Looking at the node we don’t support uploading from a URL so you would need to first add an HTTP request node to download the file then use the output of that to upload it.
Working with binary data isn’t the most intuitive paradigm in n8n - we hope to change that in future.
Meanwhile, I quickly recorded this video to point out a few helpful tips when working with Binary data. It’s a rough loom video, but hoping it helps in lieu of better formal documentation on binary data at the moment.
Quick question. When using the HTTP Post option with Get, does that download the actual file to your server? or just make it available in the workflow? (timestamp 0:43)
Glad it was helpful and great question! Binary data is loaded into memory (RAM) so something to keep in mind if working with heavy files like images or massive datasets.
Depending on how your n8n is setup, if the file is larger than available RAM either the WF will fail or your instance will crash (dependent on the execution mode of your instance. On phone atm, but should be some stuff in docs on that).
@mentioning@MutedJam to sanity check my answer - we might already have a solution where that binary data is saved in swap/ temp storage during the exec; to avoid the aforementioned RAM crashing scenario. I just don’t remember for certain.
