Step-by-Step Getleft Tutorial: Save Entire Sites in Minutes

How to Use Getleft to Mirror Websites Quickly and Safely

Getleft is a lightweight, free website-grabber that downloads webpages and their assets for local, offline browsing. It’s useful for archiving content, researching without internet access, or testing static copies of sites. Below is a concise, practical guide to mirror a site quickly and with safety in mind.

1) Prepare

1. Download and install Getleft from a trusted source (official project page or SourceForge).
2. Ensure you have enough disk space (site size varies).
3. Check site terms of service and copyright — only mirror content you’re allowed to save.

2) Basic settings to start a mirror

1. Open Getleft and create a new project.
2. Enter the site’s starting URL (include https:// if present).
3. Set the download directory on your disk.
4. Choose recursion depth:
   • 0 = only the given page
   • 1–2 = small sections (recommended for most)
   • Higher = deeper/full-site mirroring (slower, larger)

3) Speed and efficiency options

• Enable “Resume” so interrupted downloads continue.
• Limit simultaneous connections to avoid overloading your network (1–4 recommended).
• Set file-type filters to exclude large media (e.g., .mp4, .avi) if you only want HTML/images.
• Use the site-map preview to review which files will be downloaded before starting.

4) Safety and politeness

• Respect robots.txt and the site’s crawl-delay settings. If Getleft doesn’t auto-respect robots.txt, set delays manually (1–5 seconds between requests).
• Mirror during off-peak hours to reduce load on the server.
• Don’t crawl password-protected or private areas without permission.
• Avoid aggressive depth + no-delay combinations that look like DDoS behavior.

5) Handling dynamic content

• Getleft only retrieves static resources it can find by following links; it won’t execute JavaScript or render dynamic single-page-app routes.
• For sites heavily reliant on JavaScript, consider tools that render pages (e.g., HTTrack with rendering, headless-browser scrapers) or save server-rendered pages manually.

6) Updating an existing mirror

1. Open the project for the existing mirror.
2. Enable “Only new/updated files” or “Update mode” so Getleft downloads differences, not the whole site.
3. Run the update—this saves bandwidth and time.

7) Troubleshooting common issues

• Missing images or pages: increase recursion depth or allow external domains if assets are hosted elsewhere.
• Slow downloads: reduce concurrency, schedule during quiet times, or filter out large files.
• Interrupted jobs: use Resume and check network/proxy settings.

8) Legal and ethical reminders

• Mirroring public content for personal use or archival is commonly acceptable; redistributing copyrighted material or bypassing access controls is not.
• If in doubt, request permission from the site owner.

If you want, I can create a short checklist you can copy into Getleft before your first run (includes recommended settings for small, medium, and full-site mirrors).