Upload & Rename Videos to Google Drive via Apps Script from URL

Description

📄 Google Script Workflow: Upload File from URL to Google Drive (via n8n)

🔧 Purpose:
This lightweight Google Apps Script acts as a server endpoint that receives a file URL (from n8n), downloads the file, uploads it to your specified Google Drive folder, and responds with the file’s metadata (like Drive file ID and URL). This is useful for large video/audio files that n8n cannot handle directly via HTTP Download nodes.

🚀 Setup Steps:

1. Create a New Script Project

Go to https://script.google.com
Click “New Project”
Rename the project to something like: DriveUploader

2. Paste the Script Code

Replace the default Code.gs content with the following (your custom script):

function doPost(e) {
const SECRET_KEY = 'your-strong-secret-here'; // Set your secret key here

try {
const data = JSON.parse(e.postData.contents);

// 🔒 Check for correct secret key
if (!data.secret || data.secret !== SECRET_KEY) {
return ContentService.createTextOutput("Unauthorized")
.setMimeType(ContentService.MimeType.TEXT);
}

const videoUrl = data.videoUrl;
const folderId = 'YOUR_FOLDER_ID_HERE'; // Replace with your target folder ID
const folder = DriveApp.getFolderById(folderId);

const response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(videoUrl);
const blob = response.getBlob();
const file = folder.createFile(blob);
file.setName('uploaded_video.mp4'); // You can customize the name

return ContentService.createTextOutput(file.getUrl())
.setMimeType(ContentService.MimeType.TEXT);
} catch (err) {
return ContentService.createTextOutput("Error: " + err.message)
.setMimeType(ContentService.MimeType.TEXT);
}
}

3. Generate & Set Up Secret Key
To allow authorized post requests to your script only, we need to generate a secret key from aany reliable key generator.
You can head over to acte, click generate and copy the "Encryption key 256".
Paste it in the 'your-strong-secret-here' placeholder in your script then click save

const SECRET_KEY = 'your-strong-secret-here'; // Set your secret key here;
4. Replace Folder ID in Code

Open the target Drive folder in your browser
The folder ID is the part of the URL after /folders/
Example:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1Xabc12345678defGHIJklmn
Paste that ID in the script:
var folderId = "1Xabc12345678defGHIJklmn";
5. Set Up Deployment as Web App

Click “Deploy” > “Manage Deployments” > “New Deployment”
Under Select type, choose Web app
Description: Upload from URL to Drive
Execute as: Me
Who has access: Anyone
Click Deploy
Authorize the script when prompted
Copy the Web App URL

📤 How to Use in n8n

1. HTTP Request Node

Method: POST
URL: (your web app URL)
Secret Key: (Secret Key set in script)
Body Content Type: JSON
Paste code:
{
"videoUrl": "https://example.com/path/to/your.mp4",
"secret": "your-strong-secret-here"
}
videoUrl: The file download URL
secret: The generated and set up secret key

2. Rename Node

A simple drive update node to rename the file using the file drive url returned from the script.