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Ability to download thumbnails only for browsing, and download full version of only select images?

Open miscellaneous5572 opened this issue 11 months ago • 2 comments

I have skimmed/searched the documentation but haven't found anything that indicates this is already possible, but it is a large tool so it may be.

I have been using imgbrd-grabber and the process has been relatively straightforward:

  • Add tags to blacklist (tool filters results post-fetch)
  • Select sites
  • Search sites for images w/ certain tags
  • Download some number of thumbnails (faster viewing, as opposed to downloading full images from the start)
  • Browse cached thumbnails
  • Open an image (this downloads the full version)
  • Save locally

With Hydrus (correct me if I'm wrong), it seems like the process is just to download all images for specific tags (and other metadata).

Is this process possible with Hydrus, or could it be feasible to add? I like the database style of Hydrus and it seems more actively maintained. I'm just not sure if these are two totally different tools or not.

miscellaneous5572 avatar Jan 05 '25 12:01 miscellaneous5572

Are you saying you want to:

"Download temporary thumbs to select images to download, then discard the thumbs"

Or

"Download and keep thumbs so whenever I want to look at images, I just have to download the image"

karikamiya avatar Jan 06 '25 06:01 karikamiya

Are you saying you want to:

"Download temporary thumbs to select images to download, then discard the thumbs" Or "Download and keep thumbs so whenever I want to look at images, I just have to download the image"

I suppose it's a hybrid of the two, but closer to the former. I'd like to have the initial download only be thumbs (to search/download way faster), and then instead of "filtering" through every single image, I'd like to be able to open an image in media viewer (which downloads the full image), and optionally archive it.

So the process could be like this:

  • Download 1000 temporary thumbs
  • Open an image in the media viewer (triggers full download)
  • Archive/delete (like filtering)
  • Then, either of two things:
    • Advance to the next image (triggers full download, bonus points for option to prefetch the next image)
    • Exit media viewer (back to browsing thumbs)

If this functionality isn't already possible somehow, I could see a simple option like "Initially download thumbnails instead of full image".

miscellaneous5572 avatar Jan 06 '25 19:01 miscellaneous5572

Thanks for the suggestion. I am afraid I do not think I will ever find time to do this. It would take a reinvention of the hydrus download system and the related UI presentation. The idea has come up a few times before.

The hydrus download system tends to be geared more towards automation and syncing to everything and having you clear out what you don't want after the fact with archive/delete filter and so on. I strongly recommend you shape your download queries to exactly what you like. Don't do 'blue_eyes', because you'll be overwhelmed with 98% stuff you didn't want.

If you want to browse a potential query, I recommend you just do it in your web browser. Or you could even do it with imgbrd-grabber, which is a great tool in its own right.

If you only want like five things, remember that you can drag and drop single URLs straight on the program and it'll add them to a new 'urls' downloader page.

So, sorry, but I'll close this. I don't have time for it.

hydrusnetwork avatar Feb 24 '25 23:02 hydrusnetwork