4Chan Thread Downloader

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 18, 2010
Updated • Dec 26, 2012
Software, Windows software
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16

Hate it or love it. The 4Chan message board is without doubt one of the most controversial sites on the Internet. Not only because of the contents posted on the site, but also the infamous site raids planned and executed there.

The 30-or-so boards cater to a specific audience, and is largely concentrating on Japanese culture, adult contents, creative categories and interests. The 558 million posts speak for themselves.

Many threads offer a wealth of images that are posted by 4Chan users, and while it is perfectly possible to download them one-by-one in the web browser, it usually makes more sense to automate the process as much as possible.

The free software 4Chan Thread downloader is an application for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It can be used to add threads from 4Chan, which are then automatically downloaded to the local computer system.

New download jobs can be started from the Add 4Chan thread button in the application interface. The program automatically fills out the 4Chan url with the clipboard contents to simplify the process. Downloads begin automatically once the url has been added and a download directory selected.

Download jobs are displayed in a queue on the left side, while preview images of the downloaded images are shown on the right.

4chan thread downloader
4chan thread downloader

One interesting aspect of the program is that it will continue to check the threads for new images after the initial download, for as long as the threads remain in the download queue, and the program is running.

That's a good option to never miss a single picture posted to favorite threads.

The 4Chan Thread Downloader is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows. It requires not installation and can be run from the directory it was saved to. The portable program can be downloaded from the developer website.

Update: The program homepage is no longer available. We have removed the link to it as a consequence and suggest you use the 4Chan Downloader application instead which is actively maintained.

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Comments

  1. ano said on April 26, 2012 at 4:16 pm
    Reply

    I tried all 4chan downloaders on sourceforge and none works, download them all Firefox extension rocks, I already know it but didn’t have it, it beats anything !!!

    1. ano said on April 26, 2012 at 4:18 pm
      Reply

      DownThemAll! , the correct name

  2. Anonymous said on September 19, 2011 at 3:06 pm
    Reply

    Now how should I do to make it download all new content as the thread develops? I have checked the rescan box, and also I have put the timer on 30 secs until rescan. I have been staring at it for five minutes without it rescanning the new pics in the thread.

  3. zer0nix said on May 11, 2011 at 11:56 pm
    Reply

    it’s too bad this program only downloads the pictures rather than the whole thread.

  4. Anonymous said on August 20, 2010 at 3:45 pm
    Reply

    Making an article on it is stupid
    Stop bringing unwanted attention to a site that clearly doesn’t want it

    1. in.cog.nito said on August 20, 2010 at 5:47 pm
      Reply

      No, your comments are stupid, it doesn’t link the website, it talks about things that help users use the site.

  5. Mike said on August 19, 2010 at 11:46 am
    Reply

    For programmers there’s:

    wget 4chan (google it)

  6. Mike said on August 19, 2010 at 11:40 am
    Reply

    And for those of us who don’t use Windows but do use firefox, there’s

    DownthemAll

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201/

    and for Opera, there’s:

    Panels / View Links

    Right Click (Save Linked Content)

    1. in.cog.nito said on August 19, 2010 at 5:07 pm
      Reply

      @Mike
      DownloadThemAll is a great plugin for firefox, however does it monitor a topic and continue to download new images as the thread develops?, I don’t think it has that type of functionality.

      1. Mike said on August 19, 2010 at 11:03 pm
        Reply

        in.cog.nito you’re right, it doesn’t. I don’t know of a comparable non-windows app that
        does.

        For what DownloadThemAll does do, as an alternative, it’s workable, even if it doesn’t
        download new images. There is the ability to simply run it twice on the same thread,
        where it finds identical images you’ll be asked for further options, one of which is to
        skip existing files.

        Opera for that matter doesn’t have identical functionality. There’s a choice between
        doing it ALL the hard way or taking advantage of tools that will at least meet you somewhere
        at or near the middle.

        These are non-windows alternatives. Ideally, it’d be nice to have a non-windows (linux / mac)
        version of(or knockoff of) the 4Chan Thread Downloader.

        Anyone?

  7. Transcontinental said on August 19, 2010 at 8:42 am
    Reply

    Neither hate nor love: lack of interest
    The website’s philosophy is the exact opposite of what I conceive the Web and the Internet to be, that is broad-minded.

  8. in.cog.nito said on August 19, 2010 at 1:56 am
    Reply

    i will take a look but:

    http://sites.google.com/site/chanthreadwatch/

    i believe may still have better options.

  9. god said on August 19, 2010 at 12:48 am
    Reply

    http://illmob.org/files/%5Bb%5Drowser.zip

    Downloads images from /b/ but saves in memory and never touches your disk, so you dont have child pr0n hanging out in your system

  10. in.cog.nito said on August 18, 2010 at 5:09 pm
    Reply

    Can you select destination folder?

    Does it save the images or does it save the entire topic posts +.html and all as chan ThreadWatch used to before they dropped the .html from the code in the urls.

    1. Martin said on August 18, 2010 at 5:11 pm
      Reply

      You can select download folders for each thread individually. The add-on only saves the images, no post contents or html.

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