How to handle large video files

Questions
1

Describe the problem/error/question

I’m trying to come up with a way to handle video files. They get uploaded to our Airtable, but I want to upload them to Dropbox. Some people upload multiple videos and other file types, as well as quite large videos of around 300mb. In n8n I’d want to check conditions first, and then upload a video file at a time to Dropbox. I am aware of the RAM limit etc, but just don’t know if upgrading my n8n instance would be enough to handle this.

Is there a way I could try handling the situation without using my own server?
Is there a chart showing how much RAM is available and what file sizes are supported roughly?

What is the error message (if any)?

If I fire the workflow, the UI freezes and my instance restarts. So obviously an out of memory situation I’d say. I get 502 and then 503, 503, 503 until the UI is back.

Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version: 0.224.4
  • Database (default: SQLite): default
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): default
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): n8n cloud starter
2

In this case it would be best to use N8N_DEFAULT_BINARY_DATA_MODE=filesystem. You can read about it here:

That should improve that by a lot. First for sure on the browser side, as it only loads the binary data when it is really required (like when you open the node). And second on the backend side as many nodes will then use streams instead of buffers underneath the hood.

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