Instapy: CRITICAL - Wrong login data!

[assafelovic]

Expected Behavior

I've been running InstaPy for quite a while now, thank you very much for this amazing community!
In the past few days, I've been running into issues logging into already verified accounts. I usually expect "Logged in successfully!" alert after starting the script from a Linux server, however, logging in fails.

Current Behavior

The login attempts fail again and again. I also can't input a verification code.
I also click on "It was me" from the mobile app, and when I try to login again it still fails.
I've took an image of the browser and this is what it shows:

InstaPy configuration

I've updated chromedriver to the latest (2.33) and am running the latest InstaPy version. I'm using a AWS linux server.

Thank you!

[TGIFelix]

Having the same issue running at digital ocean.

[timgrossmann]

@assafelovic Simply login with your account from the browser once and verify it.
Once you did, everything should work fine

[TGIFelix]

What if I'm running headless?

[nsgolosoff]

The same problem :( Instagram requires verification each time, even after logining in and verifying from browser. There were no problems three days ago

[thomasuno]

no @timgrossmann it's not working. I think we should add cookie management to the software.

I'm testing your software with some modifications to keep session cookies, and it's working. :-)

No need to log-in every time.

1) login first time with VNC and do authentication with code verification
2) save cookies
3) do instapy work and then quit

4) start again instapy? no login! load cookies and go

[nsgolosoff]

@thomasuno can you share your modifications, please?

[thomasuno]

yes @nsgolosoff I'll do here because last time I tried to commit something, someone hasn't appreciated

* file instapy.py *

1) after line self.logger.info('Logged in successfully!') add this line (Remember indentation)

pickle.dump(self.browser.get_cookies() , open("instacookies.pkl","wb"))

3) at the beginning add import pickle

4) touch file instacookies.pkl (create a blank file named that way)

---

4) NOW start a session of instapy and do verification trought vnc

5) then edit your python script and comment #session.login()
add after these lines

session.browser.get("https://www.instagram.com")
for cookie in pickle.load(open("instacookies.pkl", "rb")):
session.browser.add_cookie(cookie)

and at beginning this

import pickle

I suggest you also to edit this line sleep(5) in login_util.py and put something higher like 60 seconds because the email or sms verification doesn't arrive so quickly.

enjoy

P.S. An alternative could be using a chrome profile

[nsgolosoff]

@thomasuno Thank you very much!!

[thomasuno]

@nsgolosoff no problem. if something doesn't work maybe you need to touch the file instacookies.pkl (create it blank).

[timgrossmann]

@thomasuno Would be awesome if you could create a PR out of this once it's ready!
Thank you very much

[randysinnott]

Thanks for the cookie solution when running interactive. Is there a solution yet for running headless? I have a server that I don't have any sort of window server on as well.

[thomasuno]

@randysinnott you can try to export cookies from a live browser and then save to the headless server. maybe its going to work =)

[assafelovic]

Thank you @timgrossmann @thomasuno, however, after loading the cookies when logging back in, there's an Instagram login error with the loaded cookies.

[thomasuno]

@assafelovic , you should not login again... if you are logged in and you have cookies, no login again.

[pinnabruno]

Dear Folks,
Need help if possible on https://github.com/instabot-py/instabot.py/issues/842
i know that are other project, other developer but this cause is Same!

thank you and sorry for anything

[pinnabruno]

hi @ @timgrossmann
i like to know when u make new version with this fix, because i´ll download the project :)

thank you

[sionking]

Created PR:
https://github.com/timgrossmann/InstaPy/pull/1064

[wizarduk]

same issue happening on 10 accounts across several vps

[sojan-official]

should we work on something where right after the login, the script will check whether its the security page and issue an appropriate exception than the wrong login data ?
also if possible an interactive option in the script itself to input the code and handle this case ?

[thomasuno]

@sojan-official we can use this piece of code for it. Just need something that interact with io for the code.

