Meet File Browser, a Small but Mighty Web File Browser

[@TechnoTim]

How do you browse files on a remote machine? Terminal? Web? Explorer??

[@BloodBlight]

I just mount it as if it was local using sshfs.

[@kokizzu]

where's the link XD the name is not that "googleable" XD

[@whiskeylinux]

I tend to use Filezilla and WinSCP

[@nevoyu]

Terminal because I'm too lazy to setup sshfs and I think tools like the one shown in the video are insecure.

[@sp3023]

I'm using FileRun. It has many features but is also using much more resources. It is available as a container for self hosting too.

[@anuvaidya9772]

This is absolutely brilliant. Filebrowser, Docker, and your presentation. I followed step by step and was able to make it work. And I've never done this before. Thank you for this incredible video!

[@TechnoTim]

Great to hear!

[@lucasj.pereira4912]

Now this is a tool that I'll install in every system I need to manage. This with proper firewall or VPN access and you have a nice interface to manage a VPS

[@MrSpecialR]

Sounds like a cool thing to have on a VPS to share files with people to not have to use typical cloud services or go overkill with a full Nextcloud installation

[@Breeegz]

Yeah, I was thinking about NextCloud, but this seems to fit my actual needs much better,

[@Nikhil-Tomar]

I tried Nextcloud Very Slow, Disappointing actually

[@lakshmikanthraju105]

I was all ready to install nextcloud only to browse online in needful time. This comes as plugin in OMV but that didn't worked form. This instatlion is clean simple and to the point. This one working well. Best video / tutorial 🙂

[@W4ABN]

Was looking for something I could use to share files too big for email. Got this up and running and works great. Thank you.

[@jobinololopino9957]

Discovered this yesterday and this morning discover your video. Great video ! Thank you for your help.

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

I wish I watched your video 10 years ago. Why? It pushed me to write own file browser. How big is it? 840,127 so still one 1.4M disk is enough. Do I need a Docker or other container? Yes, but it should be a servlet container, so generally 500K container is enough. So your video is a highly valuable for me since I can confirm that I provided enough features in the app. And yes, it runs on Mac and Raspberry Pi.

[@insomniac_coder]

I have noticed that you edit config files in VS code and then paste it into terminal You can install remote ssh just like remote wsl it can connect to the server from ssh and open a vs code instance in your machine and then you can open a remote directory on your machine on vs code This saved me from alot of hassle while creating new services using docker compose

[@TechnoTim]

Thanks for the tip!

[@NovaCayn]

I use syncthing and file browser as a combo. File browser is accessible outside my network and is running through a reverse proxy. Its very handy to have.

[@jim_fear_]

do You use any 2FA? or just believe in user:pass pair?

[@koningvoorschot4200]

Are you able to upload anything from outside network? In my case I can't unless it's local (within network)

[@tctn]

Some could mount network share location from Synology NAS, then expose this file manager to the web to reach their files over the internet. I think safer than exposing whole NAS device so that hackers chase it up with known security vulnerabilities. Thanks for sharing. Great presentation and awesome little container.

[@amrysamuels628]

Lovely man! Absolutely lovely! Keep it up bro. NICE WORK!!!!

[@_maxt]

Webmin brings back memories. I think the first version was written in Perl 4 IIRC.

[@ttaylor3rd]

"where have you been for 20 years" lol 18:40

[@adamsuail]

nice video bro, there is a cool trick you can do with filebrowser, if you create an empty directory as user scope and populate it with systeylinks (symbolic likns in linux) you will have a virtual directory and that will be very handy if you want to grand someone access to your server without wasting storage space. i was also experimenting with droppy but its way behind.

[@TechnoTim]

Great tip!

[@DaveNorthWest]

How can we make it so users each get separate user folders with allocated sizes when they click the create account link on the logon page?

[@sashaperevisly7755]

Thanks!!! with your video I can start my own fileBrowser!

[@glidentity]

It's only missing 2FA option. And maybe testing it behind a reverse proxy. Great self host find

[@jmlc11]

Hey man, love your videos. Hey quick question: What VScode Plugin do you use for the yml indent color coding there? Minute 3:56. Thanks in advanced.

[@chadmarkley]

Would love to know the answer to this as well!

[@TechnoTim]

Indent Rainbow!

[@TechnoTim]

@@chadmarkley Indent Rainbow!

[@jmlc11]

@@TechnoTim thank you!

[@ebiscaia]

What do you recommend: creating docker instances for every server or mounting points where file browser is running?

[@jesmasco]

Same question, I think should be only one instance running. Because you can't install it on every server, and would be super tedious to have a file manager for each machine running on different ports.

