STEP 01
Share a drive
Install Basalt Host on the computer with your files, films and photos, and choose the drive to share.
Private streaming and file sharing for your home
Your home drive.
Your home drive.
On every screen.
Basalt turns your computer into a private drive for the whole household. Browse every file, stream every film, photo and song, and pick up where you left off on any computer, phone or tablet in the house. No cloud, no subscription, no account.
0accounts
Nothing to sign up for, anywhere
1PIN
Typed once on each device
TLS 1.3
On every single connection
FreeGPLv3
Open source, with no subscription
01 / Set up once
Set up in a minute.
Set up in a minute.
Then forget it.
No IP addresses, no Windows sharing settings, no accounts. Your devices find the host by themselves, and keep finding it when the router hands it a new address.
STEP 02
Pick it from the list
Open Basalt on a laptop or phone. The first time, it shows how it works and finds the host for you. There is nothing to type.
STEP 03
Type the PIN, once
The host shows six digits. Type them on the device and it is paired for good. That is the whole setup.
The computer’s own drive, or one plugged in over USB
Keeps working when the address changes
Windows sharing settings left untouched
02 / Everything on the drive
The whole drive.
The whole drive.
From every room.
Not a film server: your whole drive. Every folder, document, photo, song and home video on it, from every screen, kept in step the moment anything changes.
Files
Browse, search, copy, move
Every folder on the drive, from any computer or phone. Drag a box to select, and drop files or whole folders in to upload them. Transfers are compressed where it helps and verified end to end.
Live
Changes arrive everywhere at once
Add, rename or delete a file on the host, with Basalt or with Explorer, and every device sees it straight away.
- Afterlight City (2022) copied inFiled under Movies
- IMG_2041.jpg added from Maya’s phoneIn Photos, September
- Signal House S02E05 addedUp next for Sam
- Media Drive unpluggedEvery device says so
Profiles
Everyone gets their own
A profile is a name, a colour and a PIN. Its Continue watching and starred files follow it to every device. Or skip it and carry on as the device.
The host
You decide who is in
See every device and what it is streaming right now. Make one read-only, let one go, reset a forgotten PIN, and choose which sections devices show.
Media
Photos, music and home videos
- Photos by month, at their own shape, in a viewer that zooms
- Music by artist and album, playing on to the next track
- Home videos with a picture from inside them
- Found however deep the folders go
No limits
As many screens as you have
There is no device limit and no stream limit. Most of the time the host simply sends files, so an ordinary computer is enough and more viewers cost it almost nothing.
- No limit on devices or connections
- Converts only for a device that cannot keep up
- Thumbnails made once on the host and shared by every device
03 / The library
Films and series,
Films and series,
filed for you.
Basalt reads your drive and puts every film and episode in its place, with posters, picture quality and a Continue watching row that follows you from room to room.
-
Recognised automatically
Switch it on and the host files films under Movies and series under TV Series, with seasons and episodes in order. New ones appear the moment they are copied in.
-
Checked, offline
Every film is checked against a bundled catalogue of real titles, so screen recordings and home videos stay out of Movies. Nothing is sent anywhere to do it.
-
True picture quality
HD, Full HD, 2K or 4K, measured from the video itself rather than guessed from its file name.
-
Continue watching
Start a film on the laptop and finish it on the phone. Episodes play on to the next one by themselves.
04 / The player
Plays everything.
Plays everything.
Downloads nothing.
Built on mpv, the player enthusiasts trust, on Windows and Android alike. Films stream straight from the drive in their original quality, with nothing copied first. And when a phone cannot keep up with a 4K film, the host makes it play smoothly.
4K and HDR
HEVC and H.264
MKV and MP4
Dolby Digital Plus
DTS
1080p for any phone
4K on any phone
Many phones cannot decode 4K smoothly. Basalt notices, and the host converts the film to 1080p as it plays, sound and subtitles untouched, picking up again if the connection drops. A quality button switches back.
Subtitles, found anywhere
Matched to the video by name wherever they are on the drive, named by language, remembered from one video to the next, and nudged into sync when they drift.
Picks up where you stopped
Resume points live on the host, so a film started on the laptop carries on from the same moment on the phone, for every profile.
Or your own player
On Windows, a film streams straight to VLC, PotPlayer, mpv or MPC, or any player you choose. On a phone, to any player installed. Nothing is copied first.
Next episode, by itself
Episodes play on to the next one. Pausing shows what is playing and what comes next, one click away.
Made for the keyboard
Every control has a key, on Windows. On a phone, double-tap either side to skip.
Space pause
←→ seek
C subtitles
ShiftN next episode
05 / Basalt for Android
Your home drive,
Your home drive,
in your pocket.
The same drive, library and profiles as on your computer, laid out for touch, with sections you swipe between. It pairs the same way, finds the host by itself, and plays films on the same player.
Send your photos home
Upload from the gallery, any file, or a whole folder. Or share to Basalt from any other app.
The cinema in your hand
Full screen, turned to suit the picture, with a double tap either side to skip. 4K plays smoothly, converted by the host when the phone cannot keep up. Or hand the stream to another player such as VLC.
Photos by touch
Pinch to zoom, swipe to the next one, and swipe down to put the viewer away.
Carries on with the screen off
A transfer or a song keeps going while the phone is locked. Downloads land in the phone’s Download folder.
