Troubleshooting the error in a Create Photo Post in Instagram module

Once again, hopefully this is something easy/obvious that I’m missing. I am trying to set up a scenario to create a photo post in Instagram from an updated DB item in Notion. (I’ve tagged Canva in this message as well because we design our images in Canva, and thus one of our sharing options is the public view link in Canva.)
I have the trigger and associated filters working correctly (I hope!) but have gotten error messages with each of my attempts to run the Instagram module. In my DB, I have both a file property with the image file itself (saved as JPEG) and a URL property with the Canva public view link. I get different errors with each of the options (see below).
Thank you for your help!

Error version 1: using the image file property
Error message: " * Missing value of required parameter ‘image_url’."


This is the relevant section of the properties list:

Error version 2: using the Canva link
Error message: “The image format is not supported. (36001, OAuthException)”


(Canva link:

Hi, thanks so much for the input!

It looks like the issue is with the image format and how Instagram via Make.com expects the image_url. I now understand that:

  • Notion’s file property doesn’t always expose a direct image URL that Instagram accepts
  • Canva public links are actually viewer pages, not direct image files (so they aren’t supported)

To fix this, I’m going to try:

  1. Uploading the image file to a platform that provides a direct .jpg/.png link (like Dropbox or Google Drive with a direct access link)
  2. Or using Make’s HTTP module to fetch the Notion image and temporarily host it in a way Instagram can read

Also confirming that I’m using Instagram for Business, since that’s the only one that supports posting through API.

If anyone has a tested method for temporarily hosting Notion image files or handling Canva links, I’d really appreciate your advice!

Thanks again :folded_hands:
— Promise