[@vanopiano]

That is cool, started using it too from now 😃 Previously used only synology(and few xpenology) for public files sharing from my network

[@Lampe2020]

Yay, I can even use this on my "serverized" Lenovo laptop with a 32GB soldered-on unextendable SSD because it's so small!

[@ronan696]

I've been using this for a while now. It's awesome! Great video btw!!!

[@sd3873]

I am searching for a filebrower like this, but with the open to conenct / map a smb share which I run. Any ideas?

[@TazzSmk]

looks like essential app for TrueNAS Scale, as Synology user I would never expect NAS system not to have native File management within its web UI

[@danielstromberg]

I'm finding "File Browser" interesting. But how do you keep it up to date? Is there a mailing list you have to subscribe to? Do you re-download the container periodically?

[@nikunjkaria]

Can u help setting regex to allow only specific files to upload on file browser..I was unable to set it.

[@JamesRandall1]

uid / gid explanation -> thank you

[@cereal_experiments]

if i set this up with authelia in front of it, is it possible to create shares without the recipient having to log in?

[@TechnoTim]

I think you can exclude paths with authelia!

[@AtindriyaDas]

Thanks very much Tim!!

[@GoodOldDays-u9b]

Thank you so much, this was a great guide. I was able to install it successfully.

[@klassical16]

This was super helpful, thanks! Only feature missing, is when I share a folder link, it would be nice if the client could upload into that folder without having to create an account.

[@spooky1000]

Does it have file indexing? Im looking for a combination of this and diskover

[@MrAmagalhaes]

I was looking for a solution like this to share out team doc. Great vídeo thank you @techno tim!

[@carlos_mann]

Is there a maximum amount of files or storage space I can have saved within that link?

[@SuperRoli123]

Great to see a new Video. I will give this a try for mounting multiple docker volumes under /srv for easy access to docker volumes

[@TechnoTim]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Dirizabl]

How would you mount new directory to this container? Like for example, expose a ZFS pool that was created?

[@TechnoTim]

The same way you mount any folder. Just map it in docker to the filesystem!

[@Antonis24]

Really interesting. Does this hold user logs such as the date/time and ip of who uploaded/downloaded files?

[@wstrater]

Were you running Sever Code? Looks like your Visual Code was running on a remote machine. I use Server Code when I need to write long scripts on a remote machine without X. I really like the multi tab ability. I was hoping you would show something like that with file-browser.

[@hgmc404]

Would it be possible to use File Browser as a webfront to view files on SharePoint or OneDrive? Or some other way of hosting File Browser not via Docker? i.e. In an enterprise environment where you can't use docker?

[@Breeegz]

How well does this handle symlinks? For instance, I have 4 folders in my root directory, different LVM Mounts, can I symlink them to a single folder that FileBrowser can access? I'd rather not share out my entire root directory.

[@machrx5]

could you help with windows? a lot of things in the tutorial aren't working for me

[@kynguyen0110]

I run this compose file on Windows. I got the error "/database.db is a directory". After removing this line, the container worked well.

[@adiseptian2760]

how to change file permission and owner such as "chmod" and "chown" command?

[@bankoleogundero9446]

Does it support single sign on (SSO) especially with Azure AD?

[@mohamedelnady4322]

how i hide the file system that show up.. it's really disturbing!

[@lewisbailey1000]

everything is working until the file browser is starting, and then it restarts every few seconds, when i look at the logs it says "standard_init_linux.go:228: exec user process caused: operation not permitted", why is is doing this? Edit: i managed to fix this by using the docker command from the install page for filemanager and adding the flags "--name=filebrowser" and "--restart unless-stopped"

[@darklocksly3615]

I use mc (Midnight Commander) which has a two plane directory layout and has a smaller foorprint than Filebrowser.

[@sandrorocha790]

This is awesome! Is possible to visualize video files and hear audio files?

[@andreineagu.online]

This tutorial helped me a lot! And it's the only one that was clear enough to make it work. I'm very curious how can I change the path if want more control up until let's say the root folder. Re-deploying the stack will reinstall/replace everything?

[@bkcy18]

Holy cow this is just what i needed! How to change the base url so that it be used behind a reverse proxy?

[@GorkemYildirim]

Thanks, installed and checking now.

[@mmuehlebach]

Thank you Tim! After spending a week trying (and failing) to get Samba running on k8s to expose a RWX volume, I finally stumbled over this tool. I guess it should be easy to secure it with authelia in front of it or is there a better way?

[@TechnoTim]

That’s what I’d use

[@jackrorystaunton4557]

can you mount it or map it as a network drive?

