Save a clip from Imgur

Two kinds of Imgur address end up in the box

An album gathers a run of pictures and clips under one title so they scroll together. It has an address of its own, and that address stands for the whole collection. A single item has a separate, shorter address that names just that picture or that clip.

Analyze works on one item. Paste an album and there is no single file to report, so the list comes back empty. That empty answer is not a failure to reach Imgur; it is the correct reading of an address that points at a set.

Getting the address of the item you actually want

Scroll the album until the clip you want is on screen. Imgur gives each item its own permanent link, reachable through the item's own controls or by opening the clip on its own page. Copy the address at that point and the ambiguity disappears.

On a phone, press and hold the clip and take the option that copies its link. Check what landed on your clipboard before you paste. An address that still carries the album title in it is the wrong one.

Animation that Imgur stores as video

Imgur converts uploaded animation into a video file, because a video of the same few seconds is a fraction of the size and plays more smoothly. The post looks like a looping animation on the page. The thing being served underneath it is an ordinary video file.

That is why the results list shows a video row for a post you would describe as a GIF. What you save is the file Imgur is serving. It loops in the browser because the page asks it to, and it plays as a short clip in a media player on your own device.

These clips carry no sound

Animation converted this way starts life without an audio track, so the video file has none to include. A silent result on a post like that is the file as published, not something lost on the way through.

Posts uploaded as real video from the start do carry their audio, and that audio travels with the row you download. The difference sits in what the person uploaded, and the results list reflects whichever it was.

Posts the uploader has taken down

Imgur posts disappear. The person who uploaded one can delete it, a post can be removed after a report, and old posts are cleared under Imgur's own rules. Once an item is gone, its address opens a page telling you so.

Our servers read that page and find no media on it, which produces an empty list. A picture of the clip in a forum thread quoting the post does not bring the file back; only a live item on Imgur has a file behind it.

Small files, and how the free limits treat them

Most Imgur clips run a few seconds and land somewhere between a fraction of a megabyte and a few megabytes. Nothing on this host strains the 150 MB ceiling that applies to a single free download.

The count is the part worth watching. Free use covers three downloads a day and resets at midnight UTC, so working through a long album exhausts it quickly. Pro removes the count, the size ceiling, and the ads. A prepared file expires on a short timer.

Somebody made the thing you are saving

Imgur is full of reposts, and the account that uploaded a clip is often not the person who made it. Keeping a copy for yourself is ordinary. Publishing it under your own name is a different act.

Vidzilla has no relationship with Imgur and cannot tell you who holds the rights to a particular clip. Where the post credits a creator, that credit is the information you have, and it costs nothing to carry it forward.

Related pages

• Animation served as video on Giphy
• Short looping clips hosted on Tenor
• Reddit posts holding several items
• Loops with a soundtrack of their own
• When the media on a page is a picture