The regular zip-file download is great when you're downloading only a handful of selected events. Please see [this article on downloading zip files](https://help.camio.com/hc/en-us/articles/203887885).

## For advanced users

If you want to download a large amount of content spanning a long period of time, then you'll need to use a more advanced shell script that runs curl commands to download every file that matches your particular query.

For example, to download the Top Events recorded from **May 1st to May 3rd** by your **Door** camera, open the [Camio app in your browser](/content/app/#search/index.html) and:

1. enter a _date-range_ query like **[Door May 1st to May 3rd](/content/app/#search;q=Door+May+1st+to+May+3rd/index.html)** and press **Search**

2. click the **Download script** button in the **Experimental** section of the Search panel you see when you click inside the Search box:

3. **open your email** or [Camio inbox](/content/inbox/index.html) to open the message with subject " **Your Camio download script**" and click the link to download your .sh shell script:

4. Open a **Terminal** window in your Downloads folder and run the downloaded shell script at a time when you can leave your computer on for as long as it takes to download all the files with the command:

**`bash camio-download.sh`**

**Note for Windows users:** You can use a tool such as [Cygwin](https://www.cygwin.com/) or the [Windows Subsystem for Linux](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10) to run the bash script. By default, Cygwin uses C:\cygwin64\home as its home directory so you can place the camio-download.sh file there and then run the same command above.

All your downloaded files will be in a folder named like **camio-YYYYMMDD** (e.g. camio-20160528), organized by camera name and timestamp:

## Creating a timelapse video from cover images downloaded

The best way to create a timelapse video in most cases is to [use the recorded video with this method](https://help.camio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013578691-How-do-I-create-timelapse-videos-). But the method below is good when you only want the cover image of each Event.

If the query used for the Download Script includes the **filetype:coverimage** search operator, then the script:

1. downloads only the higher resolution cover image snapshots (not the videos and thumbnails too);
2. uses sequential file names required for ffmpeg to create a timelapse video;
3. prompts you to create the timelapse with an ffmpeg command.

For example, the query **[Door 8am to 6pm filetype:coverimage]** will download only the cover images of each event between 8am and 6pm from the Door camera. After the download is complete, you'll see a prompt like this:

**`Create a timelapse movie from these files? (y/n)`**

If you type ' **y**' then an ffmpeg command like this one will create a video named `output_timelapse.mp4`.

**`ffmpeg -hide_banner -r 8 -loglevel error -start_number 0 -i item-%06d.jpg -vcodec libx264 -profile:v baseline -level 3.0 -preset veryfast -crf 28 ./output_timelapse.mp4`**

Have more questions? [Submit a request](https://help.camio.com/hc/en-us/requests/new)