[@albertmacana1136]

New account, share files with a permissions, password protection 👌🏽😎

[@soportelinux]

hello, in my case when I upload any file or do anyaction the web not refresh and I must click on reload icon, so how can I solve this situation? thanks

[@chrisbowie1438]

This would be good to run on a NAS server for sure

[@ShaswathMshash]

Thanks Tim for such a nice video...i do have a doubt...can this support multiple directory for a single user in scope...i was unable to find anything on the document

[@alanjrobertson]

I now seem to be stuck in a loop... 10 Watch Techo Tim video 20 Go "wow, that's cool!" 30 Install another Docker container I never knew I needed until now 40 GOTO 10 😂🤓😎

[@mahdimuhib]

Great Video. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to set this up with root access to my files. I just keep getting 'exec /filebrowser: operation not permitted' in the logs. Even with user: 1000:1000. My docker was installed with snap and I read somewhere that could be causing the problem. But I don't want to have to reinstall docker and lose all my current containers.

[@hamadoualidavid-malick1552]

Hi, thanks you for this video.I want to ask your something. Please When we use portainer and create a stacks, to which we add fillebrowser. Sometimes we don't have access to the server. Do you have an explanation?

[@TechnoTim]

Hi! I have not experiences this myself, it always seems to work. I did not try this with a Portainer stack but it should work.

[@hamadoualidavid-malick1552]

@@TechnoTim Thanks, ok but last question, do you know how can i custom it( change name, color?)

[@TheWatchMan18]

This is great! I lern to use it a bit before your tutorial but I´d wish to watch it in the past It wolud saves me a lot of time. Thank you!! Have you try the branding options?

[@TechnoTim]

Thank you! I have not yet!

[@christopherhug]

Thanks for the video. A couple of questions... 1) Is it possible to make and use thumbnails for videos? 2) Is it possible to edit the .filebrowser.json file to fine tune settings?

[@barryshock]

I would like to share a folder that others can also upload to as well as download ? Doesn't to seem to be possible or am I missing something ?

[@TechnoTim]

Should be possible

[@legion_prex3650]

would be cool to see a pwd now and then. i am not sure what /home/serveradmin is exactly. so you share your complete home directory to filebrowser? thats one of the reasons, i don't like starship so much. you never see the whole path, where you actually in right now. I can only assume, that you are in /home/serveradmin/filebrowser. but thanks for the video, it's great content. you got a new follower.

[@turbokev3772]

@Techno Tim have you tried harvester yet?

[@Jer0nMr]

If it would've also support LDAP at least , it would've been perfect

[@DrXRotivPower]

Thank you very much for your learning video. It has been very useful.

[@TechnoTim]

Thank you!

[@huplim]

❤️ These videos Tim

[@CaueBarcelos]

But that's only within your local network ... how will it be an alternative to Dropbox ?

[@TechnoTim]

Expose it publicly through your reverse proxy

[@midu593]

Tried to use this in conjunction with jdownloader but filebrowser doesn't see the comtents of tge folder downloaded by jdownloader, any help?

[@TechnoTim]

Sorry, I haven't used jdownloader

[@adbaladba]

Nice find man, will put it to good use. A+

[@TechnoTim]

Go for it!

[@SimonePGGG]

What about 2FA? What about mobile app? Could be a nice replacement of nextcloud but I dunno how it will work with TB of data and search.

[@TechnoTim]

put 2fa in front of it with authelia

[@recursivethinker]

Got to this a bit late. Thanks so much for posting this video it answered a lot of my questions! I wish it had 2FA though. I'm just not sure about how secure this is if someone has the link to my filebrowser... ? Great video, thanks again and looking forward to all your future videos!

[@SG-tq9tk]

Thanks for this great video . Clear, concise and always to the point. Love your other videos too..and have learned a lot. If you share a file on FileBrowser externally with or without a password and use Authelia for 2FA...will that prevent access to the shared file?

[@TechnoTim]

Thank you! It will since Authelia becomes your auth proxy!

[@z3r0c00l2]

Nice video. I do tho need something that doesn't need docker 😊

[@marine1718]

Hi there thanks for sharing i was asking fot this long time ago i wish i has same functionality that sinology one that allow me to lease things copy whilo turne off my compute do you know something likle that?

[@KKPN1]

hi Techno Tim it would be grate if you show 2fa integration for the filebrowser

[@Mezhona]

Amazing video, thank you! only thing I think I'm missing is making hardlinks of files through this, other than that, I love it.

[@TechnoTim]

Great tip!

[@jekel35]

Is there a way to add multiple directories?

[@TechnoTim]

not sure, unless you create links and mount them that way

[@jekel35]

@@TechnoTim I am trying to mount multiple directories. Would you mind elaborating on what you mean by creating links?

[@MR_GPU]

@@jekel35 Not sure how you do it but I'm guessing syslinks or hardlinks, like what sonarr does. Make a folder in File Browser and hardlink it to the other directory you want access to.