THIS IS FOR GETTING PAST THE VERIFICATION BLOCK

from selenium.webdriver.common.action_chains import ActionChains
session.browser.get('https://www.instagram.com')

login_elem = session.browser.find_element_by_xpath("//article/div/div/p/a[text()='Log in']")
action = ActionChains(session.browser).move_to_element(login_elem).click().perform()

input_username = session.browser.find_elements_by_xpath("//input[@name='username']")
action = ActionChains(session.browser).move_to_element(input_username[0]).click().send_keys(session.username).perform()

input_password = session.browser.find_elements_by_xpath("//input[@name='password']")
ActionChains(session.browser).move_to_element(input_password[0]).click().send_keys(session.password).perform()

login_button = session.browser.find_element_by_xpath("//form/span/button[text()='Log in']")
action = ActionChains(session.browser).move_to_element(login_button).click().perform()

radio_button = session.browser.find_element_by_xpath("//input[@id='choice_1']")

action = ActionChains(session.browser).move_to_element(radio_button).click().perform()
sec_button = session.browser.find_element_by_xpath("//button[text()='Send Security Code']")
action = ActionChains(session.browser).move_to_element(sec_button).click().perform()

CHECK EMAIL FOR CODE AND ADD HERE

sec_input = session.browser.find_element_by_xpath("//input[@id='securityCode']")
ActionChains(session.browser).move_to_element(sec_input).click().send_keys('#### CODE GOES HERE ####').perform()

sec_button = session.browser.find_element_by_xpath("//button[text()='Submit']")
action = ActionChains(session.browser).move_to_element(sec_button).click().perform()

AT THIS POINT YOU SHOULD BE LOGGED IN AND THE COOKIES CAN BE DUMPED TO THE LOCAL FILE

[Naramsim]

If you want to get the cookie and you are using a headless instapy version (like docker-compose), you can create a SOCKS5 proxy to your machine and use Firefox to login to Instagram and save the cookie.

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-route-web-traffic-securely-without-a-vpn-using-a-socks-tunnel

[IKDH]

The bot is working with new account but is not working with old account. Maybe Instagram apply different security level to some account and block some type of connection.

[assafelovic]

Thank you everyone! Currently, it seems that this solves the issue locally on PC/Mac, however when running it headless on a Linux machine, there's an error loading the cookies - "unable to set cookie".
Any idea why this might be happening? Thanks!

[thomasuno]

@assafelovic have you created the blank file?

[gerdmueller2]

i created a socks5 proxy for my headless aws mashine and opened firefox locally, logged in successfully.
but how can i save the cookie from firefox to my aws?

created the blank file with touch file instacookies.pkl
added to my quickstart.py

#session.login()
session.browser.get('https://www.instagram.com')
for cookie in pickle.load(open("instacookies.pkl", "rb")):
      session.browser.add_cookie(cookie)

[assafelovic]

@thomasuno yes. Locally on my Mac it works perfectly, but when running on my AWS Linux server, there's an error loading the cookies.
This is the flow:

1. Created a blank file
2. Started instapy
3. Entered verification number and logged in successfully
4. Logged out
5. Started instapy again -> Error with loading cookies.

The process above worked perfectly running locally on Mac

[ethandunford]

I'm getting this error now, but nothing about suspicious login data.

• ) set up new digital ocean server 1 GB Memory with 16.04
• ) Git clone this repo and install docker
• ) Put in my user details in docker_quickstart.py

this seems so temperamental on a server

[timgrossmann]

Could you guys help test if #1066 is working correctly? Please

[ppx45]

When I follow @thomasuno 's instructions from a day ago I get this error:

for cookie in pile.load(open("instacookies.pkl", "rb")):
EOFError: Ran out of input

Please advise

[timgrossmann]

@ppx45 Nice catch!

[ppx45]

That is because the file is empty right?

[assafelovic]

@timgrossmann fixed the problem for me. However, I'd recommend combining it with @thomasuno solution, since their might be end use cases in which despite the cookies, the user is not logged in.
Also add a validation check for entering instagram.com and checking for nav == 2 after adding cookies.
All in all, great solution, thank you @sionking !

[timgrossmann]

@assafelovic Good to hear that!
Is the given solution working correctly?

