profile profile does not exist

Author: thbsr2Created Jul 14, 2026Updated Jul 16, 2026

Labelsbug

Hi,

I am trying to use this for the first time to archive a public profile.

Here is the output that I receive:

Library/Python/3.9/bin/instaloader --reels --tagged profile nectarine         
/Users/john/Library/Python/3.9/lib/python/site-packages/urllib3/__init__.py:35: NotOpenSSLWarning: urllib3 v2 only supports OpenSSL 1.1.1+, currently the 'ssl' module is compiled with 'LibreSSL 2.8.3'. See: https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3/issues/3020
  warnings.warn(
JSON Query to graphql/query: 403 Forbidden when accessing https://www.instagram.com/graphql/query [retrying; skip with ^C]
profile: Profile profile does not exist.
JSON Query to graphql/query: 403 Forbidden when accessing https://www.instagram.com/graphql/query [retrying; skip with ^C]
nectarine: Profile nectarine does not exist.

Errors or warnings occurred:
profile: Profile profile does not exist.
nectarine: Profile nectarine does not exist.

It seems that the documentation is perhaps a bit misleading in that it suggests a syntax of instaloader profile profile_name while it seems to be parsing this in practice as an instruction to download two files, one called profile and another called profile_name. On the other hand, it is unable to find either profile in my case (profile and nectarine) and I am unsure why this could be. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

On the other hand, when querying the version, I wonder if it is OpenSSL related:

/Users/john/Library/Python/3.9/bin/instaloader --version                          
/Users/john/Library/Python/3.9/lib/python/site-packages/urllib3/__init__.py:35: NotOpenSSLWarning: urllib3 v2 only supports OpenSSL 1.1.1+, currently the 'ssl' module is compiled with 'LibreSSL 2.8.3'. See: https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3/issues/3020
  warnings.warn(
4.15.2

Thanks in advance!

Source: instaloader/instaloader

View original on GitHub View discussion on GitHub