Trouble downloading multiple images from Telegram bot

Other Questions Telegram bot
1

I’m trying to get my Telegram bot to download multiple images, but I’m running into a problem. Here’s what’s happening:

def save_image(message_id, file_id, url):
    filename = f'img_{message_id}_{file_id}.jpg'
    response = requests.get(url)
    with open(filename, 'wb') as file:
        file.write(response.content)

async def handle_photos(update, context):
    for photo in update.message.photo:
        file_info = await context.bot.get_file(photo.file_id)
        url = f'https://api.telegram.org/file/bot{TOKEN}/{file_info.file_path}'
        save_image(update.message.message_id, photo.file_unique_id, url)

The code is supposed to download all images sent in a message. But it’s not working right. Even when I send multiple pictures, it just saves the first one several times with different names. How can I fix this so it actually saves each unique image?

2

I’ve dealt with this exact problem before, and it can be quite frustrating. The key is understanding how Telegram handles multiple photos in a single message. They’re not separate images, but rather different sizes of the same photo.

Here’s what worked for me:

  1. Use update.message.photo[-1] to get the largest version of the image.
  2. Implement a check to avoid duplicates based on file_unique_id.
  3. Consider using asyncio.gather() for concurrent downloads if you’re dealing with a lot of images.

Also, make sure you’re handling potential network errors when downloading. A try-except block around your requests.get() call can prevent your bot from crashing if a download fails.

Remember, Telegram has rate limits, so if you’re processing a large number of images, you might need to implement some form of throttling to avoid hitting those limits.

3

I’ve encountered a similar issue when working with Telegram bots. The problem likely stems from how Telegram handles multiple photos in a single message. Each photo is actually sent as different sizes of the same image, not as separate images.

To fix this, you should only save the largest version of each image. You can do this by sorting the photos by file size and only saving the largest one. Here’s a modified version of your handle_photos function that should work:

async def handle_photos(update, context):
    photo = update.message.photo[-1]  # Get the largest photo
    file_info = await context.bot.get_file(photo.file_id)
    url = f'https://api.telegram.org/file/bot{TOKEN}/{file_info.file_path}'
    save_image(update.message.message_id, photo.file_unique_id, url)

This should resolve your issue and ensure you’re only saving unique images.

4

hey mate, i had this prob too. try using update.message.photo[-1] to grab the biggest pic. telegram sends diff sizes, not separate images. that should fix it. good luck!