How to Download Your Entire Video Library from Membership.io

Here's what nobody tells you when you sign up for Membership.io (formerly Searchie): there is no bulk export button.

You can upload thousands of videos to their platform. You can organize them into hubs, playlists, and folders. You can pay $49-219/month for years. But when you decide to leave? You're on your own.

"How do I download my own videos from Searchie? I have 200+ videos and I want to move to BunnyCDN but I can't find a way to bulk export."

— Forum post from a frustrated course creator

If you're thinking "I'll just download them this weekend" — read the next section first. Getting the files is only 20% of the problem. The other 80% is what breaks when you do it yourself.

What You're Actually Up Against (The Download Trap)

Before you spend your weekend in Developer Tools downloading videos one by one — what we call The Download Trap — understand what a real migration involves beyond just the files:

• Your hub structure, folder hierarchy, and playlist ordering? None of that comes with the video file. You'll be rebuilding it from memory.
• Your transcripts? If your members use MIO's AI search, those transcripts need to exist on your new platform too — and they're stored separately from the video.
• Your member data? Who has access to what? What are their email addresses? What did they purchase? That data lives in MIO, not in your MP4 files.
• Every embed link your members bookmarked? Dead. Broken. 404. The moment your MIO subscription ends.
• Re-hosting? Raw MP4 files need to go somewhere — BunnyCDN, Cloudflare Stream, S3 — each with different upload workflows and embed formats.

Downloading 500 videos is a weekend project. Migrating 500 videos — with their metadata, transcripts, organization, and member access — that's where most people get stuck.

Still want to try it yourself? Here are the methods, from simplest to most powerful.

Why Membership.io Makes It Hard to Export

Let's be direct: Membership.io does not offer a "Download All" or "Export Library" feature. This isn't an accident. Like most SaaS platforms, the harder it is to leave, the longer you stay.

Here's what you're working with:

• No bulk download. You cannot select multiple files and download them as a ZIP.
• No API export endpoint. Their API lets you read file metadata but doesn't provide direct download URLs for the original video files.
• HLS streaming only. Videos are served via .m3u8 HLS streams (adaptive bitrate), not as simple .mp4 links — which makes right-click-save impossible.
• No data portability page. Unlike Google Takeout or Facebook's "Download Your Data," MIO has no export-your-content feature.

The good news? Every .m3u8 stream has a .mp4 sibling sitting on the same CDN. You just need to know where to look.

Method 1: The Manual Method (One Video at a Time)

Some file types (PDFs, images) have a download icon in the MIO player view. Videos typically don't — which means for most of your library, you'll need Method 2. And even when download buttons exist, there's no way to select multiple files. It's one at a time. At 2-3 minutes per video, 200 videos = 7-10 hours. For 1,000+ videos? Clear your calendar.

Method 2: Using Developer Tools to Find the Direct URL

This is the method most tech-savvy creators discover on their own. It works because Membership.io serves video through a CDN, and the CDN URLs are accessible if you know where to look.

Step-by-step:

1. Open the video in Membership.io's player
2. Open Developer Tools — Right-click → Inspect (or press F12)
3. Go to the Network tab
4. Filter for .mp4 — Type ".mp4" in the filter box
5. Refresh the page — The video will reload and you'll see CDN requests appear
6. Find the .mp4 URL — Look for a request to a CDN domain (usually containing "searchie" or "membership" in the hostname)
7. Copy that URL and paste it into a new tab — the video will download

The key insight: every HLS stream (.m3u8) on MIO has a corresponding .mp4 file. The URL pattern is predictable — swap the extension and you get the full-resolution original file.

Method 3: API-Assisted Extraction (Semi-Automated)

If you're comfortable with code, you can use MIO's API to enumerate your files and then download them programmatically.

Here's the general approach:

1. Get your API token from your Membership.io account settings
2. List all files using GET /api/v1/files/ — this returns metadata including file hashes
3. Construct CDN URLs from the file metadata — each file's hash maps to a CDN path
4. Download each file using the constructed URL — standard HTTP GET, no auth needed
5. Organize by folder/hub using the metadata from the API response

The API paginates results (typically 20-50 per page), so you'll need to handle pagination for larger libraries. Fields you'll want: title, hash, folder_id, size_bytes, and created_at.

Skip The Download Trap: The Done-For-You Alternative

We built MIOExit after going through this exact process ourselves — 10,177 files, 95 hubs, 2.6 terabytes. Here's what you get:

• You'll know exactly what you have — every video, every transcript, every playlist mapped and cataloged before we touch a single file
• Your entire library downloaded as standard MP4 files you own forever — not locked inside someone else's streaming format
• Every transcription pulled in VTT, SRT, and plain text — so your members' search experience survives the move
• Your folder and playlist structure replicated exactly — no rebuilding from memory
• Files delivered to the destination you choose — BunnyCDN, S3, Google Drive, or your own servers
• If even one file is missing, we re-run the entire extraction at no charge — this has never happened, but the guarantee stands

Your total effort: share read-only API credentials, pick a destination, approve the catalog. We do everything else. Most migrations are complete within 72 hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I download Membership.io videos on mobile?

Not easily. The developer tools method requires a desktop browser. The manual method works on mobile for some file types, but video downloads are inconsistent on iOS and Android.

Will Membership.io know I'm downloading my files?

The CDN downloads don't trigger any notifications in your MIO dashboard. Your account remains active and unaffected throughout the process.

How long does it take to download a large library?

Depends on your internet speed and library size. A 500-video library (roughly 250 GB) takes about 2-3 days to download manually. Our automated process handles the same library in under 24 hours.

What format are the downloaded files?

Standard MP4 (H.264). These play everywhere — every browser, every device, every video hosting platform. No conversion needed.

What happens to my account after I download everything?

Nothing changes. Your MIO account stays fully active. We always recommend keeping your account live until your new hosting is set up and tested. Only cancel after you've verified everything migrated successfully.