2026.10.4
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Adding your media to Home Assistant

Home Assistant includes a built-in media browser that lets you browse, view, and play your local media files. This feature is available on Home Assistant Operating SystemHome Assistant OS, the Home Assistant Operating System, is an embedded, minimalistic, operating system designed to run the Home Assistant ecosystem on single board computers (like the Raspberry Pi) or Virtual Machines. It includes Home Assistant Core, the Home Assistant Supervisor, and supports apps. Home Assistant Supervisor keeps it up to date, removing the need for you to manage an operating system. Home Assistant Operating System is the recommended installation type for most users. and Home Assistant ContainerHome Assistant Container is a standalone container-based installation of Home Assistant Core. Any OCI compatible runtime can be used, but the documentation focus is on Docker. [Learn more]. You find it in the sidebar under Media > My media. For more about browsing and playing your media, refer to the Media source integration.

On Home Assistant Operating SystemHome Assistant OS, the Home Assistant Operating System, is an embedded, minimalistic, operating system designed to run the Home Assistant ecosystem on single board computers (like the Raspberry Pi) or Virtual Machines. It includes Home Assistant Core, the Home Assistant Supervisor, and supports apps. Home Assistant Supervisor keeps it up to date, removing the need for you to manage an operating system. Home Assistant Operating System is the recommended installation type for most users., the media folder is automatically created and ready to use. On Home Assistant ContainerHome Assistant Container is a standalone container-based installation of Home Assistant Core. Any OCI compatible runtime can be used, but the documentation focus is on Docker. [Learn more], you need to mount a volume to /media when starting your container.

Adding media using the media browser

You can add media files using the built-in media browser. This method is ideal for uploading a few files at a time.

You can add images, videos, and audio files. Each file can be up to 20 MB. The files go into the folder that you have open. This method does not let you create folders.

Prerequisites

  • Administrator rights.
  • On Home Assistant ContainerHome Assistant Container is a standalone container-based installation of Home Assistant Core. Any OCI compatible runtime can be used, but the documentation focus is on Docker. [Learn more], a local media folder.

To add media using the media browser

  1. Go to Media > My media.
  2. Open the folder where you want to add the files.
  3. In the top-right corner, select Manage.
    • Result: The Media management dialog opens.
  4. Select Add media, and choose the files on your device.
    • Result: The files show up in the list. If a file can’t be uploaded, Home Assistant shows Upload failed with the reason.
  5. If you uploaded the wrong file, remove it.

Removing media using the media browser

You can remove media files using the built-in media browser. This method is ideal for deleting a few files at a time. This method does not let you delete folders. If a folder only contains other folders, the dialog shows Folders cannot be managed via the UI.

Prerequisites

  • Administrator rights.

To remove media using the media browser

  1. Go to Media > My media.
  2. Open the folder with the files.
  3. In the top-right corner, select Manage.
  4. Select the checkbox of each file that you want to remove. To select all files, select Select all.
    • Result: The Add media button changes to a Delete button with the number of files, such as Delete 2.
  5. Select the Delete button.
  6. To confirm, select OK.

Adding media using network file sharing on Home Assistant OS

If you are running Home Assistant Operating SystemHome Assistant OS, the Home Assistant Operating System, is an embedded, minimalistic, operating system designed to run the Home Assistant ecosystem on single board computers (like the Raspberry Pi) or Virtual Machines. It includes Home Assistant Core, the Home Assistant Supervisor, and supports apps. Home Assistant Supervisor keeps it up to date, removing the need for you to manage an operating system. Home Assistant Operating System is the recommended installation type for most users., you can use the Samba share app for bulk file transfers. This method is ideal for transferring large files or many files at once using your computer’s file explorer (File Explorer, macOS Finder, or Linux file manager).

  1. To install and use the Samba share app, follow the instructions on installing and using the Samba share app.
  2. After setup, you can copy or move media files onto your device using drag and drop in your file explorer.
  3. You can also create folders to organize your media.

Other apps, such as Terminal & SSH, also provide access to the media folders.

Adding media on Home Assistant Container

On Home Assistant ContainerHome Assistant Container is a standalone container-based installation of Home Assistant Core. Any OCI compatible runtime can be used, but the documentation focus is on Docker. [Learn more], your media folder is a folder on your host machine that you mount into the container as /media. The mount keeps your files when you update or recreate the container. You can add files to this folder directly on your host machine. This method is ideal for adding many files, or for organizing your media in folders.

Prerequisites

  • Home Assistant Container installation type.
  • Before you can add media files on Home Assistant Container, you need to set up a local media folder by mounting a volume to the /media directory when starting your container. This must be done at container startup time.

To add media on Home Assistant Container

After you have mounted the volume, you can add media files directly to the folder on your host machine. This gives you direct file system access to add media files and create folders to organize them.

Your media will show up in the Home Assistant media browser automatically. You can manage your files in the following ways:

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