Notice

Active development for this script has ended. Issues will no longer be looked into and no more updates will be made.

Using this script may result in your account being suspended, use at your own risk.

PyInstaLive

This Python script enables you to download ongoing Instagram livestreams as a video file.

Table of Contents

• Quickstart
• Installation
• Usage

Quickstart

• Install the prerequisites and then PyInstaLive.
• Run pyinstalive to generate a default configuration file.
• Edit the configuration file using any text editor.
• Run pyinstalive -d "<live-username>" to start downloading a livestream.

Prerequisites

• ffmpeg
• Git
• Python 3.6+
• pip + setuptools

Make sure all tools are accessible via command line (added to your PATH if on Windows, use Google).

Installation

Tip — To install PyInstaLive with the latest commit changes, remove the version tag from the install command.

Run the following command in your command line (might need to be run as administrator on Windows):

pip install git+https://github.com/dvingerh/PyInstaLive.git@4.0.2

Usage

Make sure there is a configuration file called pyinstalive.ini in the directory you want to run PyInstaLive from.

PyInstaLive will automatically generate a default configuration file for you to edit if one is not present already.

Here is an example of a valid configuration file:

[pyinstalive]
username = johndoe
password = grapefruit
download_path = 
ffmpeg_path = 
download_comments = True    
cmd_on_started =
cmd_on_ended =
clear_temp_files = False
use_locks = True
no_assemble = False
log_to_file = True

Example

pyinstalive -d "janedoe"

Below is an example of PyInstaLive's output after downloading a livestream:

> pyinstalive -d "janedoe"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[I] PYINSTALIVE (SCRIPT V4.0.2 - PYTHON V3.8.10) - 06-10-2022 05:02:02 PM
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
An existing login session file was found: johndoe.dat
Checking the validity of the saved login session.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Successfully logged in using account: johndoe
The login session file will expire on: 06-09-2023 at 12:41:55 PM
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Getting livestream information for user: janedoe
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Livestream available, starting download.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downloading livestream, press [CTRL+C] to abort.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Airing time  : 4 minutes and 45 seconds
Status       : Active
Viewers      : 75
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The livestream has been ended.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Airing time  : 6 minutes and 25 seconds
Downloaded   : 1 minutes and 21 seconds
Missing      : 5 minutes and 4 seconds
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Waiting for background tasks to finish.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saving 12 comments to text file.
Successfully saved text file: 20220610_janedoe_17905387649602356_1654873322_live.log
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Assembling segments into video file.
Successfully saved video file: 20220610_janedoe_17905387649602356_1654873322_live.mp4
---------------------------------------------------------------------------