Stays on the Wi-Fi
On a Wi-Fi network without internet, where a phone would normally switch to mobile data, Basalt keeps its connection to the host.
Updates itself
New versions show what is new, download inside the app, and are checked before they install.
06 / Private by design
Your files never
Your files never
leave your home.
There is no Basalt cloud, no Basalt account and no Basalt server. The host serves your files to your own devices, over your own network, encrypted, and that is all it does.
Encrypted and pinned
Every connection is encrypted with TLS 1.3, and each device remembers the host’s key when it pairs and checks it every time it connects.
Nobody joins uninvited
By default, a new device needs the PIN the host shows. Any device can be made read-only, or removed, from the host.
Local only
Files travel between your own devices and nowhere else. The apps need no account and send no telemetry.
PINs kept like passwords
PINs are stored hashed, never as typed, and repeated wrong guesses lock a profile for a while. Sign-ins stay protected on each device.
Open source
Licensed under the GPLv3, with the source code public for anyone to read.
Verified updates
Each app shows what changed and installs a new version only after its SHA-256 checksum matches.
The only requests that leave your network: the check for updates, and poster lookups if you switch them
on.
Read the privacy policy
07 / See it in action
A few minutes.
A few minutes.
The whole tour.
Short films of each app at work, with an example household. Choose one and press play. Nothing downloads until you do.
08 / Good to know
Questions,
Questions,
answered.
Something else on your mind? Write to us, or open an issue on GitHub.
01 What do I need?
A Windows 10 or 11 computer with the drive you want to share, running Basalt Host while you use it. Then Basalt on your other devices, Windows 10 or 11 computers and Android phones and tablets running Android 8.0 or later (64-bit), on the same home network.
The drive can be the computer’s own or one plugged in over USB.
02 Do I need both apps?
Yes. Basalt Host runs on the computer with your files and shares them. Basalt opens them on every other device, and on that computer too if you like.
Basalt on its own has nothing to show until a host is running. The first time it opens, it explains this, shows how to get Basalt Host, and finds the host for you once it is running.
03 Is it just for films?
No. Basalt is your whole drive: every folder and file, to browse, upload, download, copy and move, from every screen. Photos, music and home videos get views of their own, and films and series get a library with posters and Continue watching.
04 Is it really free?
Yes. Everything Basalt does today is free and open source under the GPLv3, with no subscription, no account and no advertising.
05 Does anything go to the cloud?
No. Your files travel between your own devices, over your own network, and nowhere else. Basalt runs no server of its own that could receive them.
Today the apps make two kinds of request beyond your network: a check for updates, and, only if you switch it on, looking up posters for your films.
06 Will it play my films?
Almost certainly. Basalt plays through mpv, on Windows and Android alike, so MKV and MP4, HEVC and H.264, 4K and HDR, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS all play, with the subtitle tracks inside the file or a subtitle file anywhere on the drive.
The film you stored is the film you watch. Only when a device cannot play it smoothly, such as 4K on many phones, does the host convert it to 1080p as it plays, and a quality button switches back to the original.
07 Does the host need a powerful computer?
Not to share your files. Any computer that runs Windows 10 comfortably is enough, and more viewers cost it almost nothing, because the device you watch on does the playing.
Converting a film for a device that cannot play it takes more. NVIDIA or Intel graphics do it best. The host measures how many films it can convert at once, and converting can be switched off in its Settings.
08 Can I use my own player?
Yes. On Windows, Play in your player streams a film straight to VLC, PotPlayer, mpv, MPC and others, starting with the one Windows uses for that kind of file, and Open with lets you pick any player. On Android, Play in your player hands the film to any player you have, such as VLC. Nothing is copied first.
09 Will it move or rename my files?
No. Files stay exactly where they are. The library is an index the host keeps beside them, and hiding a section only tidies the apps’ sidebars.
Recognition works best with names like Arrival (2016) for films and Show/Season 01/S01E01 for episodes, the way most collections are already named.
10 Can I use it away from home?
Not yet. Today Basalt works on your home network: devices find the host on the same network, and nothing is relayed through the internet, so nothing of yours passes through anyone else’s servers.
11 Is there an iPhone, Mac or TV app?
Not yet. Today Basalt runs on Windows 10 and 11 and on Android phones and tablets.
12 Is the Android app on Google Play?
A Google Play version is on its way. Until then, the app is available here with each release, and it keeps itself up to date, showing what is new in each version under More.
The first time you install it, Android asks you to allow your browser or file manager to install apps. That permission can be switched off again afterwards.
13 Is it safe on a shared network?
Every connection is encrypted, and by default a device only joins after someone types the PIN the host shows. Each device remembers the host’s key and checks it every time it connects. On the host you can make any device read-only, or remove it.
Free, for every screen in the house
Bring your
Bring your
drive home.
Install Basalt Host on the computer with the drive, then Basalt on everything else. Pick the host, type the PIN, and the whole drive is yours, on every screen.
For the computer with the drive
Basalt Host
Shares the drive, lets devices in, and keeps the library.
Download Host
For every Windows computer
Basalt for Windows
Browse the drive, watch the library, and move files.
Download for Windows
For phones and tablets
Basalt for Android
The same drive and library, laid out for touch.
Download for Android
Version 1.4.5 ·
Release notes · SHA-256 checksums beside
every file
Google Play version coming soon. Until then, the Android app comes from here and updates itself.