[BUG] Locations are not supported any more

Question

[BUG] Locations are not supported any more

goooseman opened this issue 5 years ago · comments

Describe the bug
Instagram has made /explore/locations to be available only to logged-in users.

https://www.***.com/explore/locations/212988663 - here is the route, which is used by Instamancer. If you will open this route in your browser - it will ask to log in.

To Reproduce
instamancer location 212988663

OR

npm test -- -t "Library Classes"

Expected behavior
Location photos to be found

Output

 ● Library Classes › location

    expect(received).toBe(expected) // Object.is equality

    Expected: 10
    Received: 0

Alexander Gusman · Answer 1 · Sun Aug 11 2019 20:47:29 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

There is nothing we can do, unfortunately.

I can create a PR to remove this functionality and the tests, if you approve it.

Adam Smith · Answer 2 · Mon Aug 12 2019 06:34:09 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Damn. Thanks for spotting this. I'll give it 24 hours, then I'll remove it myself.

Adam Smith · Answer 3 · Tue Aug 13 2019 07:49:54 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

The build history matches the timeline of this: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/startup-hyp3r-saving-instagram-users-stories-tracking-locations-2019-8?r=US&IR=T

karimkairo · Answer 4 · Sun Aug 18 2019 21:21:23 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Hi, does this mean that instamancer can no longer scrape location data or do we just need to login; i.e. I wont be able to run this via instaphyte:
instaphyte location 212988663 -c 200 --filetype csv

Adam Smith · Answer 5 · Sun Aug 18 2019 21:36:23 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Because instamancer and instaphyte are intended for public data scraping, they cannot support location scraping because it is only available through signed-in accounts.

I've checked and the methods used by instamancer and instaphyte would both work with signed in accounts. They're released under the MIT license so you are allowed to copy both of these projects and modify them to work with signed-in accounts, however I cannot condone or support such usage.

karimkairo · Answer 6 · Sun Aug 18 2019 21:46:08 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Really appreciate the fast response. I understand that both scripts use public data, is there an option (or non-developer) setting I can implement to add in the login functionality, with the basic end result I used to get a month back before the IG restrctions?

…

On Sun, Aug 18, 2019 at 3:36 PM Adam Smith ***@***.***> wrote: Because instamancer and instaphyte are intended for *public* data scraping, they cannot support location scraping because it is only available through signed-in accounts. I've checked and the methods used by instamancer and instaphyte would both work with signed in accounts. They're released under the MIT license so you are allowed to copy both of these projects and modify them to work with signed-in accounts, however I cannot condone or support such usage. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#17?email_source=notifications&email_token=AM52A6LG6YW7Q5P5LYQWHK3QFFF5RA5CNFSM4IK3XDT2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOD4RAGPA#issuecomment-522322748>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AM52A6P5PR37747L5FNJ243QFFF5RANCNFSM4IK3XDTQ> .

Adam Smith · Answer 7 · Sun Aug 18 2019 21:57:25 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Currently there is no way of doing this without writing some code yourself. For instaphyte I think the only difference would be that you'd need to use cookies when requesting data from the API here.

Surprisingly I couldn't find other tools that use the same API for locations as instaphyte so I don't think I can point you somewhere else.

In the future I'd consider adding a plugin system to instamancer allowing developers to listen for events that the scraper dispatches and implement extra functionality. However I think I'd need some other use-cases to consider adding that

Adam Smith · Answer 8 · Sun Aug 18 2019 22:02:11 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Actually, instaloader does support signed-in location scraping. I'm not sure if it uses the same method that instaphyte did, but it should work.

karimkairo · Answer 9 · Sun Aug 18 2019 22:05:59 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

Thanks Adam Cant personally confirm instaloader. But managed to get signed in location scraping from instagram-scraper: *instagram-scraper -u USERNAME -p PASSWORD --location LOCATION_ID -m MAX_COUNT -t none --media-metadata* Ill revert back if I give instaloader a shot, and thanks again Adam

…

On Sun, Aug 18, 2019 at 4:02 PM Adam Smith ***@***.***> wrote: Actually, instaloader does support signed-in location scraping. I'm not sure if it uses the same method that instaphyte did, but it should work. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#17?email_source=notifications&email_token=AM52A6MKY5LPSUWZBYQVULTQFFI6HA5CNFSM4IK3XDT2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOD4RAV3A#issuecomment-522324716>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AM52A6NRU7VLYQZZRCG5SRLQFFI6HANCNFSM4IK3XDTQ> .

Adam Smith · Answer 10 · Sun Aug 18 2019 22:06:52 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

No worries, happy to help