Flickr Download

Introduction

Simple script to download a Flickr set.

To use it you need to get your own Flickr API key here: https://www.flickr.com/services/api/misc.api_keys.html

flickr_download -k <api key> -s <api secret> -d <set id>

It can also list the public set ids for a given user:

flickr_download -k <api key> -s <api secret> -l <user name>

The user name can be passed in as a URL, email, or user name.

Get a public set using the title and id to name the downloaded files:

flickr_download -k <api key> -s <api secret> -d <set id> -n title_and_id

Download private or restricted photos by authorizing against the users account. (see below)

Installation

To install this script use the Python pip utility bundled with your Python distribution:

> pip install flickr_download

API key

Get your Flickr API key.

You can also set your API key and secret in ~/.flickr_download:

api_key: my_key
api_secret: my_secret

User Authentication Support

The script also allows you to authenticate as a user account. That way you can download sets that are private and public photos that are restricted. To use this mode, initialize the authorization by running the script with the t parameter to authorize the app.

flickr_download -k <api key> -s <api secret> -t

This will save ~/.flickr_token containing the authorization. Subsequent calls with -t will use the stored token. For example using

flickr_download -k <api key> -s <api secret> -l <USER>

with USER set to your own username, will only fetch your publicly available sets, whereas adding -t

flickr_download -k <api key> -s <api secret> -l <USER> -t

will fetch all your sets including private restricted sets.

Note, if you want to log in as another user delete ~/.flickr_token.

Downloading a lot of photos

If you are downloading a lot of photos, two parameters will speed things up. Especially on errors (which the Flickr API seems to like to throw regularly). Those parameters are:

--cache <cache_file> – this will cache API responses in the given file, and will thus speed up repeated calls to the same API
--metadata_store - this will store metadata information for the set downloads in .metadata.db, which makes it faster to skip already downloaded files.

So to download all the sets for a given user XXX, including private photos and sets, do:

> flickr_download.py -api_key KEY -api_secret SECRET --user_auth --cache api_cache --metadata_store --download_user XXX

Optional arguments

-h, --help            show this help message and exit
-k API_KEY, --api_key API_KEY
                        Flickr API key
-s API_SECRET, --api_secret API_SECRET
                        Flickr API secret
-t, --user_auth       Enable user authentication
-l USER, --list USER  List photosets for a user
-d SET_ID, --download SET_ID
                        Download the given set
-p USERNAME, --download_user_photos USERNAME
                        Download all photos for a given user
-u USERNAME, --download_user USERNAME
                        Download all sets for a given user
-i PHOTO_ID, --download_photo PHOTO_ID
                        Download one specific photo
-q SIZE_LABEL, --quality SIZE_LABEL
                        Quality of the picture. Examples: Original/Large/Medium/Small. By default the largest available is used.
-n NAMING_MODE, --naming NAMING_MODE
                        Photo naming mode. Use --list_naming to get a list of possible NAMING_MODEs
-m, --list_naming     List naming modes
-o, --skip_download   Skip the actual download of the photo
-j, --save_json       Save photo info like description and tags, one .json file per photo
-c CACHE_FILE, --cache CACHE_FILE
                        Cache results in CACHE_FILE (speed things up on large downloads in particular)
--metadata_store      Store information about downloads in a metadata file (helps with retrying downloads)
-v, --verbose         Turns on verbose logging
--version             Lists the version of the tool