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Guide · Move from Vimeo

How to move your videos from Vimeo to Pellio

Bring your whole Vimeo library across in one go, with titles, descriptions, captions, thumbnails, privacy and folders, then swap your embeds. Your Vimeo videos keep playing until you’re done.

About 15 minutes of your time, plus processing

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Before you start

  • A Pellio account (the Free plan is fine to try it; your plan’s storage needs to fit the files you import)
  • A Vimeo plan that allows downloads, since Pellio copies the original files
  • Access to Vimeo’s developer settings to create a token

  1. Create a Vimeo access token

    Go to developer.vimeo.com → My Apps, create an app if you don’t have one, and choose Generate token. Give it the Private and Video Files scopes, so Pellio can see private videos and download the originals.

    Pellio uses the token for this import only and never stores it. You can delete it in Vimeo afterwards.

  2. Find your videos in Pellio

    In Pellio, open your Library, click Import and choose Vimeo. Paste the token and click Find videos. You’ll see up to 1,000 videos per run with their thumbnails, lengths and folders, all selected: untick any you don’t want to move.

  3. Import

    Choose whether to recreate your Vimeo folders as Pellio folders, then click Import. Each video is copied and processed in the background with its title, description, captions and thumbnail. Timestamps like “0:00 Intro” in a description become chapters.

    Privacy comes across too: public videos stay public, unlisted and embed-only videos become Unlisted, and anything restricted becomes Private. Passwords can’t be copied, so password-protected videos arrive as Private; add a password in Pellio if you need one.

  4. Bring across the rest, any time

    Videos you’ve already imported are marked Imported, so running the import again only brings in new ones. A large library can move in several runs, and anything that doesn’t fit your plan’s storage shows as failed with the reason while the rest carry on.

  5. Replace your embeds

    On WordPress: install the Pellio plugin and connect it to your account. In Pellio → Migration, scan your site for Vimeo embeds, preview the changes, and replace them with the matching Pellio videos across every post, with undo. Or use WP-CLI.

    Anywhere else: open each video in Pellio, go to Embed & share and copy the embed code or the web component into your page.

    WP-CLI
    $ wp pellio scan            # find Vimeo, Wistia and YouTube embeds
$ wp pellio migrate         # replace them with the matching Pellio videos
$ wp pellio rollback <id>   # undo a run, if you need to

  6. Check, then switch Vimeo off

    Watch a few pages to make sure everything plays, and check the videos’ privacy and domain settings in Pellio. When you’re happy, you can downgrade or cancel your Vimeo plan: nothing on your site depends on it any more.

Keeping some videos on Vimeo for now? The free WordPress plugin can play Vimeo and YouTube links in the Pellio player, so everything on your site looks the same while you move. See Pellio vs Vimeo for how the plans compare.

Questions, answered

What happens to my Vimeo view counts?+
They stay in Vimeo. Pellio’s analytics start from the first view on Pellio, so export anything you want to keep from Vimeo before you cancel.
Do my old Vimeo links keep working?+
Until you delete the videos or close your Vimeo account. Swap embeds and links before you do.
Can I import from a Vimeo plan without downloads?+
Pellio needs the original file, so downloads have to be available. If they aren’t on your plan, download the files yourself and upload them to Pellio.
Can a teammate run the import?+
Owners, admins and members can. Teammates who only have access to shared folders can’t.

Ready to move?

Start free and import a few videos to see how they look.

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