v2.0.0-preview-3

What's Changed

Caution

This is a pre-beta preview of v2.0.0 and should be treated as a test build. Make sure you keep your existing configuration and files safe.

This version represents the most significant change to date. It requires both a database migration and config structural changes. See the migration guide for step-by-step upgrade instructions, About v2.0.0 for a full summary, and the config migration tool to convert legacy config.

ATTENTION: Consider enabling Send deployment analytics in settings > system & admin to help populate some of the deployment info data. Join the discussion on this release for support or issues you notice.

Breaking Changes:

• Removed: GET /api/raw and GET /public/api/raw download routes — use /api/resources/download instead.
• Removed: /share/… URL redirect to /public/share/… — use /public/share/… directly.
• Removed: singular source search api param (use sources), bare scope paths without sourceName: prefix, and glob / useGlob aliases (use useWildcard).
• Removed config.conditionals, source-level indexingIntervalMinutes (indexing always uses adaptive scheduling), and deprecated rule fields fileNames / folderNames / top-level hidden — use config.rules with fileName, folderName, and ignoreHidden on rules.
• Removed: deprecated userDefaults config formats (nested and flat) — use the config migration tool to convert before upgrading.
• Changed: PUT /api/users moved to the more appropriate PATCH method.
• Changed: http related config options in server config key moved to http config key. See HTTP settings.
• Changed: FILEBROWSER_DATABASE environment variable — use FILEBROWSER_DATABASE_PATH instead. See Environment variables and Server settings.
• Changed: Moved stream api to /api/media/stream. See API reference.
• Changed: CLI user management — canonical commands are user set <username> --password [value] and user promote <username>; set -u username,password is deprecated. See CLI reference.

New Features:

• View grant mechanism to distinguish between UI viewing and download. See Access control overview.
• ffmpeg hardware acceleration detection and support via go-ffmpeg
  • video streaming is limited to viewing only. See Media integration.
• granular per-source file permissions (view, download, modify, create, delete) with automatic migration from global permissions
  • per-source defaults configurable in settings > access management
  • view permission is automatically set to true unless explicitly set to false. See Access control overview.
• New activity logs for user activity.
  • charts and historical data
  • activity tool to view data
  • reports. See Activity feature docs.
• Media player improvements:
  • Refreshed playback queue UI: Supports thumbnails, stored into session storage, and has a "clear queue" button (#2575) (#2600).
  • Loop now has 3 states (off/single/all) and neither of them will clear the existing queue (#2600).
  • New "Audio visualizer" for audio files (desktop-only), you can configure some basic things to your taste (#2575) (#2620).
  • The current state of the audio panel now is stored into local storage.
  • More gestures: Swipe up to enter/exit fullscreen, long-press to change playback speed, single tap to pause (#2575).
  • Videos now will resume fullscreen and PiP when navigating (queue auto-navigation, swipes gestures or next/previous) (#2649).
• Added F4 shortcut to refresh the current directory and metadata (#2600).
• opt-in feature to send deployment analytics to filebrowser quantum developer servers
  • anonymized with a viewer so users can see what info would be sent.
  • if opt-in, every month a snapshot of your deployment config would be sent to developer servers
  • this will help me know what features are being used and what versions everyone is on over time. I will also provide a public dashboard with this information in the future.
• WebDAV now supports set modification time via the X-OC-Mtime header for clients that support it (#2626). See WebDAV docs.
• Copy operations now preserve their original modification times (#2642) (#2647):
  • WebUI preserves both, files and directories.
  • WebDAV COPY preserves modification times only for files, is limitation we have with webdav.
• User default enhancements
  • Config userDefaults seeds SQLite on first run; only fields explicitly set in config stay locked in Settings → User defaults (other defaults remain editable)
  • Added administrator controls for universal user defaults and enforced preferences in settings > user management > user defaults.
  • Added configurable default file permissions per source in settings > access management.
  • Added a User Defaults editor for account, permission, and profile preferences in the edit/create user prompt. See User management.
• Database env var rename: FILEBROWSER_DATABASE is removed (startup fails if set). Use FILEBROWSER_DATABASE_PATH (default filebrowser.sqlite) or server.database.path in config. See Environment variables and Server settings.
• CLI: user set with --password (inline value, interactive prompt on TTY, or piped stdin); user promote for admin grant without password reset. See CLI reference.

Notes:

• v2.x.x uses a new write-through backend state management. Changes go through a fast memory layer and also write changes to database to stay in sync. See About v2.0.0.
• CLI server start (./filebrowser), setup, version, and set rule syntax unchanged; see CLI docs
• new dropdown and input styles
• user updates are more granular, don't include entire user payload.
• user.id has been moved to a backend property and all frontend apis now query users by username. Swagger has been updated. See API reference.
• removed legacy and deprecated properties from API responses and generated config output
• /api/media/stream is audio/video only (range-based chunking). Non-media inline viewing uses GET /api/resources/view. Both endpoints use the same viewToken from file metadata. See API reference.
• removed exiftool as an optional helper, always built with the supported libraries.
• If migration issues arise, see Migration troubleshooting.