How to Download Private Vimeo Videos in 2023 (Or Embedded Ones)

Summary: Download button blocked by Vimeo? If you want to download Vimeo videos, there are different solutions for private Vimeo videos, embedded Vimeo videos, and password-protected ones. Instead of relying on browser extensions which may collect personal data, it is recommended to use a Vimeo video downloader.

Vimeo is a great place to host educational videos, academic lectures, art videos and other high-quality content. Its popularity arises with the simplicity and modern design of the player interface. You may also see many online pages embed videos using the Vimeo video player.

People trying to download educational videos for personal use may find Vimeo blocked the download.

If the video owner made the video downloadable, you shall see a download button right under the player. If you want to download private Vimeo videos that are not available with a download button, you are at the right place with detailed tutorials. Let’s check some Vimeo video downloaders in this article.

Disclaimer: Please make sure you have permission from the copyright holder to download the private Vimeo video.

• In method 1, you can handle the job to a dedicated Vimeo Video downloader, so that the URL analysis, resolution selection, video format selection can be done easily in a few clicks.
• In method 2, you can manually read the source code by using the inspector tool, and find the source file link.
• Depending on the specific page, you might not be able to spot the needed URL, in that case, head to method 3 (for the technical know-how) or method 1 (time-saving easy method) to download private Vimeo Videos.

How to Download Private Vimeo Video with VideoProc Converter

Downloading private Vimeo video and embedded Vimeo video is about finding its link and saving the content to the local drive. The URL of the video is not the same as the URL of the page that embeds the video.

You can follow the 11 steps to find the URL of the video in method 2 (may fail on some pages), or copy and paste the page URL and let the Vimeo video downloader do the analysis work.

It is not recommended using an unverified downloader program for security concerns. You can use tools from developers you trust. In this method, we will use VideoProc Converter, which is recommended by the industry-leading sites, such as Trusted Reviews, Tech Advisor, and TechRadar.

Step 1. Download and install VideoProc Converter.

Step 2. Go to the Downloader section, and click Add Video.

Step 3. Copy and Paste the embed link of the Vimeo video from the Share option.

My experience with a private Vimeo video link analyzing:

Based on my test, when I directly copy and paste the URL from the address bar, the analyzer sometimes failed to detect the source video. “URL from the address bar” is something like this: https://vimeo.com/66****85

The 8 digit- or 9 digit-number is the video ID.

So, instead of using the URL of the video page, I found the embed link of the video works like a charm. The embed link can be found in the Share option (the little airplane icon).

Hover over the player and you shall see the Share option (airplane icon) on top right. Click on it, and in the Embed section, you will see a chunk of code. We will only need the link in inside the src=”” section.

It shall be something like this: https://player.vimeo.com/video/66****85 (excluding strings after the question mark)

Update (March 16, 2023) – Sometimes, when it doesn’t work, I will copy the entire URL including those string after the question mark, that is something like this:

Or this:

In a word, you just need to copy and paste the URL inside the quotation mark (src=”URL”) as is.

Step 4. Click Analyze to see whether VideoProc Converter can successfully detect the video.

Wait for a few seconds and if it works then you can choose the resolution you want. Hit the Download Selected Videos button to proceed.

Step 5. Click Download Now button to download the Vimeo video.

You can add multiple videos to the list, and then hit the Download Now button for batch tasks.

Note: As you can see below, there are different kinds of private Vimeo videos. Once you copied the link, try out the link analyzer in VideoProc Converter > Downloader.

Note: The private video here refers to the embedded videos whose download button is disabled by the uploader. Due to the complexity of different types of videos, there are occasions when certain links cannot be parsed. It is a case-by-case scenario, try it out by yourself.

Always ask for permission from the content owner of the private Vimeo video before proceeding.

VideoProc Converter is the one-stop solution to edit, cut, download and record videos. Besides downloading embedded Vimeo video, it also excels at analyzing Vimeo videos grouped in the Showcase page, and other online videos, including YouTube playlist, Facebook video, Wistia video, and many more.

