Telegram Bot Issues: Instagram Downloader Not Working on Server

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1 
Hey folks, I'm stuck with a tricky problem. My Python Telegram bot works fine on my local machine but refuses to cooperate on my DigitalOcean server. It's supposed to download Instagram posts and reels, but it's not playing ball.

Here's a snippet of what I'm working with:

```python
def fetch_insta_content(link, content_category):
    print(f"Content Category: {content_category}")

    try:
        insta = instafetcher.InstaFetcher()
        post_id = link.split('/')[-2]
        content = instafetcher.Content.from_id(insta.context, post_id)

        for _ in range(3):
            try:
                content = instafetcher.Content.from_id(insta.context, post_id)
                if content.is_clip:
                    clip_link = content.clip_link
                    reply = requests.get(clip_link)
                    if reply.status_code == 200:
                        return BytesIO(reply.content), 'clip'
                else:
                    pic_link = content.pic_link
                    reply = requests.get(pic_link)
                    if reply.status_code == 200:
                        return BytesIO(reply.content), 'pic'
            except instafetcher.exceptions.TooManyAttemptsError:
                print("Hit the rate limit. Waiting before retry...")
                time.sleep(600)
            except Exception as e:
                print(f"Attempt failed: {e}")
        print("Couldn't grab the content. Try again later.")
        return None, None

    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Unexpected hiccup: {e}")
        time.sleep(10)
        return fetch_insta_content(link, content_category)

I’ve tried swapping libraries and even changed the server’s IP, but no luck. Any ideas what might be causing this? Thanks in advance for any help!

2

yo dude, have u tried using a vpn or proxy? insta can be real picky bout server IPs. maybe try somethin like this:

proxy = {'http': 'http://user:pass@ip:port'}
reply = requests.get(clip_link, proxies=proxy)

if that dont work, u might needa look into residential proxies. they can be pricey but work like a charm for this kinda stuff

3

I’ve encountered similar issues when deploying Instagram scrapers on cloud servers. One key factor often overlooked is the user agent string. Instagram’s servers may be more suspicious of requests coming from server environments.

Try modifying your code to use a realistic user agent, like one from a popular web browser. You can do this by adding a headers dictionary to your requests:

headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/91.0.4472.124 Safari/537.36'
}
reply = requests.get(clip_link, headers=headers)

Additionally, consider implementing exponential backoff for rate limiting instead of a fixed 10-minute wait. This can help avoid triggering Instagram’s anti-bot measures.

If these don’t work, you might need to explore using a residential proxy service to make your requests appear more legitimate to Instagram’s servers.

4

Hey there, I’ve dealt with similar headaches when deploying Instagram scrapers. One thing that often flies under the radar is the importance of rotating user agents. Instagram’s pretty savvy about sniffing out server requests.

Try mixing up your user agents to mimic different browsers. You can create a list and randomly select one for each request:

import random

user_agents = [
    'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/91.0.4472.124 Safari/537.36',
    'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/14.0 Safari/605.1.15',
    'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/92.0.4515.107 Safari/537.36'
]

headers = {'User-Agent': random.choice(user_agents)}
reply = requests.get(clip_link, headers=headers)

Also, have you considered implementing a more sophisticated retry mechanism? Something like exponential backoff could help you navigate Instagram’s rate limits more smoothly.

If you’re still hitting walls, you might want to look into using a rotating proxy service. It’s not cheap, but it can be a game-changer for consistent access. Good luck!