Auto-Upload Videos from Google Drive to Instagram, TikTok & YouTube with Airtable Tracking

Overview

This workflow automates the entire process of uploading videos from a Google Drive folder to Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube simultaneously. When a new video file is added to a designated Google Drive folder, the workflow automatically extracts the audio, generates an AI-powered description using OpenAI, creates a tracking record in Airtable, uploads the video to all three social platforms via upload-post.com, and updates the Airtable record with status and URLs. It also includes error handling with Telegram notifications.

This is an ideal solution for content creators, social media managers, and marketing teams who need to distribute video content across multiple platforms quickly and consistently while maintaining a centralized tracking system.

Workflow Steps

1. Google Drive Trigger (OAuth2) — Watches a specific Google Drive folder for new file creation events. Polls every minute to detect newly added videos.

2. Google Drive (OAuth2) — Downloads the newly detected video file from Google Drive using the file ID provided by the trigger.

3. Read video from Google Drive (No auth) — Saves the downloaded video file to the local filesystem with its original filename (spaces replaced by underscores).

4. Get Audio from Video (OpenAI API Key) — Sends the video file to OpenAI's Whisper model to transcribe the audio into text. This transcription is used to generate a context-aware description.

5. Generate Description for Videos (OpenAI API Key) — Uses GPT-4o to create an engaging social media description based on the audio transcription and example descriptions provided in the system prompt. The model is instructed to reply only with the description text.

6. Set Variables (No auth) — Defines three key configuration variables:

   • airtable_app_id: Your Airtable base ID
   • airtable_table_id: Your Airtable table ID
   • upload_post_user: Your upload-post.com username

7. Create Airtable Record (Airtable Token API) — Creates a new record in Airtable with the video name field to track the upload process.

8. Edit Airtable Fields1 (No auth) — Prepares data for updating the Airtable record with the generated description, original video name, Google Drive link, and current upload date.

9. Update Airtable with Description (Airtable Token API) — Updates the Airtable record with the description, video name, Google Drive links, and upload date.

10. Read Video for TikTok (No auth) — Reads the saved video file from disk for TikTok upload.

11. Read Video for Instagram (No auth) — Reads the saved video file from disk for Instagram upload.

12. Read Video for YouTube (No auth) — Reads the saved video file from disk for YouTube upload.

13. Upload Video to TikTok (Header Auth — API Key) — Sends a multipart/form-data POST request to upload-post.com API with the video, generated description (as title), platform set to "tiktok", and the configured user.

14. Upload Video to Instagram (Header Auth — API Key) — Same as above but with platform set to "instagram".

15. Upload Video to YouTube (Header Auth — API Key) — Same as above but with platform set to "youtube" and title truncated to 70 characters.

16. Edit Airtable Fields (No auth) — Prepares TikTok upload results (success status and URL) for Airtable update.

17. Edit Airtable Fields 2 (No auth) — Prepares Instagram upload results for Airtable update.

18. Edit Airtable Fields 3 (No auth) — Prepares YouTube upload results for Airtable update.

19. Update TikTok Status (Airtable Token API) — Updates the Airtable record with TikTok upload status and URL.

20. Update Instagram Status (Airtable Token API) — Updates the Airtable record with Instagram upload status and URL.

21. Update YouTube Status - Success (Airtable Token API) — Updates the Airtable record with YouTube upload status and URL.

22. Error Trigger (No auth) — Catches any errors that occur during workflow execution.

23. If (No auth) — Checks if the error message does NOT contain "The DNS server returned an error" to avoid spamming on transient network issues.

24. Telegram (Bot Token) — Sends an error notification message to a configured Telegram chat if a non-DNS error occurs.

Setup Instructions

Required Accounts & Services

1. Google Drive — You need a Google account with access to the folder you want to watch. Create OAuth2 credentials in Google Cloud Console.

2. OpenAI — Sign up at platform.openai.com and create an API key. Ensure you have billing enabled for GPT-4o and Whisper API access.

3. Airtable — Create an Airtable account and set up a base with a table containing these fields:

   • Video Name (single line text)
   • Google Drive Links (URL)
   • File ID (text)
   • Instagram Status (text)
   • TikTok Status (text)
   • YouTube Status (text)
   • Upload Date (date)
   • Description (long text)
   • Instagram URL (URL)
   • Tiktok URL (URL)
   • Youtube URL (URL)

4. upload-post.com — Create an account and generate an API token. This service handles the actual posting to social media platforms.

5. Telegram (optional) — Create a Telegram bot via @BotFather and get the bot token and chat ID for error notifications.

Configuration Steps

1. In the Set Variables node, replace:

   • add_airtable_app_id with your Airtable base ID
   • add_airtable_table_id with your Airtable table ID
   • test2 with your upload-post.com username

2. Configure the Google Drive Trigger to watch your desired folder.

3. Add your OpenAI API key as a credential for the two OpenAI nodes.

4. Add your Airtable token as a credential for the Airtable nodes.

5. Add your upload-post.com API token as a Header Auth credential (Authorization: Apikey YOUR_TOKEN).

6. Optionally configure the Telegram node with your bot token and chat ID.

Use Cases & Variations

Primary Use Case

• Content Repurposing: Automatically distribute video content across multiple social platforms from a single Google Drive upload.

Adaptations

1. Different Platforms: Modify the platform[] parameter in the HTTP Request nodes to support other platforms supported by upload-post.com (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest).

2. Custom Descriptions: Edit the OpenAI system prompt and examples in the Generate Description for Videos node to match your brand voice or target different audiences.

3. Scheduling: Replace the Google Drive Trigger with a Schedule Trigger to process videos on a regular basis (e.g., daily at 10 AM).

4. Approval Workflow: Add a manual approval step before uploading to social media by inserting a Wait node or using n8n's approval workflow feature.

5. Thumbnail Generation: Add a node to generate video thumbnails using an image generation API before uploading.

6. Multi-language Support: Modify the OpenAI prompt to generate descriptions in different languages based on the video content or target audience.

7. Analytics Dashboard: Connect the Airtable base to a dashboard tool like Google Data Studio or Metabase to track upload performance across platforms.

{
  "id": "cbeBbWowy2c7CXli",
  "meta": {
    "instanceId": "3378b0d68c3b7ebfc71b79896d94e1a044dec38e99a1160aed4e9c323910fbe2",
    "templateId": "2894",
    "templateCredsSetupCompleted": true
  },
  "name": "From Google Drive to Instagram, TikTok & YouTube with Airtable Tracking",
  "tags": [],
  "nodes": [
    {
      "id": "b8885dc4-76bc-4b56-9c4e-0d731a7f3ed5",
      "name": "Set Variables",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.set",
      "position": [
        -1360,
        420
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "options": {},
        "assignments": {
          "assignments": [
            {
              "id": "cd270863-aa35-418c-a0ae-1b5878eee2ed",
              "name": "airtable_app_id",
              "type": "string",
              "value": "add_airtable_app_id"
            },
            {
              "id": "00ef91b2-8a4c-42bb-a46f-f7eb06e861e8",
              "name": "airtable_table_id",
              "type": "string",
              "value": "add_airtable_table_id"
            },
            {
              "id": "21b5d3ad-ff81-407e-8c4e-53bda8a16e0e",
              "name": "upload_post_user",
              "type": "string",
              "value": "test2"
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "typeVersion": 3.4
    },
    {
      "id": "d2c433ef-4270-421c-888b-799aff78ed4e",
      "name": "Google Drive Trigger",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.googleDriveTrigger",
      "position": [
// ... truncated (copy to see full JSON)