How Deep Scan Works Under the Hood
A regular page scan only sees what has already loaded. On modern sites, that is often a fraction of the real images. Understanding how deep scan works explains why it catches the rest: it scrolls the page the way a human would, pauses for content to appear, and only then collects what is on screen. The result is a far more complete haul.
The problem Deep Scan solves
Many sites do not put their images in the initial HTML. They lazy-load pictures as you scroll, pull more in over AJAX, or stretch a gallery across an infinite-scroll feed that never fully loads until you reach the bottom. A quick scan of the visible page grabs the handful that happen to be rendered and misses everything below the fold. That is the gap how deep scan works is designed to close, by triggering the same loading behavior a real visitor would.
How deep scan works step by step
The mechanism is a scroll-and-wait loop rather than a single snapshot.
- Scroll: the scanner moves down the page in stages instead of reading it all at once.
- Wait: after each move it pauses, giving lazy-loaded and AJAX images time to fetch and render.
- Detect: newly appeared images get picked up as they enter the page.
- Repeat: the loop continues through infinite-scroll content until the page stops producing new images.
By the end, the side-panel results reflect what the page actually contains, not just what was visible when you opened it. That is the core of how deep scan works, and why it suits galleries, product listings, and feed-style layouts.
When to reach for Deep Scan
Use Deep Scan when a regular Scan Current Page comes back light or you can see images appearing as you scroll manually.
- Lazy-loaded galleries: photography sites and portfolios that load thumbnails on demand.
- Infinite scroll: social-style feeds and category pages that keep loading as you go.
- AJAX content: listings that fetch more results without a full page reload.
For a small static page, a regular scan is faster and enough; Deep Scan earns its keep on the dynamic ones.
A few honest caveats
Because Deep Scan mimics real scrolling, it takes longer than a quick snapshot, especially on very long infinite-scroll pages where it has to keep going until new images stop appearing. That is the trade-off for completeness. It also only collects what the page is willing to load for a normal visitor, so it is not a way around access you do not have. On most galleries and listings, though, the extra time is well spent given how many images a single snapshot would otherwise leave behind.
After the scan
Once Deep Scan has the full set, the rest of the workflow takes over: apply filters for dimensions and file type, dedupe near-identical results, then send the URLs into a task to download. Because the scan runs client-side in your browser, the page is being read locally, not sent anywhere. Install Bulk Image Downloader From URL List and try Deep Scan on a page that hides its images behind scrolling. Now that you know how deep scan works, you can tell at a glance which pages need it.