Viki with an account. Getting a 403 : Forbidden (caused by HTTPError()) when downloading on Windows 10.

Checklist

• I’m reporting a broken site support
• I’ve verified that I’m running youtube-dl version 2020.03.24
• I’ve checked that all provided URLs are alive and playable in a browser
• I’ve checked that all URLs and arguments with special characters are properly quoted or escaped
• I’ve searched the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones

Verbose log

Case 1: Logged in but no account details input: Limited to only 480p 

[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-F', 'https://www.viki.com/videos/1161765v-forest-episode-1', '-v']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs mbcs, out cp437, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2020.03.24
[debug] Python version 3.4.4 (CPython) - Windows-10-10.0.18362
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg git-2019-12-08-9f7b2b3, ffprobe git-2019-12-08-9f7b2b3
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[viki] 1161765v: Downloading video JSON
[viki] 1161765v: Downloading video streams JSON
[info] Available formats for 1161765v:
format code  extension  resolution note
mpd-http     mpd        unknown
240p-https   mp4        240p
360p-https   mp4        360p
480p-https   mp4        480p       (best)

Case 2 : Logged in and account details added: HTTP Error

C:\Youtube-dl>youtube-dl --username USERNAME --password PASSWORD -F https://www.viki.com/videos/1161765v-forest-episode-1 -v
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['--username', 'PRIVATE', '--password', 'PRIVATE', '-F', 'https://www.viki.com/videos/1161765v-forest-episode-1', '-v']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs mbcs, out cp437, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2020.03.24
[debug] Python version 3.4.4 (CPython) - Windows-10-10.0.18362
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg git-2019-12-08-9f7b2b3, ffprobe git-2019-12-08-9f7b2b3
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[viki] Logging in
ERROR: Unable to download JSON metadata: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden (caused by HTTPError()); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; type  youtube-dl -U  to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpjwbwqymm\build\youtube_dl\extractor\common.py", line 627, in _request_webpage
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\ytdl-org\tmpjwbwqymm\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 2238, in urlopen
  File "C:\Python\Python34\lib\urllib\request.py", line 470, in open
  File "C:\Python\Python34\lib\urllib\request.py", line 580, in http_response
  File "C:\Python\Python34\lib\urllib\request.py", line 508, in error
  File "C:\Python\Python34\lib\urllib\request.py", line 442, in _call_chain
  File "C:\Python\Python34\lib\urllib\request.py", line 588, in http_error_default

Description

Hopefully I have created this issue properly. So basically when streaming through the browser I am getting 1080p HD quality for this video, but when going to youtube-dl to download them, I am getting the issues given above. I have posted two logs with two different cases. I have run the --cookies command instead of the username and password, and that doesn’t seem to work also.

If an account is needed I can give the account to the dev to reproduce and check the problem for a fix. I am on Windows 10 if that is relevant anyhow. If there are anymore details required, please let me know and I’ll provide them too. Thank you.

[charlietango1]

I have the exact same issue on Mac OS. Since this morning, trying to download Viki Pass HD videos results in a 403 forbidden error. I am a Viki Pass subscriber with a valid account. Downloading standard definition videos without a login on Viki still works, but the HD video downloads for Viki Pass subscribers are no longer working.

The suggested fix of increasing the --socket-timeout did NOT work for me.

[tanymb1688]

I can confirm this issue exist, and is definitely a very recent one, this issue did not exist on 12th Apr local time.