PRAW 8 completes the deprecation cycle started during the 7.x series. This guide covers every removed or changed item, with examples showing how to update your code.
PRAW 8 requires Python 3.10 or newer. Support for Python 3.8 and 3.9, both of which are end-of-life, has been dropped, and support for Python 3.13 and 3.14 has been added.
All methods that upload media now accept Media instances instead of file
paths. The relevant subclass depends on what is being uploaded: PostMedia for
submissions and inline media, EmojiMedia for emoji, StylesheetImage
and StylesheetAsset for stylesheet images, and WidgetMedia for
widget images.
A Media instance can be constructed from a file path, or from bytes
content along with a name, so media no longer has to be written to disk before
uploading:
from praw.models import PostMedia
media_from_path = PostMedia("/path/to/image.png")
media_from_bytes = PostMedia(image_bytes, "image.png")
The path argument to InlineMedia (InlineGif,
InlineImage, and InlineVideo) has been replaced by media, which
takes a PostMedia instance.
Old:
from praw.models import InlineImage
image = InlineImage(caption="optional caption", path="/path/to/image.jpg")
New:
from praw.models import InlineImage, PostMedia
image = InlineImage(caption="optional caption", media=PostMedia("/path/to/image.jpg"))
The image_path argument to SubredditEmoji.add() has been replaced by
media, which takes an EmojiMedia instance.
Old:
reddit.subreddit("test").emoji.add(image_path="emoji.png", name="emoji")
New:
from praw.models import EmojiMedia
reddit.subreddit("test").emoji.add(media=EmojiMedia("emoji.png"), name="emoji")
The image_path arguments to the SubredditStylesheet upload_* methods
have been replaced by media, which must be passed positionally.
SubredditStylesheet.upload(), upload_header(),
upload_mobile_header(), and upload_mobile_icon() take a
StylesheetImage instance, while upload_banner(),
upload_banner_additional_image(), upload_banner_hover_image(), and
upload_mobile_banner() take a StylesheetAsset instance.
Old:
stylesheet = reddit.subreddit("test").stylesheet
stylesheet.upload(image_path="img.png", name="smile")
stylesheet.upload_banner("banner.png")
New:
from praw.models import StylesheetAsset, StylesheetImage
stylesheet = reddit.subreddit("test").stylesheet
stylesheet.upload(StylesheetImage("img.png"), name="smile")
stylesheet.upload_banner(StylesheetAsset("banner.png"))
The file_path argument to SubredditWidgetsModeration.upload_image() has been
replaced by media, which takes a WidgetMedia instance and must be passed
positionally.
Old:
image_url = reddit.subreddit("test").widgets.mod.upload_image("/path/to/image.jpg")
New:
from praw.models import WidgetMedia
image_url = reddit.subreddit("test").widgets.mod.upload_image(
WidgetMedia("/path/to/image.jpg")
)
An unknown media type now raises ClientException when uploading media,
instead of falling back to JPEG.
Media uploads to Reddit’s S3 buckets now respect the configured timeout and raise
prawcore.RequestException on transport errors, consistent with all other requests.
Code that caught raw requests exceptions around media uploads should catch
prawcore.RequestException instead.
submit method¶Subreddit.submit_gallery, Subreddit.submit_image, Subreddit.submit_poll, and
Subreddit.submit_video have been merged into Subreddit.submit(). The kind of
submission is selected with the gallery, image, poll, url, or video
keyword argument. At least one of those, or selftext, must be provided, and they are
mutually exclusive, while selftext may accompany any of them as optional
Markdown-formatted body text.
Old:
reddit.subreddit("test").submit_image("My Title", "/path/to/image.png")
New:
from praw.models import PostMedia
reddit.subreddit("test").submit("My Title", image=PostMedia("/path/to/image.png"))
Video-specific options, such as a custom thumbnail or submitting the video as a
videogif, are provided by passing a dict instead of a bare PostMedia.
Old:
reddit.subreddit("test").submit_video(
"My Title", "/path/to/video.mp4", thumbnail_path="/path/to/thumbnail.png"
)
New:
from praw.models import PostMedia
reddit.subreddit("test").submit(
"My Title",
video={
"media": PostMedia("/path/to/video.mp4"),
"thumbnail": PostMedia("/path/to/thumbnail.png"),
},
)
The videogif argument is now the "gif" key of the video dict:
Old:
reddit.subreddit("test").submit_video("My Title", "/path/to/video.mp4", videogif=True)
New:
from praw.models import PostMedia
reddit.subreddit("test").submit(
"My Title", video={"gif": True, "media": PostMedia("/path/to/video.mp4")}
)
Gallery items are either a bare PostMedia, or a dict with a media key
(replacing image_path) when a caption or outbound_url is desired.
