private instagrams don't work? or is this my fault? what does this error message mean? (I provided my login details but maybe logins are what's broken)

[left1000]

D:\gallery-dl>gallery-dl -v https://www.instagram.com/roxanne.miller.34l/
[gallery-dl][debug] Version 1.16.0
[gallery-dl][debug] Python 3.7.9 - Windows-10-10.0.19041
[gallery-dl][debug] requests 2.25.0 - urllib3 1.25.11
[gallery-dl][debug] Starting DownloadJob for 'https://www.instagram.com/roxanne.miller.34l/'
[instagram][debug] Using InstagramUserExtractor for 'https://www.instagram.com/roxanne.miller.34l/'
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] Starting new HTTPS connection (1): www.instagram.com:443
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] https://www.instagram.com:443 "GET /roxanne.miller.34l/ HTTP/1.1" 200 14144
[instagram][debug] Cursor: QVFBTzFiZ2lYaXBNTzluWnN4R3ptcG5wSE90YkxCRkhzdVVzWVhMME5DV2JpQjR2d1dfYlhWcEJsUGlxNzBMRFhnMlJNYXoyZHVGNWoxUnVBT19kYmVaQQ==
[instagram][debug] Sleeping for 4.998 seconds
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] https://www.instagram.com:443 "GET /graphql/query/?query_hash=003056d32c2554def87228bc3fd9668a&variables=%7B%22id%22%3A+%2222168668221%22%2C+%22first%22%3A+50%2C+%22after%22%3A+%22QVFBTzFiZ2lYaXBNTzluWnN4R3ptcG5wSE90YkxCRkhzdVVzWVhMME5DV2JpQjR2d1dfYlhWcEJsUGlxNzBMRFhnMlJNYXoyZHVGNWoxUnVBT19kYmVaQQ%3D%3D%22%7D HTTP/1.1" 200 143

This used to work, and I haven't changed anything, my login is in the config file although using --username and --password doesn't change the error at all.

[Hrxn]

Do you use a config file to set up authentication with your username/password?

I mean, without authentication you can definitely not access private accounts.

[left1000]

Yes I have a login setup in my conf file and also.... this used to work :) This is a new issue, sorry, I thought maybe the error message would've made that clear, I guess not.

[left1000]

Actually when I target a single image I get a different error about nonetype which seems to imply my login is not working....

so it might be gallery-dl cannot login to instagram at all anymore? maybe? although that seems unlikely?

[gallery-dl][debug] Version 1.16.0
[gallery-dl][debug] Python 3.7.9 - Windows-10-10.0.19041
[gallery-dl][debug] requests 2.25.0 - urllib3 1.25.11
[gallery-dl][debug] Starting DownloadJob for 'https://www.instagram.com/p/CHm894Ng60R9strlm6wPdnVNTGMzzoq8g73_Vw0/'
[instagram][debug] Using InstagramPostExtractor for 'https://www.instagram.com/p/CHm894Ng60R9strlm6wPdnVNTGMzzoq8g73_Vw0/'
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] Starting new HTTPS connection (1): www.instagram.com:443
[urllib3.connectionpool][debug] https://www.instagram.com:443 "GET /graphql/query/?query_hash=a9441f24ac73000fa17fe6e6da11d59d&variables=%7B%22shortcode%22%3A+%22CHm894Ng60R9strlm6wPdnVNTGMzzoq8g73_Vw0%22%2C+%22child_comment_count%22%3A+3%2C+%22fetch_comment_count%22%3A+40%2C+%22parent_comment_count%22%3A+24%2C+%22has_threaded_comments%22%3A+true%7D HTTP/1.1" 200 47
[instagram][error] An unexpected error occurred: TypeError - 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable. Please run gallery-dl again with the --verbose flag, copy its output and report this issue on https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl/issues .
[instagram][debug]
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "gallery_dl\job.py", line 68, in run
File "gallery_dl\extractor\instagram.py", line 46, in items
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable

[mikf]

so it might be gallery-dl cannot login to instagram at all anymore?

It can, but it expects your login session to remain valid for a certain amount of time before trying to re-login automatically. You can use gallery-dl --clear-cache to delete the old login session and force a re.login the next time you download from Instagram.

[left1000]

I wanted to make your answer as the solution... but I don't know how. However you were 100% right and clearing the cache 100% solved this issue.