download stories instagram with cookies
Author: malocnetCreated Sep 29, 2026Updated Oct 2, 2026
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- I'm asking a question and not reporting a bug or requesting a feature
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Please make sure the question is worded well enough to be understood
Hi everyone, I am having trouble downloading video Stories from Instagram using yt-dlp. • The Problem: I can successfully download regular Posts and Reels using my cookie file. However, when I try to download Instagram Stories using the exact same cookie file, it fails. • My Setup: I exported the cookies file from Firefox. Previously, I was able to download Instagram Stories without any issues.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Provide verbose output that clearly demonstrates the problem
- Run your yt-dlp command with -vU flag added (
yt-dlp -vU <your command line>) - If using API, add
'verbose': TruetoYoutubeDLparams instead - Copy the WHOLE output (starting with
[debug] Command-line config) and insert it below
Complete Verbose Output
==========with stories instagram =============
[debug] Command-line config: ['https://www.instagram.com/stories/dragon.2k0/', '-vU']
[debug] User config "/home/shiroe/.config/yt-dlp/config": ['--cookies', '/home/shiroe/Downloads/cookies.txt', '-o', '%(user_id)s-%(channel,uploader_id,uploader)s-%(display_id,id)s-%(playlist_index)s.%(ext)s', '-f', 'bestvideo+bestaudio/best', '--embed-subs', '--sub-langs', 'vi,en', '--embed-thumbnail', '--no-warnings']
[debug] System config "/etc/yt-dlp.conf": []
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, pref UTF-8, out utf-8, error utf-8, screen utf-8
[debug] yt-dlp version [email protected] from yt-dlp/yt-dlp [594bd50c2] (pip)
[debug] Python 3.14.4 (CPython x86_64 64bit) - Linux-7.0.0-34-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.43 (OpenSSL 3.5.5 27 Jan 2026, glibc 2.43)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 9.0.2 (fdk,setts), ffprobe 9.0.2
[debug] Optional libraries: sqlite3-3.46.1
[debug] JS runtimes: none
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib
[debug] Plugin directories: none
[debug] Loaded 1744 extractors
[debug] Fetching release info: https://api.github.com/repos/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest
Latest version: [email protected] from yt-dlp/yt-dlp
yt-dlp is up to date ([email protected] from yt-dlp/yt-dlp)
[instagram:story] Extracting URL: https://www.instagram.com/stories/dragon.2k0/
[instagram:story] dragon.2k0: Downloading webpage
[instagram:story] dragon.2k0: Downloading JSON metadata
ERROR: [instagram:story] You need to log in to access this content. Use --cookies-from-browser or --cookies for the authentication. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ#how-do-i-pass-cookies-to-yt-dlp for how to manually pass cookies
File "/home/shiroe/.local/share/pipx/venvs/yt-dlp/lib/python3.14/site-packages/yt_dlp/extractor/common.py", line 765, in extract
ie_result = self._real_extract(url)
File "/home/shiroe/.local/share/pipx/venvs/yt-dlp/lib/python3.14/site-packages/yt_dlp/extractor/instagram.py", line 745, in _real_extract
self.raise_login_required('You need to log in to access this content')
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/home/shiroe/.local/share/pipx/venvs/yt-dlp/lib/python3.14/site-packages/yt_dlp/extractor/common.py", line 1254, in raise_login_required
raise ExtractorError(msg, expected=True)
=====with reel post ======
[debug] Command-line config: ['-vU', 'https://www.instagram.com/reels/Dd3RUchoBGC/']
[debug] User config "/home/shiroe/.config/yt-dlp/config": ['--cookies', '/home/shiroe/Downloads/cookies.txt', '-o', '%(user_id)s-%(channel,uploader_id,uploader)s-%(display_id,id)s-%(playlist_index)s.%(ext)s', '-f', 'bestvideo+bestaudio/best', '--embed-subs', '--sub-langs', 'vi,en', '--embed-thumbnail', '--no-warnings']
[debug] System config "/etc/yt-dlp.conf": []
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, pref UTF-8, out utf-8, error utf-8, screen utf-8
[debug] yt-dlp version [email protected] from yt-dlp/yt-dlp [594bd50c2] (pip)
[debug] Python 3.14.4 (CPython x86_64 64bit) - Linux-7.0.0-34-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.43 (OpenSSL 3.5.5 27 Jan 2026, glibc 2.43)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 9.0.2 (fdk,setts), ffprobe 9.0.2
[debug] Optional libraries: sqlite3-3.46.1
[debug] JS runtimes: none
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib
[debug] Plugin directories: none
[debug] Loaded 1744 extractors
[debug] Fetching release info: https://api.github.com/repos/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest
Latest version: [email protected] from yt-dlp/yt-dlp
yt-dlp is up to date ([email protected] from yt-dlp/yt-dlp)
[debug] [Instagram] Found Instagram account cookies
[Instagram] Extracting URL: https://www.instagram.com/reels/Dd3RUchoBGC/
[Instagram] Dd3RUchoBGC: Downloading video info
[debug] Formats sorted by: hasvid, ie_pref, lang, quality, res, fps, hdr:12(7), vcodec, channels, acodec, size, br, asr, proto, vext, aext, hasaud, source, id
[info] Dd3RUchoBGC: Downloading 1 format(s): dash-1421250793294902v+dash-1421242596629055a
[info] There are no subtitles for the requested languages
[info] Downloading video thumbnail 13 ...