If not, could you contribute the rest to make it work correctly?

[nsgolosoff]

@assafelovic Could you explain how to combine @timgrossmann and @thomasuno solutions, please? In one account everything is ok after adding cookies as timgrossmann explained, but in another one the user is not logged in. I'm new to python and selenium... Thank you!

[assafelovic]

Dumped the code here :)
In general, this is the logic:

1. Try to add cookies
2. Check if user is logged in.
3. If so, return True, else, try to log in
4. If verification code is needed, enter it and submit
5. Repeat 2

def login_user(browser, username, password, switch_language=True):
    """Logins the user with the given username and password"""

    try:
        # check if we have login cookies
        browser.get('https://www.google.com')
        for cookie in pickle.load(open("cookies/{0}.pkl".format(username), "rb")):
            browser.add_cookie(cookie)
        sleep(2)
    except Exception as e:
        print e
        print "Identified first login for user. Entering login credentials."

    browser.get('https://www.instagram.com')
    if is_logged_in(browser, username):
        return True
    # update server calls
    update_activity()

    if switch_language:
        browser.find_element_by_xpath(
            "//footer[@class='_s5vm9']/div[@class='_g7lf5 _9z659']/nav["
            "@class='_luodr']/ul[@class='_g8wl6']/li[@class='_538w0'][10]/"
            "span[@class='_pqycz _hqmnd']/select[@class='_fsoey']/option"
            "[text()='English']").click()

    # Check if the first div is 'Create an Account' or 'Log In'
    login_elem = browser.find_element_by_xpath(
        "//article/div/div/p/a[text()='Log in']")
    if login_elem is not None:
        ActionChains(browser).move_to_element(login_elem).click().perform()

    # Enter username and password and logs the user in
    # Sometimes the element name isn't 'Username' and 'Password'
    # (valid for placeholder too)
    input_username = browser.find_elements_by_xpath(
        "//input[@name='username']")

    ActionChains(browser).move_to_element(input_username[0]). \
        click().send_keys(username).perform()
    sleep(1)
    input_password = browser.find_elements_by_xpath(
        "//input[@name='password']")
    ActionChains(browser).move_to_element(input_password[0]). \
        click().send_keys(password).perform()
    sleep(1)
    login_button = browser.find_element_by_xpath(
        "//form/span/button[text()='Log in']")
    ActionChains(browser).move_to_element(login_button).click().perform()
    # update server calls
    # update_activity()

    sleep(10)

    result = is_logged_in(browser, username)
    if not result:
        result = enter_verification_code(browser, username)
    return result

def is_logged_in(browser, username):
    # Check if user is logged-in (If there's two 'nav' elements)
    nav = browser.find_elements_by_xpath('//nav')
    if len(nav) == 2:
        pickle.dump(browser.get_cookies(), open("cookies/{0}.pkl".format(username), "wb"))
        return True
    else:
        return False

def enter_verification_code(browser, username):
    phone_options = browser.find_element_by_xpath("//label[@for='choice_0']/div")
    ActionChains(browser).move_to_element(phone_options).click().perform()
    print "Clicked!"
    sleep(3)

    send_code_option = browser.find_element_by_xpath("//form/span/button[text()='Send Security Code']")
    ActionChains(browser).move_to_element(send_code_option).click().perform()
    print ">> Insert a 6 digit code:"
    code = raw_input(">>")
    print ">> Inserting {0}...".format(code)
    browser.find_element_by_xpath("//input[@id='securityCode']").send_keys(code)
    sleep(2)

    submit_code = browser.find_element_by_xpath("//form/span/button[text()='Submit']")
    sleep(1)
    ActionChains(browser).move_to_element(submit_code).click().perform()
    result = is_logged_in(browser, username)
    return result

[Phazz]

@assafelovic is sharing an updated login_util.py file. @assafelovic Can you recommend an approach for headless chrome running on a VPS?

[ceribbo]

it should be added another check: when logging just with cookies instagram can detect the suspicious login attempt so it asks if "this was or wasn't me", it should be added the check and press of the button "this was me"