- Do I have to upload my photos?
- No. There is no upload button and no server that stores your files — everything is read locally by your own browser.
- Is it free? Do I need an account?
- It's free, with no sign-up and nothing to install. Open the page and pick a folder.
- Which browsers does it work in?
- It depends on the browser. Chrome, Edge and other Chromium browsers on desktop run in full mode: they read folders directly and remember the permission. Firefox, Safari, iPhone and most Android browsers fall back to compatibility mode, which still browses by folder but asks you to pick it again each visit. The page picks the mode itself — there's nothing to switch.
- Can it play MKV files in Chrome?
- Yes — that's the main reason it exists. Chrome can't open MKV, AVI, WMV or TS on its own, so the file is repackaged or decoded inside the browser and handed to a standard video player.
- Does it work offline?
- After the page has loaded, yes — reading your files needs no network. The one thing it downloads is a ~31 MB decoder, fetched the first time a video needs transcoding and then reused from the browser cache.
- Is there a file size limit?
- No — since nothing is uploaded, the only limit is your own disk. Very large videos get a preview first rather than making you wait minutes for a full transcode.
- On Android, why can't I pick the root of internal storage?
- Because Android forbids it — it has nothing to do with this page. Since Android 11, no app (browsers included) may be granted the root of internal storage, the root of an SD card, or the Download folder itself; the system shows "Can't use this folder" and every browser behaves the same. So on Android you browse one folder at a time — open a subfolder such as DCIM or Pictures. On desktop (Chrome, Edge) there is no such restriction.
- On iPad or iPhone, why can I only pick photos, not a folder?
- Because the Photos library is not a folder in the Files app — iOS never exposes it to web pages as a directory, and every browser behaves the same way, so a folder picker can't reach the photos and videos in your library. Directory picking did reach the web in iOS 18.4, but it only covers what's inside the Files app, and most people's photos live in the library; an extra button that leads nowhere is worse than none, so iOS gets a single entry point. Tapping it offers Photo Library / Take Photo or Video / Choose File: multi-select from the library, or Choose File for media in the Files app, iCloud Drive or a USB drive. Either way it arrives as a flat list, since the system provides no folder structure — to browse by folder, use Chrome, Edge or Firefox on a computer.