referer


youtube-dl and embedded Vimeo

Youtube-DL being an amazing tool as it is, has a way to download Vimeo videos that give the following error:

Cannot download embed-only video without embedding URL. Please call youtube-dl with the URL of the page that embeds this video.

To do so, we needed to use the --referer parameter with the value of the website that we found the embedded video on. For example:

youtube-dl -v "https://player.vimeo.com/video/622fa342f" --referer "https://example.com/courses/intro/hello/";

The --referer parameter specifies a custom referer and can be used if the video access is restricted to one domain.

(youtube-dl) tux@bob:~$ youtube-dl -v "https://player.vimeo.com/video/622fa342f"
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', 'https://player.vimeo.com/video/622fa342f']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, out utf-8, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2021.12.17
[debug] Python version 3.9.7 (CPython) - Linux-5.13.0-44-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.31
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg present, ffprobe present
[debug] Proxy map: {}
 622fa342f: Downloading webpage
ERROR: Cannot download embed-only video without embedding URL. Please call youtube-dl with the URL of the page that embeds this video.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 634, in _request_webpage
    return self._downloader.urlopen(url_or_request)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 2288, in urlopen
    return self._opener.open(req, timeout=self._socket_timeout)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 523, in open
    response = meth(req, response)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 632, in http_response
    response = self.parent.error(
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 561, in error
    return self._call_chain(*args)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 494, in _call_chain
    result = func(*args)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 641, in http_error_default
    raise HTTPError(req.full_url, code, msg, hdrs, fp)
urllib.error.HTTPError: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/vimeo.py", line 636, in _real_extract
    webpage, urlh = self._download_webpage_handle(
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 667, in _download_webpage_handle
    urlh = self._request_webpage(url_or_request, video_id, note, errnote, fatal, data=data, headers=headers, query=query, expected_status=expected_status)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 652, in _request_webpage
    raise ExtractorError(errmsg, sys.exc_info()[2], cause=err)
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: Unable to download webpage: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden (caused by <HTTPError 403: 'Forbidden'>); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; see  https://yt-dl.org/update  on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 634, in _request_webpage
    return self._downloader.urlopen(url_or_request)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 2288, in urlopen
    return self._opener.open(req, timeout=self._socket_timeout)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 523, in open
    response = meth(req, response)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 632, in http_response
    response = self.parent.error(
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 561, in error
    return self._call_chain(*args)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 494, in _call_chain
    result = func(*args)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/urllib/request.py", line 641, in http_error_default
    raise HTTPError(req.full_url, code, msg, hdrs, fp)
urllib.error.HTTPError: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/vimeo.py", line 636, in _real_extract
    webpage, urlh = self._download_webpage_handle(
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 667, in _download_webpage_handle
    urlh = self._request_webpage(url_or_request, video_id, note, errnote, fatal, data=data, headers=headers, query=query, expected_status=expected_status)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 652, in _request_webpage
    raise ExtractorError(errmsg, sys.exc_info()[2], cause=err)
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: Unable to download webpage: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden (caused by <HTTPError 403: 'Forbidden'>); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; see  https://yt-dl.org/update  on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 815, in wrapper
    return func(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 836, in __extract_info
    ie_result = ie.extract(url)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 534, in extract
    ie_result = self._real_extract(url)
  File "/home/tux/anaconda3/envs/youtube-dl/lib/python3.9/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/vimeo.py", line 643, in _real_extract
    raise ExtractorError(
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: Cannot download embed-only video without embedding URL. Please call youtube-dl with the URL of the page that embeds this video.