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@mmathys
Last active May 5, 2025 15:26
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Download Vimeo VOD (video on demand)

How to download vimeo VOD for offline usage

Variant 1: yt-dlp

Using yt-dlp (thank you @ayyucedemirbas!)

You must have a Vimeo account, do not sign in via Google or anything else, yt-dlp asks for your email address and password to log in.

You must install the yt-dlp via the command below (for MacOS):

brew install yt-dlp

and then, when the installation is completed, you must use the command below to download the video:

yt-dlp -u [email protected] https://vimeo.com/ondemand/linktoyourvideo

It will ask for your password to log in, enter it. Your download should begin.

Variant 2: youtube-dl

Use youtube-dl directly to download the video (thanks @meepybub!) Example:

youtube-dl -u <[email protected]> "https://vimeo.com/ondemand/<video>"

Variant 3: extracting cookies

Step 1

Login to Vimeo and get the cookies.txt file using this Chrome plugin

Step 2

Use youtube-dl to download the video Example:

youtube-dl "https://vimeo.com/ondemand/<video>" --cookies cookies.txt

Variant 4: some Vimeo VOD downloader tool

I had a lot of success with this repo for private videos: https://github.com/Tusko/vimeo-private-downloader

@teewz
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teewz commented Aug 30, 2021

@rgarrigue thank you, this worked for me!

@pascat25
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pascat25 commented Oct 2, 2021

Hello, I would like to have these 21 videos for vod, but I did not understand how the tutorial works, can you help me?

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/moneyschoolexces/

@user7230724
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user7230724 commented Feb 14, 2022

T͏h͏i͏s͏ ͏t͏u͏t͏o͏r͏i͏a͏l͏ ͏i͏s͏ ͏m͏i͏s͏l͏e͏a͏d͏i͏n͏g͏.͏ ͏I͏t͏ ͏c͏a͏n͏ ͏h͏e͏l͏p͏ ͏y͏o͏u͏ ͏o͏n͏l͏y͏ ͏i͏f͏ ͏y͏o͏u͏ ͏a͏l͏r͏e͏a͏d͏y͏ ͏p͏u͏r͏c͏h͏a͏s͏e͏d͏ ͏t͏h͏e͏ ͏v͏i͏d͏e͏o͏.͏ ͏I͏f͏ ͏y͏o͏u͏r͏ ͏a͏c͏c͏o͏u͏n͏t͏ ͏d͏o͏e͏s͏ ͏n͏o͏t͏ ͏h͏a͏v͏e͏ ͏a͏c͏c͏e͏s͏s͏ ͏t͏o͏ ͏t͏h͏e͏ ͏v͏i͏d͏e͏o͏,͏ ͏i͏t͏ ͏j͏u͏s͏t͏ ͏d͏o͏w͏n͏l͏o͏a͏d͏s͏ ͏t͏h͏e͏ ͏t͏r͏a͏i͏l͏e͏r͏.͏ ͏V͏i͏m͏e͏o͏ ͏i͏s͏ ͏a͏ ͏g͏r͏e͏a͏t͏ ͏b͏u͏l͏l͏s͏h͏i͏t͏ ͏a͏n͏d͏ ͏a͏l͏l͏ ͏c͏o͏p͏y͏r͏i͏g͏h͏t͏e͏d͏ ͏v͏i͏d͏e͏o͏s͏ ͏a͏r͏e͏ ͏j͏u͏s͏t͏ ͏a͏ ͏p͏i͏e͏c͏e͏ ͏o͏f͏ ͏c͏r͏a͏p͏,͏ ͏i͏n͏cl͏u͏d͏i͏n͏g͏ ͏a͏l͏l͏ ͏t͏h͏e͏i͏r͏ ͏a͏u͏t͏h͏o͏r͏s͏.

@milahu
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milahu commented Feb 27, 2022

alternative: video downloadhelper extension for chrome or firefox

@Gionidelaparis
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The variant 1 is still working. Thanks a lot (and yes of course, if you have purchased the video for 48h). Searching for a solution for downloading the subtitles

@milahu
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milahu commented Apr 16, 2022

@juniorjruk
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juniorjruk commented Mar 22, 2023

THIS ONLY WORKS IF YOU HAVE A VIMEO ACCOUNT. If you're signed into Vimeo via a Google, Facebook, or Apple account, the variants don't work.

@alexandervlpl
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Update: currently nothing works. 😢 Purchased (not rented) video, tried with user account and/or cookies.txt. It seems we're blocked by Google CDN which is hosting the video fragments.

$ youtube-dl --cookies cookies.txt -u <user> https://vimeo.com/ondemand/<video>
[dashsegments] Total fragments: 910
[download] Destination: <video>.fdash-google_mediacdn_sep-video-de62fcb4.mp4
[download] Got server HTTP error: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden. Retrying fragment 1 (attempt 1 of 10)...

Using latest youtube-dl from Github.

@ayyucedemirbas
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An update from 2024

I would like to point out a few minor details.

You must have a Vimeo account, do not sign in via Google or anything else,yt-dlp asks for your email address and password to log in.

You must install the yt-dlp via the command below (for MacOS):
brew install yt-dlp

and then, when the installation is completed, you must use the command below to download the video:
yt-dlp -u [email protected] https://vimeo.com/ondemand/linktoyourvideo

It will ask for your password to log in, enter it. Your download should begin.

@spookyuser
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An update from 2024

I would like to point out a few minor details.

You must have a Vimeo account, do not sign in via Google or anything else,yt-dlp asks for your email address and password to log in.

You must install the yt-dlp via the command below (for MacOS): brew install yt-dlp

and then, when the installation is completed, you must use the command below to download the video: yt-dlp -u [email protected] https://vimeo.com/ondemand/linktoyourvideo

It will ask for your password to log in, enter it. Your download should begin.

Thank you!

@mmathys
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Author

mmathys commented May 5, 2025

thanks @ayyucedemirbas! updated the guide with your approach

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