Instagram Stories are not supported. Only public posts…

Error message

Instagram Stories are not supported. Only public posts, reels and carousels.

What it means

get_media_info explicitly rejects Instagram story URLs before any network work. is_story_url detects /stories/ path patterns, and when matched, the downloader refuses with a fixed message because stories require authentication and ephemeral API access that this platform implementation does not support.

Solutions

Don't pass story URLs to this downloader; filter them out in the caller.
Pre-validate the URL path (reject /stories/) in your own UI before invoking get_media_info.
For stories support, integrate an authenticated extraction path (e.g. yt-dlp with session cookies) instead of this platform handler.
Communicate the supported scope (public posts, reels, carousels) to end users.

Example fix

// before
let info = downloader.get_media_info(url).await?;
// after
if url.contains("/stories/") {
    anyhow::bail!("Instagram Stories are not supported by this downloader");
}
let info = downloader.get_media_info(url).await?;

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Rust: reject story URLs before invoking the downloader
fn is_story(url: &str) -> bool {
    url::Url::parse(url).ok()
        .and_then(|u| u.path().strip_prefix("/stories/").map(|_| true))
        .unwrap_or(false)
}
if is_story(url) { /* show 'stories unsupported' message, skip call */ }

Try / catch

match downloader.get_media_info(url).await {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("Stories are not supported") => {
        ui.show_message("Instagram Stories are not supported; paste a post, reel or carousel link.");
    }
    other => other?,
}

Prevention

Filter /stories/ URLs in your own input validation layer
Document supported content types (posts, reels, carousels) in the UI
Normalize share links before dispatching so story redirects are caught early
Route story URLs to a separate authenticated extractor if stories support is needed

When it happens

Trigger: Calling get_media_info (or the download flow that routes URLs to PlatformDownloader::can_handle) with an Instagram URL containing a story path, e.g. https://www.instagram.com/stories/<user>/<id>/, or via ddinstagram mirrors of story links.

Common situations: User pastes a story link into the app expecting it to behave like a post; share links that redirect to a story; automation feeding arbitrary Instagram URLs without pre-filtering story paths.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of tonhowtf/omniget@8600b91f42 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4390a16f30c956e9. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src-tauri/omniget-core/src/platforms/instagram.rs:676

        "instagram"
    }

    fn can_handle(&self, url: &str) -> bool {
        if let Ok(parsed) = url::Url::parse(url) {
            if let Some(host) = parsed.host_str() {
                let host = host.to_lowercase();
                return host == "instagram.com"
                    || host.ends_with(".instagram.com")
                    || host == "ddinstagram.com"
                    || host.ends_with(".ddinstagram.com");
            }
        }
        false
    }

    async fn get_media_info(&self, url: &str) -> anyhow::Result<MediaInfo> {
        if Self::is_story_url(url) {
            return Err(anyhow!(
                "Instagram Stories are not supported. Only public posts, reels and carousels."
            ));
        }

        let post_id = if let Some(share_id) = Self::extract_share_id(url) {
            let resolved = self.resolve_share_link(&share_id).await?;
            Self::extract_post_id(&resolved).ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("Could not extract post ID"))?
        } else {
            Self::extract_post_id(url).ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("Could not extract post ID"))?
        };

        let filename_base = format!("instagram_{}", post_id);

        let embed_result = self.request_embed(&post_id).await;
        let media = match embed_result {
            Ok(data) => Self::extract_media_from_embed(&data),
            Err(_embed_err) => match self.request_gql(&post_id).await {
                Ok(data) => Self::extract_media_from_gql(&data),

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