Dailymotion launched in Paris in March 2005, a few weeks after YouTube and with much the same idea, built by a small group who put up the money themselves. For a while the two were genuinely comparable. The difference came in 2006, when Google bought one of them and the other was left to grow on its own resources.
It settled into being the large European alternative, strongest in France and across francophone Africa, and took a noticeably different line on what it would host. Broadcasters, newspapers and sports rights holders use it heavily, which gives the library a more professional and more news-driven character than a site built primarily on personal uploads.
Its long history also makes it an accidental archive. Material uploaded in 2007 is still sitting there, including a great deal that was removed from larger platforms years ago or was never posted to them in the first place. That is exactly the sort of thing people want a copy of, because it has already proven hard to find once.
Why people save Dailymotion video
Much of it is regional broadcast material that never appears anywhere else. Television segments, local news, sports highlights and programmes from channels with no international distribution end up here and are frequently the only public copy in existence.
Rights make that material unstable. Broadcast and sports content is removed regularly when a licence changes hands, and there is rarely any warning before it goes. Anyone relying on a clip for reference learns to keep a file rather than a bookmark.
The ordinary reasons apply as well. People save a documentary or a talk to watch on a journey, keep a copy of their own uploads, or pull a video down once on wi-fi rather than streaming it repeatedly on a metered connection.
Saving a Dailymotion video
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1
Copy the Dailymotion address
Take the dailymotion.com address from your browser, or use the share button under the player to copy it. Short dai.ly links produced by the share sheet are accepted as well.
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2
Give the address to the field above
Paste it into the box at the top of this page. It starts reading as soon as the text arrives.
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3
Take the Dailymotion resolution
The resolutions that video was published in appear in a list, generally from 240p up to 1080p, each with its file size. Older uploads offer less, because less was ever stored.
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4
Put the file on your device
Tap the row once it turns blue. Android saves it to Downloads, an iPhone to the Files app, and it plays without conversion.
Which resolution suits which purpose
Dailymotion keeps several encodes of most videos. The right one depends on the screen you will use and how much space you are willing to spend.
| Resolution | Suits | Roughly, for ten minutes |
|---|---|---|
| 240p or 380p | Old uploads where nothing better exists | 25 to 45 MB |
| 480p | Phone viewing, tight storage, slow connections | about 80 MB |
| 720p | The sensible default for most people | about 150 MB |
| 1080p | Laptops, televisions, anything you will project | about 300 MB |
| Audio only | Talks and interviews you want to listen to | under 10 MB |
A great deal of what makes Dailymotion valuable was uploaded a decade or more ago, when 380p was a normal ceiling. If a video offers nothing higher, that is simply the quality that exists — no tool can recover detail that was never recorded.
Dailymotion download questions
Do dai.ly short links work on Dailymotion?
Yes. They are what the share button produces and they are handled the same as a full address.
Why do some videos only offer low resolutions?
Because that is all that was ever uploaded. Much of the older material on Dailymotion predates high definition being standard.
Can I save a whole playlist?
No. Each video needs its own address, since a playlist is a list rather than a single item.
Does it work with live streams on Dailymotion?
Only once a stream has finished and been left up as a recording. While it is running there is no complete file.
Can I get audio on its own?
When the video provides a separate audio track it appears in the list beneath the video options.
Is there a daily limit?
No cap and no queue.
Where is the Dailymotion file saved?
Downloads on Android, the Files app on an iPhone.
Why did my Dailymotion link fail?
Most often the video has been removed over a rights claim, which happens regularly with broadcast material, or it is blocked in your country. Prepared links also expire if the page is left open a long time.
Do you keep what I download?
No. We read what is publicly available and pass you a link; the file travels from their servers to your device.
Am I allowed to download from Dailymotion?
Your own uploads are yours. A great deal of the rest is broadcast material owned by television companies, and their tolerance for personal copies is not the same as permission to republish. That distinction is yours to keep hold of.