gallery-dl Commands

A short command is easier to audit than a long copied one. Start by confirming the installed version and simulating a single supported URL. If the correct extractor appears, choose a destination and perform a small download. Add authentication only when the public request cannot provide the content your own account is permitted to access.

Options may be written before the URL, which keeps the final target easy to see. Quotes are important on every operating system: URLs can contain shell characters, and paths can contain spaces. The examples below use neutral placeholders so you can replace them without sending a URL, cookie, or local path to this website.

Ranges limit positions, while date options compare date metadata supplied by an extractor. These are different controls. A range such as 1-25 is useful for a small trial; a date window is useful for incremental collection when the site exposes dependable timestamps. Neither option should be assumed to work identically for every URL type.

Filters are Python-style expressions evaluated against extractor metadata. First run -K on the same kind of URL, identify the exact field and value type, then test the expression with --simulate. A syntactically valid filter can still exclude every item if a field is missing or its value is not what an example assumed.

gallery-dl --range "1-25" --simulate "URL"

gallery-dl --date-after 2026-01-01 --date-before 2026-06-30 --simulate "URL"

gallery-dl --filter "extension in ('jpg', 'jpeg', 'png', 'gif', 'webp')" --simulate "URL"

gallery-dl -K "URL"

A download archive stores extractor IDs after successful downloads. It is more reliable than checking filenames because names can change and files can be moved. Give recurring jobs a stable archive path, back it up with the configuration it belongs to, and avoid casually sharing one archive across unrelated jobs when you do not understand their ID formats.

Metadata sidecars are useful when you need searchable context outside the media file. ZIP output can simplify storage, but test it on a small job and keep adequate free disk space. An archive records completed items; it is not a backup of downloaded media and it does not validate the contents of files you later move or delete.

gallery-dl --download-archive "gallery-dl.sqlite3" "URL"

gallery-dl --write-metadata "URL"

gallery-dl --zip "URL"

gallery-dl --simulate --range "1-10" --download-archive "gallery-dl.sqlite3" "URL"

Troubleshooting is faster when you separate installation, configuration, URL recognition, authentication, and downloading. Check the executable version first. Then run with configuration ignored, simulate the URL, and identify the extractor. If that clean request succeeds, an older config value is likely involved. If it fails before extraction, verify the URL pattern and supported-sites documentation.

Use verbose or diagnostic output carefully because logs can contain URLs, filenames, account names, headers, or other private context. Redact those details before sharing a minimal error report. Update from the same installation channel you originally used so an older executable elsewhere on PATH does not keep winning.

gallery-dl --config-ignore --simulate "URL"

gallery-dl --config-status

gallery-dl --list-extractors

python -m pip install -U gallery-dl

Review gallery-dl commands before running them, including commands produced by this builder. Confirm the target URL, destination, cookie selector, archive database, range, date window, and filter expression. Short gallery-dl commands are easier to understand, so add one verified option at a time and keep --simulate until paths and selected items look correct.

Save recurring gallery-dl commands only after a successful limited run. Replace embedded private URLs with local variables when appropriate, protect scripts that reveal browser profiles, and record the installation method beside scheduled jobs. When gallery-dl commands stop behaving as expected, compare the saved command with a config-free simulation before rewriting multiple flags. Reviewed gallery-dl commands are reproducible evidence; copied one-liners without context are not.