📁 Back up Instagram videos to Google Drive with JSON metadata catalog

⚡ 6 views · 📁 File Management

💡 Pro Tip — Heads up — if this workflow’s Instagram scraping breaks (it happens whenever Meta updates their frontend), ScraperNode is a community node that handles profiles, posts, reels, and comments without any HTML parsing.

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Description

Instagram Video Backup to Google Drive

Automatically backup all your Instagram videos to Google Drive with a searchable metadata catalog in JSON format.

What It Does

This workflow provides a complete backup solution for your Instagram video content with intelligent caption parsing:

  1. Fetches your Instagram account ID and videos (VIDEO and REELS types)
  2. Parses captions into structured fields:
    • Title: Everything before the first hashtag
    • Description: Everything after the first hashtag (includes all tags)
    • Tag List: All hashtags extracted as an array
    • Description Full: Complete original caption text
  3. Downloads videos in maximum available quality from Instagram
  4. Uploads videos to a designated Google Drive folder
  5. Creates/updates a JSON metadata file with all video details
  6. Prevents duplicates using n8n Data Tables with account-level filtering

Key Features

Account-Level Tracking: The Data Table includes accountId so you can use the same table across multiple Instagram accounts. Each account’s videos are tracked separately.

Smart Caption Parsing: Automatically splits Instagram captions into title (before first #) and description (all hashtags and text after), with full text preserved in descriptionFull.

Portable Catalog: The JSON file is stored in Google Drive alongside your videos, making it accessible anywhere without needing n8n.

Maximum Quality: Uses Instagram Graph API’s media_url field for highest available quality.

Hashtag Extraction: Automatically extracts all hashtags into an array for easy filtering and analysis.

Workflow Architecture

Section 1: Fetch & Filter

Get Instagram Account Info → Configuration → Fetch Media → Split Out Items → Filter Videos Only

Section 2: Process Videos

Check If Backed Up → IF Not Backed Up → Wait → Parse Caption → Download → Upload → Extract Metadata → Save Record → Aggregate

For each video:

  1. Check If Already Backed Up: Queries Data Table by postId to avoid duplicates
  2. IF Not Already Backed Up: Skips if video already exists
  3. Wait: 5-second delay between downloads (prevents API rate limits)
  4. Parse Caption: Splits caption into title, description, tagList, descriptionFull
  5. Download Video: Downloads video file from Instagram to memory
  6. Upload to Google Drive: Uploads video to configured folder
  7. Extract Metadata: Creates structured metadata object with all fields
  8. Save Backup Record: Stores accountId, postId, googleDriveFileId, backedUpAt in Data Table
  9. Aggregate: Collects all new video metadata for JSON update

Section 3: Update JSON Catalog

End Loop → Download Existing JSON → Update JSON → Upload Updated JSON

After all videos processed:

  1. Download Existing Metadata JSON: Gets current JSON file from Google Drive (if exists)
  2. Update Metadata JSON: Appends new video metadata to existing catalog
  3. Upload Updated Metadata JSON: Saves updated JSON back to Google Drive

Setup Steps

1. Create Google Drive Folder

  1. Go to Google Drive
  2. Create a new folder named Instagram Video Backups (or any name you prefer)
  3. Open the folder and copy the Folder ID from the URL: 
    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ABC123xyz...
                                         ^^^^^^^^^^^
                                         This is your Folder ID

2. Create n8n Data Table

Create a Data Table for deduplication tracking with account-level support:

Table Name: Instagram Video Backups

Schema:

Field NameTypeDescription
accountIdstringInstagram account ID (allows multi-account use)
postIdstring (Primary Key)Instagram post ID
googleDriveFileIdstringGoogle Drive file ID for the video
backedUpAtstringISO timestamp of backup

Why accountId? This allows you to use the same Data Table for multiple Instagram accounts. Each account’s videos are tracked separately, preventing conflicts.

3. Configure Credentials

You’ll need two credential sets:

Instagram Graph API (HTTP Bearer Auth)

  1. In n8n, create new credential: HTTP Bearer Auth
  2. Set header name: Authorization
  3. Set header value: Bearer YOUR_INSTAGRAM_ACCESS_TOKEN
  4. Name it: Instagram Graph API

Getting Instagram Access Token:

Google Drive OAuth2

  1. In n8n, create new credential: Google Drive OAuth2 API
  2. Follow OAuth flow to authorize your Google account
  3. Name it: Google Drive Account

4. Update Configuration Node

In the workflow, open the Configuration node and update:

{
  "googleDriveFolderId": "PASTE_YOUR_FOLDER_ID_HERE",
  "maxVideosPerRun": 100,
  "waitBetweenDownloads": 5,
  "metadataFileName": "instagram-backup-metadata.json"
}

Settings Explained:

Note: accountId and accountUsername are automatically populated from Instagram API.

5. Test & Activate

  1. Click Manual Trigger to test the workflow
  2. Check Google Drive folder for:
    • Video files named instagram_{postId}.mp4
    • JSON file named instagram-backup-metadata.json
  3. Verify Data Table has records with accountId and postId
  4. Activate the Schedule Trigger for daily automatic backups

Metadata JSON Structure

The JSON file stored in Google Drive has this structure:

{
  "lastUpdated": "2026-02-01T10:00:00Z",
  "totalVideos": 42,
  "videos": [
    {
      "accountId": "17841400123456789",
      "instagramId": "123456789",
      "permalink": "https://instagram.com/p/ABC123",
      "title": "Amazing sunset at the beach!",
      "description": "#travel #nature #sunset",
      "tagList": ["travel", "nature", "sunset"],
      "descriptionFull": "Amazing sunset at the beach! #travel #nature #sunset",
      "timestamp": "2026-01-15T08:30:00Z",
      "mediaType": "VIDEO",
      "googleDriveFileId": "1ABC123xyz...",
      "googleDriveFileName": "instagram_123456789.mp4",
      "backedUpAt": "2026-02-01T10:00:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