How to Download Private Vimeo Video with the Inspect Tool

If you like to deal with command lines and codes, you can use the developer’s tool in the Chrome browser, by looking into the Inspect window. After sifting through lines of codes, you will find a link that hosts the video, then you can download private Vimeo videos with the saving option in the browser.

Step 1. Right click anywhere on the page, and Click Inspect (Ctrl+Shift+I).

Step 2. Click the Sources tab (the one between the Console and Network tab).

Step 3. On the Page panel, scrolling down until you find a 9-digit number line, expand it.

In case you are curious, that 9-digit number is the ID of the video.

Step 4. Under this 9-digit number section, you shall see a video folder, expand it.

Step 5. There will be a folder icon, click on it.

You shall see a prompt reading: Pretty-print this minified file? Click Pretty-print.

If nothing appears, you can press Ctrl+P to open file (Cmd+P on Mac). Select the file named with the VideoID (8digit- or 9digit-number file). Then you shall be able to see the chunks of codes.

Now we can start the hunting process to find the link. You can either do this in the browser (step 6-step 11), or save it as a TXT file to read (See Note 2).

Step 6. In the code line area, press Ctrl+F to call out the search bar inside the coding area.

Note 1: Make sure to click your mouse inside the code line, and then press Ctrl+F. If the code line area is not activated, the Ctrl+F will call out the search bar of the browser.

Step 7. Typing 1080p, and use the arrow to switch between the results.

Step 8. There might be several results for the 1080p query. Find the one where the line above it writes:

“url”: “https://vod-progressive…vimeo…

Step 9. Copy the entire URL inside the quotation mark, and you shall see it ends with the format .mp4 and has “vimeo” something inside the link.

Step 10. Paste that Vimeo video URL to a new tab in your browser, press enter, and you shall see it in the default player of the web browser.

Step 11. Right-click on the player, and hit Save as. You will be able to download private Vimeo video by saving it as MP4 to the local drive on your computer.

Note 2: If you feel the screen is too small, and want to read the code lines in a standalone app, you can use the text document. Right-click on the file in Step 5, and hit Save.

Then you can press Ctrl+F to search for 1080p, and find the URL near it, ending with mp4.

Paste and paste it into the browser, and right-click the download the embedded Vimeo video.

How to Download Vimeo Videos not Available for Download

Sometimes, when you follow the steps demonstrated in the above methods, you might find yourself stumble upon step 3, since you cannot find a video folder; or in step 7, since you cannot find a workable link that ends with mp4. So how to download Vimeo videos not available for download?

In order to download these types of private Vimeo videos, try the following steps.

Step 1. Right-click on Inspect, and go to Sources. Refresh the browser and make sure the video is playing.

Step 2. Find the 9-digit file, click on it and enable Pretty print to see the codes.

If the 9-digit number is not showing up, refresh the page and make sure the video is playing. If you still fails at this step, then probably Vimeo has updated its coding. You can refer to method 1, which only needs the URL of that video webpage to analyze the video resources automatically.

Step 3. Search for player.video.com and copy the URL.

It looks like this: https://player.vimeo.com/video/[9-digit number]

You can also copy and paste https://player.vimeo.com/video/ and manually enter the 9-digit number you saw next to the file icon.

Step 4. Paste the URL in a new tab.

Step 5. Repeat the process to open the Inspect section, and go to the Resources tab. Now you will be able to find that 9-digit number under the video folder.

Then follow step 5 to step 11 in Method 2 to find the MP4 link and download private Vimeo videos.

It may or may not succeed sometimes. To analyze and find the true URL of the video, you can handle the job to VideoProc Converter (Method 1), its powerful download engine will do the analysis and offers you links corresponding to all possible resolutions.

FAQs about Downloading Vimeo Private Videos

Question 1: Can a private video download on Vimeo be seen by the video owner?

Anwser: No. There’s no way to know if someone who watched the video also downloaded it.

Question 2: How to download private password-protected Vimeo videos?

Anwser: Do you have permission to download the video? It is recommended to ask the owner of the video if it is okay to download the video. If the owner is not accessible, save the video for personal use, don’t re-upload the video on other platforms.