=dogs&restrict_sr=on&type=link&sort=new&t=month"
py -3 script.py .\\NEW_FOLDER --link "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/7mjw12/"
py -3 script.py .\\NEW_FOLDER --search cats --sort new --time all --subreddit gifs pics --NoDownload
py -3 script.py .\\NEW_FOLDER --user [USER_NAME] --submitted --limit 10
py -3 script.py .\\NEW_FOLDER --multireddit good_subs --user [USER_NAME] --sort top --time week --limit 250
py -3 script.py .\\NEW_FOLDER\\ANOTHER_FOLDER --saved --limit 1000
py -3 script.py C:\\NEW_FOLDER\\ANOTHER_FOLDER --log UNNAMED_FOLDER\\FAILED.json
FAQ
I can't startup the script no matter what.
- Try
python3orpythonorpy -3as python have real issues about naming their program
Changelog
10/07/2018
- Added support for self post
- Now getting posts is quicker