[info] Writing video thumbnail 13 to: NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.jpg
[debug] Invoking http downloader on "https://instagram.fsgn5-21.fna.fbcdn.net/o1/v/t2/f2/m367/AQPk7pWQ9Kh_jAhuKEN_LPgAa0SlB9vlYP5M12zQiC-U4jcxH_wa3Ur3hecYfiZwDW7iLdAFSAVCKEglKLtS5YH1NS9kw35OLl7CQIo.mp4?_nc_cat=107&_nc_oc=AdqzdiFx5jvPt_uO5VvkZuunvbxwlymMvIHV45K30NrR4Eu5YpHp_hemuAMNim-B-AWKuOl3PGCVsM-y3h6AHVjd&_nc_sid=9ca052&_nc_ht=instagram.fsgn5-21.fna.fbcdn.net&_nc_ohc=fwjSY435E9gQ7kNvwHjaQp4&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6ImlnLXhwdmRzLmNsaXBzLmMyLUMzLmRhc2hfcjJldmV2cDktcjFnZW4ydnA5X3E5MCIsInZpZGVvX2lkIjpudWxsLCJvaWxfdXJsZ2VuX2FwcF9pZCI6OTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5LCJjbGllbnRfbmFtZSI6ImlnIiwieHB2X2Fzc2V0X2lkIjoxNDIxMjQyMjEzMjk1NzYwLCJhc3NldF9hZ2VfZGF5cyI6MCwidmlfdXNlY2FzZV9pZCI6MTAwOTksImR1cmF0aW9uX3MiOjksImJpdHJhdGUiOjM5ODUyNDgsInVybGdlbl9zb3VyY2UiOiJ3d3cifQ%3D%3D&ccb=17-1&_nc_gid=Z16TfBEPStDYeIOBV2eu7Q&_nc_ss=7a22e&_nc_map=urlgen_bucketless&_nc_zt=28&oh=00_AQPEiI7xQJI0EV9tTDwI8xg9DQO9P3rEowHDxVAFz09eEw&oe=6AC18730"
[download] Destination: NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.fdash-1421250793294902v.mp4
[download] 100% of 4.69MiB in 00:00:00 at 22.56MiB/s
[debug] Invoking http downloader on "https://instagram.fsgn5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/o1/v/t2/f2/m78/AQPWFeRudowZdRO1wPrDMhA9lRrMFyLhqsMH1qfIPjqDmGlxtawOurmwo4s0y8qadwEf_sFHMs0j9C6RTih9OTkjYej6wYpbKLGTst0.mp4?_nc_cat=101&_nc_oc=AdoqUOkeMm8b1h05geN7OdfSdnH-Ig9wFnH4QajMoySd6s1f3BisX3Mygn1-pGa5RYbyPCbUDQ8fLlYIYvpomHfO&_nc_sid=9ca052&_nc_ht=instagram.fsgn5-1.fna.fbcdn.net&_nc_ohc=fuR_kDE8o7wQ7kNvwE4ltvO&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6ImlnLXhwdmRzLmNsaXBzLmMyLUMzLmRhc2hfbG5faGVhYWNfdmJyM19hdWRpbyIsInZpZGVvX2lkIjpudWxsLCJvaWxfdXJsZ2VuX2FwcF9pZCI6OTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5LCJjbGllbnRfbmFtZSI6ImlnIiwieHB2X2Fzc2V0X2lkIjoxNDIxMjQyMjEzMjk1NzYwLCJhc3NldF9hZ2VfZGF5cyI6MCwidmlfdXNlY2FzZV9pZCI6MTAwOTksImR1cmF0aW9uX3MiOjksImJpdHJhdGUiOjU4OTUxLCJ1cmxnZW5fc291cmNlIjoid3d3In0%3D&ccb=17-1&_nc_gid=Z16TfBEPStDYeIOBV2eu7Q&_nc_ss=7a22e&_nc_map=urlgen_bucketless&_nc_zt=28&oh=00_AQPNqKRu_i6CRTXntMrv-lqBibN7oh_AKlJDpagyP3LlmA&oe=6ABD9886"
[download] Destination: NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.fdash-1421242596629055a.m4a
[download] 100% of 71.00KiB in 00:00:00 at 1.05MiB/s
[Merger] Merging formats into "NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.mp4"
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel repeat+info -i file:NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.fdash-1421250793294902v.mp4 -i file:NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.fdash-1421242596629055a.m4a -c copy -map 0:v:0 -map 1:a:0 -movflags +faststart file:NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.temp.mp4
Deleting original file NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.fdash-1421250793294902v.mp4 (pass -k to keep)
Deleting original file NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.fdash-1421242596629055a.m4a (pass -k to keep)
[EmbedSubtitle] There aren't any subtitles to embed
[EmbedThumbnail] Neither mutagen nor AtomicParsley was found. Falling back to ffmpeg
[debug] ffprobe command line: ffprobe -hide_banner -show_format -show_streams -print_format json file:NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.mp4
[EmbedThumbnail] ffmpeg: Adding thumbnail to "NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.mp4"
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel repeat+info -i file:NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.mp4 -i file:NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.jpg -map 0 -dn -ignore_unknown -c copy -map 1 -disposition:2 attached_pic -movflags +faststart file:NA-i031101-Dd3RUchoBGC-NA.temp.mp4Source: yt-dlp/yt-dlp