Field Descriptions

Caption Parsing Logic

The Parse Caption Code node splits Instagram captions intelligently:

Example Caption:

"Amazing sunset at the beach! 🌅 #travel #nature #sunset"

Parsed Fields:

Edge Cases:

Multi-Account Usage

Using the same Data Table for multiple accounts:

  1. Import this workflow multiple times (once per Instagram account)
  2. Configure each workflow with different Instagram credentials
  3. Use the same Data Table name in all workflows: Instagram Video Backups
  4. Each workflow automatically filters by its own accountId

Benefits:

Querying specific account backups:

// In Data Table or external script
const accountBackups = allBackups.filter(
  backup => backup.accountId === "17841400123456789"
);

API Quotas & Limits

Instagram Graph API

Google Drive API

Troubleshooting

No videos are being backed up

Check Instagram credentials:

  1. Open “Get Instagram Account Info” node
  2. Click “Execute Node”
  3. Look for error messages about authentication

Verify account has videos:

accountId is empty in Data Table

Account info fetch failed:

JSON file has wrong title/description

Caption parsing issue:

  1. Open “Parse Caption” Code node
  2. Check the output to see parsed fields
  3. Verify caption has hashtags (if no hashtags, entire caption becomes title)

Custom parsing logic: Edit the “Parse Caption” Code node to adjust splitting logic:

// Current: splits at FIRST hashtag
const firstHashtagIndex = caption.indexOf('#');

// Alternative: split at specific word
const splitWord = 'DESCRIPTION:';
const splitIndex = caption.indexOf(splitWord);

Duplicate videos in Google Drive

Data Table issues:

Workflow execution failed mid-run:

Rate limit errors

Instagram rate limits:

Google Drive rate limits:

Caption has special characters (emojis, line breaks)

Emojis preserved:

Line breaks:

Advanced Customization

Change Backup Folder

Update googleDriveFolderId in Configuration node to any Google Drive folder ID.

Change Schedule

Edit the Schedule Trigger node:

Organize Videos by Date

To create monthly subfolders (e.g., 2026-02/video.mp4):

  1. Before “Upload to Google Drive” node, add “Google Drive - Create Folder” node
  2. Folder name: ={{ $now.format('yyyy-MM') }}
  3. Parent folder: ={{ $('Configuration').item.json.googleDriveFolderId }}
  4. Update upload node to use created folder ID

Download Videos Locally Too

To keep local copies in addition to Google Drive:

  1. After “Download Video” node, add Write Binary File node
  2. File path: /path/to/backup/{{ $('Extract Metadata').item.json.googleDriveFileName }}
  3. Connect in parallel with “Upload to Google Drive”

Custom Caption Parsing

To use different title/description split logic:

Option 1: Split at specific keyword

const splitKeyword = 'DESCRIPTION:';
const splitIndex = caption.indexOf(splitKeyword);

if (splitIndex === -1) {
  title = caption.trim();
  description = '';
} else {
  title = caption.substring(0, splitIndex).trim();
  description = caption.substring(splitIndex + splitKeyword.length).trim();
}

Option 2: Use first sentence as title

const sentenceEnd = caption.match(/[.!?]/);
const endIndex = sentenceEnd ? caption.indexOf(sentenceEnd[0]) + 1 : -1;

if (endIndex === -1) {
  title = caption.trim();
  description = '';
} else {
  title = caption.substring(0, endIndex).trim();
  description = caption.substring(endIndex).trim();
}

Filter by Account in JSON

To create separate JSON files per account:

  1. Update “Update Metadata JSON” Code node to filter by accountId
  2. Change metadataFileName to include account username: 
    instagram-backup-{{ $('Configuration').item.json.accountUsername }}.json

Use Cases

Search Videos by Hashtag

Download the JSON file from Google Drive, then:

// Load JSON
const metadata = require('./instagram-backup-metadata.json');

// Find all #travel videos
const travelVideos = metadata.videos.filter(v =>
  v.tagList.includes('travel')
);

console.log(`Found ${travelVideos.length} travel videos`);

Find Videos by Date Range

const startDate = new Date('2026-01-01');
const endDate = new Date('2026-01-31');

const videosInRange = metadata.videos.filter(v => {
  const videoDate = new Date(v.timestamp);
  return videoDate >= startDate && videoDate <= endDate;
});

Generate Reports

Import JSON into Google Sheets or Excel to analyze:

Migrate to Another Platform

The JSON catalog includes permalinks and timestamps, making it easy to:

Known Limitations

  1. Only videos: Doesn’t backup images or carousel posts (by design)
  2. Token expiration: Instagram tokens expire after 60 days, requires manual refresh
  3. Storage limits: Google Drive free tier is 15GB
  4. No analytics: Doesn’t track views, likes, or comments
  5. Single folder: All videos in one folder (can be customized, see Advanced Customization)
  6. Caption parsing: Assumes first hashtag splits title/description (customizable)

Data Privacy

Version History

Additional Resources

Support

If you encounter issues:

  1. Check Troubleshooting section above
  2. Review n8n execution logs for error details
  3. Verify all credentials are active and have required permissions
  4. Test with Manual Trigger before relying on Schedule Trigger
  5. Check “Parse Caption” node output if title/description is incorrect

🔗 Nodes Used

HTTP Request, Google Drive, Schedule Trigger, Data table

📥 Import

Download workflow.json and import into n8n: Workflow menu → Import from File

📖 Importing guide · 🔑 Credential setup