[@mmuneebahmed]

Great Video. How do you compare the Filebrowser with the NextCloud though?

[@TechnoTim]

less features, but lighter weight.

[@mmuneebahmed]

@@TechnoTim Do you know any iOS app for the filebrowser just like we do have for the nextcloud?

[@austinwilson930]

Is it bad that I'm still using Webmin for my Ubuntu NAS/Plex server?

[@TechnoTim]

Not at all! It's a great product!

[@chadmarkley]

Dude, whatever works!!!

[@TonyMaxBirt]

Would anyone know how to change the default listening port on the Windows filebrowser.exe install? Having issues with port 8080.

[@Digitronus]

Hi, I like your video, very simple to follow. Question: How do you run the docker container with a non-root user? Only works for me with root user. --- version: '3' services: file-browser: image: filebrowser/filebrowser container_name: file-browser user: 0:0 ports: - 8081:80 volumes: - /var/nfs_share:/srv - /opt/filebrowser/filebrowser.db:/database.db restart: unless-stopped security_opt: - no-new-privileges:true

[@TechnoTim]

be sure you have the correct ID set that can access those shares!

[@MaZeeT]

My nas is running xponology and this piece of software looks like it is the last piece of the puzzle so I can move to unraid or a Linux distro with snapraid.. specially the share feature is just what I need

[@eduxmontivero]

Hello, thank you very much for the tutorial. Do you know how to make it not ask me for authentication and access directly to the directories. aware of the vulnerability but what I need is to make users access from a local network

[@seeithappen1]

Can it be used on a laptop with a windows 10 host and then browse files on a linux guest in a virtualbox machine ?

[@TechnoTim]

Sure can!

[@antonio638]

looks like if you use version "3" non-root user cannot longer use port: 80, I am running Filebrowser in my Synology NAS, would this be consider safe? just wondering.

[@antonio638]

I had to set user: 0:0 otherwise I kept getting "tcp 80 bind: permission denied"

[@acetin]

thx a lot for this video, it's really great tool. just one question though, you know sending username/password using http is quite scary, did you try to run filebrowser with ssl certificate?

[@MR_GPU]

He ran it locally so anyone snooping would have to be on your network. If doing it publicly, use a reverse proxy with correctly configured SSL.

[@pinsondetailing]

I can't for the life of me get this to work on port 80 like you did in the video. I keep getting a "listen tcp :80: bind: permission denied" in the logs.

[@TechnoTim]

Is something else hosted on port 80? Are you sure you have the correct syntax? See docs. Left is outside; right is inside

[@jlam9496]

Inside port 80 seems to be privileged port. After search from web, adding `cap-add NET_BIND_SERVICE` and `sysctl net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start=0` in docker run command or docker-compose works for me. Can map outside port to other non-used port such as 8082.

[@pinsondetailing]

@@jlam9496 hey thanks for this, I'll have to retry.

[@RameshKumar-rt8xb]

Why don't you put docker-compose to this video in the description?

[@TechnoTim]

It’s there, there’s a documentation link!

[@RameshKumar-rt8xb]

@@TechnoTim yeah thanks... I have to use the search field in the website. But finally managed to grab it

[@shawnshaw9859]

it is a single go binary, why do I even need a docker in this particular case? I put it on my server as one binary and it just works,no docker complexity required.

[@TechnoTim]

As long as you have all the required dependencies and you modify the config manually and hope it doesn’t break when other system updates are applied and permissions and the scripts to make sure it’s running and logging out errors… seems to me docker is less complex…

[@loubloom153]

can it work with files already indexed in windows 11?I have more than 2 million files indexed. thanks in advance

[@StellarDudes]

hi there! is there any way to set up an external harddrive or specific drive for this? im on a pi with this and have an external drive connected but dont wat stufff saved to the microsd

[@TechnoTim]

yes, just mount the drive to the host running docker, then mount that volume in your docker config!

[@StellarDudes]

Awesome thanks! Gotta look up a few ways to do this since I'm still new to all of this but excited to try 😁

[@StellarDudes]

This has been really hard to find anything about mounting to do with config and file browser , any suggestions ? I have it mounted on the gui side of things on Linux, then I ssh into it and I just find an abundance of info not having anything to do with file browser

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

BTW my file browser had a bug, it couldn't upload a file bigger than 4Gb. I know, it is a shame, but fixed.

[@ausafahmad8335]

Does this support single sign on using Authelia ?

[@djadja168]

ive been i using it for a year, its missing bookmarks. i would use so much more if it had that feature

[@MisterDivineAdVenture]

So let's take a break from the graduate classes to revisit 2nd grade. Wonderful. I love teachers.

[@rudya.hernandez7238]

so awesome thanks for sharing

[@nibirray1877]

Why not use a terminal file manager line ranger or lf