No suitable format found for some (many?) Vimeo (and YouTube) downloads — "failed to download: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable"

[holta]

Example:

Download: https://vimeo.com/914665377 failed to download: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable

Among 4 example video download failures on t3 == 10.8.0.62: (latest Ubuntu 24.10 pre-release)

Related:

• "Download to IIAB" failures must be shown in "Tasks" view with explanation [e.g. "Media check failed (will try again later)" "Failed reading header" with .mhtml] [e.g. YouTube_Movies_TV channel encrypted w/ browser-based DRM?] #85
• When no format is available (downloadable) for a video [e.g. member-only videos, ETC] notify user & explain why ['NoneType' object is not subscriptable] #114

[holta]

@deldesir noticed that Vimeo thumbnails are however working, thanks to...

• PR Find thumbnail [restore scan for .webp, .jpg, .png or .gif to support Vimeo etc — not just .webp thumbnails as provided by yt-dlp from YouTube!] #163

[deldesir]

This specific video could not be downloaded because no suitable format was found using --format best --format-sort 'tbr~1000'

[https://vimeo.com/914665377]: yt-dlp ERROR: [vimeo] 914665377: No video formats found!
[https://vimeo.com/914665377]: yt-dlp returned no info
[https://vimeo.com/914665377]: Unrecoverable error matched. ERROR: [vimeo] 914665377: No video formats found!;ERROR: [vimeo] 914665377: No video formats found!

I caught this traceback using:

lb tubeadd vimeo.db https://vimeo.com/914665377, and then
lb dl vimeo.db --video -s https://vimeo.com/914665377 --force --write-thumbnail --subs -vvvv --format best --format-sort 'tbr~1000'

[holta]

This specific video could not be downloaded because no suitable format was found using --format best --format-sort 'tbr~1000'

• Personally I'd classify that as a yt-dlp bug! (Even if yt-dlp doesn't have enough people to fix it, understandably?)

• Should this ticket's subject line be clarified?

[deldesir]

• Personally I'd classify that as a yt-dlp bug! (Even yt-dlp doesn't have enough people to fix it, understandably?)

I agree. Since we know what's causing the failure, should we add a relevant error in the database and for the user? I think we can also consider a fallback to any available format...

• Should this ticket's subject line be clarified?

Yes. This is not YouTube/Vimeo specific only. I've also tested bilibili.com videos, I got the same error.