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@adamwulf
Forked from greird/slack-files-downloader.sh
Last active July 17, 2026 17:19
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Download all files from a Slack workspace export folder.
#!/bin/bash
#
# This script will browse a Slack export folder and download all files in a new /export folder
#
# HOW TO:
# 1. As a Workspace admin, download an export of your Slack history (https://www.slack.com/services/export)
# 2. Make sure you have jq installed (https://stedolan.github.io/jq/)
# 3. Place this file at the root of your Slack export folder, next to channels.json
# 4. Run `bash slack-files-downloader.sh` in your terminal
#
# OPTIONS
# -o Overwrite files if they already exist in destination folder, otherwise skip them.
# -s Do not show message when a file is skipped
while getopts "os" flag
do
case $flag in
o) overwrite=true;;
s) silent=true;;
esac
done
printf "\nSelect one specific file type to download or leave empty for any (e.g. mp3, binary, jpg, png):\n"
read usertype
printf "\nSelect a channel to look into or leave empty for all channels:\n"
read userchannel
for channel in $(cat channels.json | jq -rc '.[].name')
do
if [[ $channel == $userchannel ]] || [[ -z $userchannel ]]
then
printf "\n============================================\nLooking into #$channel...\n============================================\n"
for file in "$channel"/*.json
do
for a in $(cat $file | jq -c '.[].files[]? | [.title, .url_private_download, .filetype, .timestamp] | del(..|nulls)' | sed 's/ //g')
do
filetype=$(echo $a | jq -r '.[2]')
if [[ $filetype == $usertype ]] || [[ -z $usertype ]] || [[ -z $filetype ]]
then
filename_raw=$(echo $a | jq -r '.[0]')
filename=$(echo $filename_raw | sed -e 'y/āáǎàçēéěèīíǐìōóǒòūúǔùǖǘǚǜüĀÁǍÀĒÉĚÈĪÍǏÌŌÓǑÒŪÚǓÙǕǗǙǛÜ/aaaaceeeeiiiioooouuuuuuuuuAAAAEEEEIIIIOOOOUUUUUUUUU/')
filename="${filename##*/}"
if [[ ! -z $filename_raw ]] && [[ $filename_raw != "null" ]]
then
ts=$(echo $a | jq -r '.[3]')
year=$(date -r $ts '+%Y')
month=$(date -r $ts '+%m')
# prefix filenames with date/time, as the same filename could be used
# multiple times in different slack messages with different file contents.
datetime=$(date -r $ts '+%Y%m%d-%H%M%S')
filename="${datetime}-${filename}"
if [ -f "export/$channel/$year/$month/$filename" ] && [[ $overwrite != true ]]
then
if [[ $silent != true ]]
then
printf "$filename already exists in destination folder. Skipping!\n"
fi
continue
fi
printf "Downloading $filename...\n"
mkdir -p export/$channel/$year/$month
url=$(echo $a | jq -rc '.[1]')
printf "downloading to export/$channel/$year/$month/$filename with $ts\n"
curl --progress-bar $url -o "export/$channel/$year/$month/$filename"
fi
fi
done
done
fi
done
@luvcraft

luvcraft commented Jul 17, 2026

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I had to add:
channel=${channel//$'\r'/}
right before:
printf "\n============================================\nLooking into #$channel...\n============================================\n"

because there were some \r's sneaking in there and breaking all kinds of stuff.

and I also had to use datetime=$(date '+%H%M%S') because the datetime format you have gave me an empty string. Likewise with your year and month strings.

This is possibly all because I'm using Git Bash on Windows rather than a real bash client.

But now that I've done all that it seems pretty happy! Thanks!

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