Preface#

In June, the original filebrowser project announced a feature freeze and moved into maintenance‑only mode, no longer accepting new feature requests or PRs. The core developer then started a new branch. Quantum is a fork with a strong opinionated direction and design philosophy. To better control the overall experience, the developer made “significant and opinionated” changes (such as removing the terminal, executors, CLI flags, etc.). The project is now in Beta, and a stable release is planned for the second half of 2025.

What’s Different from the Original filebrowser?#

Compared with the original project, FileBrowser Quantum differs significantly in features, performance, and user experience:

1. Feature‑Rich Advanced Set#

Multiple sources
Multiple authentication methods: OIDC login, password + 2FA, proxy auth, etc.
Responsive and customizable UI
Simplified config.yaml configuration file GitHub.

2. Efficient Indexing & Real‑Time Updates#

Real‑time search suggestions
UI updates in real time as changes occur
File/folder size display and filtering support GitHub.

3. Optimized File Browsing Experience#

Richer previews for more file types (office documents, videos, etc.)
Switching views or sort order without reloading data
Folder size display and scroll‑position memory GitHub.

Configure share link expiration, allowed visitors (including anonymous), and theme
Granular view/edit/upload permissions for shared content
Directory‑level user/group access control GitHub.

5. Developer API Support#

Long‑lived API tokens
Built‑in Swagger API page for easy exploration

Comparison#

Aspect	Original filebrowser	FileBrowser Quantum (Quantum)
Maintenance & Activity	Slow or unresponsive	Fast‑moving and actively evolving
Feature Customizability	Basic feature set	Rich feature set, highly customizable (UI, access, sharing, API)
Search & UI Experience	Basic browsing interface	Real‑time search, smart filters, scroll memory, and other modern UX features
Architecture & Dev Velocity	Legacy architecture, slower	Rewritten architecture, local builds ~10× faster
Removed Features	Jobs and shell support kept	No jobs, shell/CLI support removed
Developer Vision	Community‑driven, conservative evolution	Personal vision‑driven, highly extensible, ambitious goals

Preview#

Setup#

First, create a data directory and add a config file at data/config.yaml. You can use this sample config.yaml as a reference.

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version: '3.8'
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services:
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  filebrowser:
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    image: gtstef/filebrowser
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    container_name: filebrowser
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    environment:
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      FILEBROWSER_CONFIG: "data/config.yaml"
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      FILEBROWSER_ADMIN_PASSWORD: "passwd"
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      TZ: "Asia/Shanghai"
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    volumes:
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      - /hdd/media:/folder                  # ← 本地真实目录映射
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      - ./data:/home/filebrowser/data       # ← 配置文件和数据库存放处
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    ports:
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      - "127.0.0.1:8185:80"
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    restart: unless-stopped

You can also tweak the configuration to your needs. Below is my example:

https://github.com/gtsteffaniak/filebrowser/wiki/Configuration-And-Examples

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server:
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  port: 80
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  baseURL: "/"
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  database: "database.db"
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  cacheDir: "tmp"
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  disablePreviews: false
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  disablePreviewResize: false
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  disableTypeDetectionByHeader: false
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  logging:
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    - levels: "info|warning|error"
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      output: "stdout"
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  sources:
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    - path: "/folder"                  # Docker 映射后的路径，对应本地 /hdd/media
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      name: "媒体库"
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      config:
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        defaultEnabled: true
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        defaultUserScope: "/"
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        disableIndexing: false
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auth:
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  adminUsername: "admin"
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  adminPassword: "admin"
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  tokenExpirationHours: 2
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  methods:
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    password:
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      enabled: true
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      minLength: 5
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      signup: false
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frontend:
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  name: "FileBrowser Quantum"
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  disableUsedPercentage: false
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  disableDefaultLinks: false
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  disableNavButtons: false
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  externalLinks:
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    - text: "帮助文档"
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      title: "帮助文档"
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      url: "https://github.com/gtsteffaniak/filebrowser/wiki"
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userDefaults:
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  darkMode: true
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  locale: "zh"
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  viewMode: "normal"
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  singleClick: false
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  showHidden: false
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  themeColor: "var(--blue)"
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  quickDownload: false
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  dateFormat: false
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  gallerySize: 3
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  stickySidebar: true
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  disableQuickToggles: false
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  disableSearchOptions: false
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  hideSidebarFileActions: false
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  permissions:
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    admin: false
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    modify: false
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    share: false
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    api: false
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    realtime: false
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  preview:
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    image: true
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    video: true
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    popup: true
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    office: false
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    highQuality: false
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    autoplayMedia: false
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    disableHideSidebar: false
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  loginMethod: "password"
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  disableUpdateNotifications: false
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  deleteWithoutConfirming: false
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  fileLoading:
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    maxConcurrentUpload: 10
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    uploadChunkSizeMb: 10
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integrations:
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  media:
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    ffmpegPath: ""      # 如需支持视频转码可指定 /usr/bin（容器中 ffmpeg 安装路径）

Finally:

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docker compose up -d

Summary#

For now, Quantum appears to outperform the original in both performance and usability. The interface is more intuitive and user‑friendly, with practical additions like real‑time search, multiple file sources, and Office document preview. Looking forward to the stable release.

Deploying the New FileBrowser Quantum with Docker