Old:
images = [
{"image_path": "/path/to/image.png"},
{"image_path": "/path/to/image2.png", "caption": "a caption"},
]
reddit.subreddit("test").submit_gallery("My Title", images)
New:
from praw.models import PostMedia
gallery = [
PostMedia("/path/to/image.png"),
{"caption": "a caption", "media": PostMedia("/path/to/image2.png")},
]
reddit.subreddit("test").submit("My Title", gallery=gallery)
The options and duration arguments are now keys of the poll dict.
selftext is no longer required for polls.
Old:
reddit.subreddit("test").submit_poll(
"Do you like PRAW?", duration=3, options=["Yes", "No"], selftext=""
)
New:
reddit.subreddit("test").submit(
"Do you like PRAW?", poll={"duration": 3, "options": ["Yes", "No"]}
)
user.me() in read-only mode¶Calling reddit.user.me() in read_only mode previously returned None
with a deprecation warning. It now raises ReadOnlyException.
Old:
if reddit.user.me() is None:
print("Not authenticated")
New:
from praw.exceptions import ReadOnlyException
try:
reddit.user.me()
except ReadOnlyException:
print("Not authenticated")
Redditor.subreddit is a UserSubreddit¶The subreddit attribute of Redditor is a UserSubreddit instance.
Its values are accessed as attributes; the dict interface has been removed.
Old:
title = redditor.subreddit["title"]
New:
title = redditor.subreddit.title
The selftext and url arguments to Subreddit.submit() are no longer
mutually exclusive. When url is provided, selftext is used as optional
Markdown-formatted body text to accompany the link submission. The same applies to
gallery, image, poll, and video submissions.
One exception: combining inline_media with selftext for a url submission
raises an exception, because Reddit does not support inline media in body text for link
submissions.
The following arguments must now be passed by keyword:
The mark_read argument when calling subreddit.modmail to fetch a
ModmailConversation, e.g., reddit.subreddit("test").modmail("2gmz",
mark_read=True).
The is_link argument to SubredditFlairTemplates.flair_type().
The data argument to Objector.objectify.
The reason_id argument to RemovalReason has been renamed to id.
APIException has been removed; use RedditAPIException. See the PRAW 7
migration documentation for
details on the exception container interface.
Subreddits.gold has been removed; use Subreddits.premium().
Reddit retired the old modmail system, so Subreddit.mod.inbox,
Subreddit.mod.unread, Subreddit.mod.stream.unread, SubredditMessage.mute,
and SubredditMessage.unmute have been removed. Use the new modmail interface
instead.
Old:
for message in reddit.subreddit("test").mod.unread():
print(message.subject)
New:
for conversation in reddit.subreddit("test").modmail.conversations(state="new"):
print(conversation.subject)
To stream conversations, use SubredditModerationStream.modmail_conversations()
(subreddit.mod.stream.modmail_conversations()). Muting and unmuting users is
available on ModmailConversation via ModmailConversation.mute() and
ModmailConversation.unmute().
The after argument for conversations() has also been removed. To resume a
listing from a known conversation, pass after through params:
conversations = reddit.subreddit("test").modmail.conversations(params={"after": "2gmz"})
The token_manager keyword argument to Reddit, along with
BaseTokenManager, FileTokenManager, and SQLiteTokenManager, has been
removed. Refresh tokens no longer rotate, so a static refresh_token can be provided
directly.
Old:
from praw.util.token_manager import FileTokenManager
reddit = praw.Reddit(..., token_manager=FileTokenManager("token.txt"))
New:
reddit = praw.Reddit(..., refresh_token="...")
See Working with Refresh Tokens for the complete guide to obtaining and using refresh tokens.
The following were removed because Reddit no longer supports the underlying endpoints or features:
Reddit.random_subreddit, Subreddit.random, and Subreddit.random_rising —
Reddit removed the random subreddit and random submission endpoints.
Comment.award, Submission.award, and the gild aliases on
Comment, Redditor, and Submission — Reddit removed the
awards API.
Redditor.gilded, Subreddit.gilded, and Redditor.gildings — gilded listings
were removed along with the awards API.
Subreddits.search_by_topic — the endpoint has returned 404 since 2020.
Reddit.validate_on_submit — Reddit now always validates posts on submission, so
the setting no longer has any effect. Remove any assignments to it.
WebSocketException.original_exception.
InboxableMixin.unblock_subreddit.
The reset_timestamp key in the dictionary returned by limits() — the
remaining keys are remaining and used.