ownstorage
Create account
Telegram guide · about two minutes

Getting your token and your chat ID.

Two things go into ownstorage settings: a bot token and a chat ID. Neither costs anything, neither needs a developer account, and this page shows exactly what you will see at each step.

Part A

The bot token

Open Telegram and search for @BotFather - the one with the blue verified tick. Start a chat and send /newbot. The conversation goes exactly like this:

Keep that last message private. Anyone holding the token can post to and read from your bot, so treat it like a password - never paste it into a public chat or a screenshot.

@BotFather
  1. /newbot
  2. Alright, a new bot. How are we going to call it? Please choose a name for your bot.
  3. My Storage
  4. Good. Now let's choose a username for your bot. It must end in `bot`.
  5. my_storage_vault_bot
  6. Done! Congratulations on your new bot. Use this token to access the HTTP API: 8123456789:AAF0kQ2mR7yTn4vLxW9pZ1sC3dE5gH6jK8m

Names are illustrative. Your username must be unique and end in “bot”.

Part B

The chat ID

The bot needs somewhere to post. A private channel is the best home for it: only you can read it, and it keeps an unlimited history.

  1. 1

    Make a private channel

    In Telegram: new message → New Channel. Name it whatever you like and set it to Private. This is where every file will land, so keep it to yourself.

  2. 2

    Add your bot as admin

    Channel → Administrators → Add Admin → search for the username you just made. Give it permission to post messages. Without admin rights the bot cannot write anything.

  3. 3

    Post something there

    Any message at all. Telegram only reports a chat to your bot once there is activity, so an empty channel returns nothing in the next step.

Now read the ID

Open this URL in a browser with your own token pasted in place of <TOKEN>. Telegram answers with JSON.

Open in a browser

https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/getUpdates

Look for "chat" in the response. The id inside it is what you need:

"chat": {
  "id": -1002145558822,   ← this one
  "title": "My Storage Vault",
  "type": "channel"
}

Copy the number exactly as it appears - with the minus or without, ownstorage checks both against Telegram and keeps whichever one answers. A direct chat with your bot has a plain positive ID and works the same way.

Part C

Paste them in

Sign in, open Settings, and put the token and the chat ID into the two fields. Saving does three things in order: it checks the token with Telegram, checks that the bot can reach that channel, and only then encrypts the token and stores it.

If either check fails you get Telegram’s own message back, so you know which half is wrong. Nothing is saved until both pass.

Open settingsI need an account first

Troubleshooting

The five errors people actually hit

Unauthorized
The token is wrong or has been revoked. Send /mybots to BotFather, pick the bot, and use API Token to read the current one.
chat not found
The chat ID is wrong, or the bot was never added to that channel as an administrator. A channel ID is the 13 digits starting with 100 - copy all of them.
not enough rights
The bot is in the channel but is not an administrator, or has no permission to post messages.
getUpdates returns an empty result
Post a message in the channel and reload the URL. If it is still empty, the bot is not an admin there yet.
Upload says the file is too large
Anything over 20 MB is refused, because Telegram will not serve a file that size back out. Compress it or split it.