Keep getting challenged

[mitmarcus]

How do you stop from instagram challenging your attempts?

[misiektoja]

Hey,

Most likely your IP has been flagged as an automated tool by Instagram security mechanisms.

It typically happens if the checking interval is too aggressive (I keep it normally higher than 12 hours) or if you monitor too many users from the same account.

Also some actions have higher chance to flag your account, for example I noticed if the user you monitor has huge number of followers/followings then Instagram picks it up and presents a challenge (you can disable getting those lists by using -f and -g parameters).

You might also try to increase POST_FETCH_DELAY and NEXT_OPERATION_DELAY and randomise the checking interval by using -i and -j parameters.

I also normally log in using Firefox and then copy the cookies file and import it via instaloader, in such case even if I get email notification about required challenge then I can solve it easily using Firefox on my desktop (normally it requires clicking a button only) and then the tool resumes normal operation (since it uses the same session cookie as Firefox web browser). It is described in the tool's description how to do this.

Unfortunately I noticed that Instagram is more picky about usage of such automated tools recently and it gets harder every day.