How to Automate Video File Downloads from Sample.cat with n8n

Manually downloading video files from sites like Sample.cat is tedious and error-prone, especially if you need media content at scale or on a recurring basis. Navigating to each page, clicking the right download link, waiting for the file to become available, and saving the file—this workflow doesn’t scale for professionals who need fast, reliable access to up-to-date content. Issues like download failures, access restrictions, or inconsistent file availability can disrupt processes for teams and individuals alike.

With Airtop’s n8n automation, you can automate every step of the video file retrieval process from Sample.cat. Leveraging real browser sessions, Airtop navigates to your target webpage, interacts with download buttons (including those behind authentication, captchas, or 2FA), and ensures files are actually ready before downloading—delivering structured file metadata and robust error handling right into your data pipeline. This approach bypasses the limitations of unreliable scraping or scripting tools by using authentic browser actions, making it highly resilient to changing web layouts or access barriers.

Set up this automation via n8n to handle everything programmatically: session initiation, navigation, human-like interactions, download verifications, and file storage. This workflow is ideal for teams needing repeatable, scalable media downloads while integrating seamlessly with storage platforms or downstream analysis tools, all via JSON output that’s ready for further processing.

Who is this Automation for?

• Content teams regularly archiving or tracking video files from Sample.cat

• Dataset managers automating recurring media downloads for machine learning or analytics

• Developers needing reliable, authenticated media retrieval as part of larger workflows

• Automation engineers building end-to-end media backup or scraping pipelines in n8n

Key Benefits

• Real browser session support—no more unreliable scraping workarounds

• Handles login, captcha, 2FA, and other access restrictions automatically

• Seamless integration with n8n for easy scheduling and orchestration

• Structured JSON output containing file and download metadata

Use Cases

• Bulk downloading training videos for internal knowledge bases

• Archiving media files for audit or compliance

• Automated data collection for video analytics or machine learning pipelines

• Recurring content backups from specific Sample.cat video pages

• Integrating video download and storage into existing n8n-powered workflows

• Syncing new video files to cloud storage or databases without manual intervention

Getting Started with the Simple File Download Automation

Begin automating video file downloads from Sample.cat in just a few steps.

How the Simple File Download Automation Works

When triggered, this automation starts a real Airtop browser session and navigates to your specified Sample.cat URL. It interacts with the webpage just like a human would—clicking the download button for the targeted video. After a short wait to allow the file to become ready, it verifies its availability before downloading the file directly. All session management and clean-up run transparently behind the scenes, and detailed metadata for the downloaded file is returned as structured JSON into your n8n workflow.

What You’ll Need

• A free Airtop account

• An n8n account

Setting Up the Automation

1. Click on Try Automation on the automation page.

2. Select “Use for free” and follow the guided setup steps in n8n.

3. Ensure you use an Airtop Profile authenticated for Sample.cat in the configuration.

4. Run the automation—for recurring downloads, switch the scheduler on to automate at set intervals.

Customize the Automation

• Change the target URL to download from different Sample.cat video pages

• Modify button selectors for alternate or newly added download buttons

• Dynamically pass video titles to handle bulk downloads or playlists

• Integrate the download output with cloud storage, Slack/Teams notifications, or downstream analytics in your n8n workflow

Automation Best Practices

• Always authenticate your Airtop Profile to ensure access to restricted downloads

• Add retry logic to check for file availability if files are intermittently slow to process

• Monitor run logs in n8n for any failed sessions or network issues

• Customize metadata outputs to include additional context for each file (e.g., timestamp, page source, video title)

Try this Automation

Automate reliable, hands-free video downloads from Sample.cat using real browser interactions—with full authentication and robust output for your workflows. Start using the Simple File Download automation with n8n today. Need help customizing this automation? Book a Demo today!