Download all files from a Slack workspace export folder.

slack-files-downloader.sh

#!/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 $file | jq -c '.[].files[0] | [.title, .url_private_download, .filetype] | del(..|nulls)' | sed 's/ //g')
			do
				filetype=$(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
						
						if [ -f "export/$channel/$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

						url=$(echo $a | jq -rc '.[1]')
						
						curl --progress-bar $url -o "export/$channel/$filename"
					fi
				fi
			done
		done
	fi
done

This iteration will rename files if the same name exist

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 $file | jq -c '.[].files[0] | [.title, .url_private_download, .filetype] | del(..|nulls)' | sed 's/ //g')
        do
            filetype=$(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 ]] && [[ $filename_raw != "null" ]]
                then
                    if [ -f "export/$channel/$filename" ] && [[ $overwrite != true ]]
                    then
                        base="${filename%.*}"
                        extension="${filename##*.}"
                        counter=1
                        new_filename="${base}$(printf "%04d" $counter).${extension}"

                        while [ -f "export/$channel/$new_filename" ]; do
                            counter=$((counter + 1))
                            new_filename="${base}$(printf "%04d" $counter).${extension}"
                        done

                        filename=$new_filename
                    fi

                    printf "Downloading $filename...\n"
                    
                    mkdir -p "export/$channel"

                    url=$(echo $a | jq -rc '.[1]')
                    
                    curl --progress-bar $url -o "export/$channel/$filename"
                fi
            fi
        done
    done
fi

done

Thanks a lot for this script! Mostly worked as I hoped, but I used @adamwulf's fork, that adds sub-folders for year and month.

Two suggestions (see my fork):

• Use .name instead of .title as base for $filename, b/c the title field sometimes had the file extension omitted in our export (e.g. files uploaded from iOS).
• Check for .is_external, to see if the file can be downloaded from notion, or is hosted somewhere else (e.g. Google Docs have this set). The script threw errors, b/c .url_private_download is empty in that case, which I solved by adding, .external_url and moving both url fields to the end of the initial filter. This way when null entries are removed, the last entry will either contain the Notion download url, or the external url – check against the external flag, to know which one it is.

Attention: I just realized, that if there are multiple files per message, only the first one will be downloaded! Instead of filtering '.[].files[0]', you can filter '.[].files[]?', which will iterate all files, if any are available. This also is much faster for channels with many messages, that don't contain files!