How to Download All Photos from an Instagram Carousel at Once

A carousel — also called an album, slideshow or multi-photo post — is a single Instagram post with up to 20 photos and videos you swipe through. They're popular for travel dumps, recipes, tutorials and product photos. Instagram doesn't let you save them at all, and doing it with screenshots means one screenshot per slide, lower quality, and no videos.

With a carousel downloader you can save the whole post in one go, in the original quality and order.

How to download a whole carousel

1. Copy the post link. On the carousel, tap the share (paper-plane) icon or ⋯, then Copy link. It doesn't matter which slide you're on — the link is the same for the whole post.
2. Paste it into the downloader. Open the carousel downloader and tap Paste. Every slide appears in order, labelled Photo or Video and numbered like "3/8".
3. Download everything. Tap Download all (ZIP) at the top of the post. The ZIP is prepared on the server and starts downloading automatically.

What's inside the ZIP

Each file name starts with its position, followed by the account name and the post code — for example 01 - username DePApacGefe-1 … .jpg, 02 - username DePApacGefe-2 … .jpg, 03 - username DePApacGefe-3 … .mp4. Because names start with 01, 02, 03…, files stay in the Instagram order when you sort by name. Photos are JPGs in the largest size Instagram keeps; videos are standard MP4 files that play on every device.

How to open a ZIP file on your phone or computer

iPhone and iPad

Open the Files app → Downloads and tap the ZIP once. iOS creates a folder with the same name next to it. Open the folder, tap Select, select everything, tap the share icon and choose Save [n] Items to put them all into Photos at once.

Android

Open Files by Google (or My Files on Samsung), go to Downloads, tap the ZIP and choose Extract. The photos and videos then appear in your gallery.

Windows

Right-click the ZIP in your Downloads folder and choose Extract All…, or simply double-click it to open it like a folder.

Mac

Double-click the ZIP in Finder. macOS extracts it into a folder automatically.

Download only some slides

You don't have to take the whole post. Every slide has its own button — Download for photos, and Video, HD or MP3 for videos — so you can pick just the ones you want. Several downloads can run at the same time; you don't need to wait for one to finish before tapping the next.

Carousels with both photos and videos

Mixed carousels work the same way. Videos inside a carousel get the same options as a normal video: an instant Video file, an HD version, and MP3 for the sound. The ZIP includes videos in the standard MP4 quality so it can be prepared quickly. If you want a carousel video in HD, use its own HD button.

Troubleshooting

• Only one item appears — the post isn't a carousel; it's a single photo or video. The main downloader handles both.
• "This post is restricted" — the account is private or the post is age-limited. It can't be downloaded without a logged-in account.
• The ZIP takes a while — big carousels with many videos can be 50 MB or more. Preparing usually takes a few seconds; the button shows "Preparing ZIP…" until the download starts.
• The ZIP won't open — make sure the download finished completely. On iPhone, a ZIP smaller than expected usually means it was interrupted; download it again.

A note on copyright

Carousels are often a creator's best work — a full recipe, a tutorial or a photo series. Save them for your own reference, but ask before reposting, and always credit the creator if you share.

Frequently asked questions