How to Download Pinterest Carousel Pins (Bypass Lazy Loading)
Why copying the link only gives you the first image, and how to use our browser extension to extract all hidden slides at once.
A client sent me a mood board last month featuring a stunning 7-slide carousel pin. They needed all seven images saved for a presentation deck. I confidently pasted the link into a standard downloader website, hit enter, and... I only got slide one.
I tried a different downloader. Slide one again. I thought the sites were broken. Turns out, it's not the downloaders' fault—it's how Pinterest actually builds their website architecture.
If you've been trying to save multiple images from a single Pinterest post and feeling like you're losing your mind, you aren't doing anything wrong. You're just fighting a technology called "lazy loading."
The "Lazy Loading" Problem
Think of a Pinterest carousel like a restaurant menu. When you sit down, the waiter only hands you the first page. They don't bring the second page out of the kitchen until you specifically ask for it.
Pinterest works exactly the same way to save server costs. When you load a Carousel Pin, Pinterest only sends the very first image to your browser. The code for slides 2, 3, 4, and beyond literally does not exist on the page yet. They are hidden. It's only when you physically click the "Next" arrow that Pinterest quickly fetches the next image.
So, when you paste a link into a normal downloader website, that website acts like a customer who never turns the page. It reads the code, sees exactly one image, and downloads it. It has no way to "click next."
The Chrome Extension Solution
I spent days trying to find a server-side workaround for this. I failed. The only reliable way to get all the images is to have a tool that actually sits inside your browser and clicks "Next" for you.
That's precisely why we built the PinDL Chrome Extension.
Instead of relying on a distant server to guess what's hidden in the carousel, the extension acts as an intelligent robot operating directly on your screen. Here is what happens when you use it:
1. You install the extension (it's completely free and takes 10 seconds). 2. You open the tricky Carousel Pin on the Pinterest website. 3. You'll notice a new, custom red "Download" button injected right below the pin. 4. You click it.
In about two seconds, the extension rapidly simulates clicking through the entire carousel in the background. It catches every single high-resolution image as Pinterest serves them, bundles them up, and saves them to your computer.
Video Carousels? Yes, Those Too
The most frustrating part about manual saving isn't even the images—it's the videos. Creators are increasingly mixing static photos and video clips within the same carousel.
The PinDL extension doesn't care. As it scrolls through the hidden slides, it automatically detects the file type. If slide three is a 1080p MP4 video, it extracts the raw video file. If slide four is a JPEG, it grabs that. You end up with a folder containing every single piece of media exactly as the creator intended.
I'm not sure if Pinterest will ever change their lazy loading architecture. From a performance standpoint, it makes total sense for them to keep doing it. But at least now, you don't have to manually right-click, inspect element, and dig through code just to save a mood board for a client.
If you frequently work with Carousels, do yourself a favor and just install the extension. It's the one time a browser add-on is actually the only technical solution to the problem.