Play an OpenList or Alist library on Android TV over WebDAV

Yonto Player on Android TV plays the videos in an OpenList or Alist library over WebDAV, which both serve at /dav on the same port as their web page. The address to type is like http://192.168.1.20:5244/dav, and the username and password are those of an OpenList user with WebDAV read turned on. We checked these steps with OpenList 4.2.7 and Alist 3.45.0.

It works the same on an Android phone or tablet, where you type the address into the form yourself (In Yonto Player).

What you need

• OpenList or Alist running on a computer, a NAS or a server your television can reach, with at least one storage added.
• Its address: the one you open its web page at, like http://192.168.1.20:5244. 5244 is the port unless you changed it.
• Yonto Player on your television, from the download page, and a phone to type on if you would rather not use the remote.

Use the IP address of the machine OpenList runs on, rather than localhost or a name the television may not be able to look up.

In OpenList

The steps below are OpenList’s. Alist, which OpenList was forked from, serves WebDAV at the same /dav address and asks for the same permission, called Webdav read in Alist. OpenList’s own guide to its WebDAV is at doc.oplist.org/guide/advanced/webdav.

Sign in as admin

Open OpenList’s management page: the address with /@manage after it, like http://192.168.1.20:5244/@manage, signed in as admin. If you run OpenList in Docker, its log shows the admin password the first time it starts, and OpenList’s Docker guide says how to set a new one.

Make a user for the television

1. Go to Users and choose Add.
2. Enter a Username and Password for the television.
3. Set Base path to / to show the whole library, or to one folder in it.
4. Under Permission, tick WebDAV read. That is all Yonto Player needs, since it only reads. Without it, OpenList refuses the user’s WebDAV requests.
5. Choose Add.

You can sign in as admin too, but a user that can only read is the safer login to keep on a television.

Check what the library shows

Each storage under Storages appears in WebDAV as a folder named by its Mount Path. A storage of the Local driver, with a Root folder path of the folder your videos are in, is how a folder on the same machine gets into the library.

In Yonto Player

1. On your Android TV, open Yonto Player and choose Settings, Sources, Add source. Choose Source type, then WebDAV.
2. Choose Set up from your phone and scan the QR code with your phone’s camera.
3. On the page that opens, enter the Server address, then Username, if it needs one and Password, which are the OpenList user’s, and choose Send to the TV.
   • The address is http://, the IP address, the port and /dav, like http://192.168.1.20:5244/dav. That opens the library’s top level, with each storage as a folder.
   • To open one storage or folder straight away, add its path, like http://192.168.1.20:5244/dav/Movies.
   • An http:// address is not encrypted, and the form says “This address isn’t encrypted, so the password crosses your network in the clear.” Use https:// where your OpenList is served over HTTPS with a certificate the television trusts.
4. The television’s form fills in. Choose Test connection, which reads that folder: “Connected successfully” means it worked. Choose Save.

Prefer the remote? Leave out step 2 and type in the form: pressing OK on a field opens an on-screen keyboard. Nothing is saved until you choose Save with the remote.

On an Android phone or tablet, tap Settings, Sources, Add source, tap Add WebDAV, type the same address, username and password, then tap Test connection and Save. On an Android phone or tablet, an iPhone or an iPad, a WebDAV source’s films and episodes can also be downloaded to watch offline.

Play video files from a NAS or USB drive on Android TV goes through the same form, with a video of the WebDAV steps.

Watching

Pick the source from the source chip at the top left of Home, then open Browse. It groups the videos into Films and Series from their names; Folders lists the folders and then the videos, by name with each video’s size, and OK on a video plays it. A title shows the poster and description kept beside it (how they are named), and Yonto Player looks up online what the files leave out.

• A video you play goes into History, and into Continue playing on Home, under its file name. Choosing it there plays on from where you stopped.
• Subtitles inside the file, and subtitle files beside it with the video’s name (Movie.srt or Movie.en.srt beside Movie.mkv), are offered under Subtitles in the player (Audio and subtitles on a phone or tablet).
• What plays depends on the television’s own decoders: H.264 and H.265 in MP4 or MKV are the safe choice. On Android, Yonto Player decodes AC3, E-AC-3, DTS and TrueHD sound itself when the television cannot (DTS, TrueHD and Dolby audio on Android TV).

Cloud drives mounted in OpenList

A cloud drive added in OpenList shows up in Yonto Player like any other folder. How its videos reach the television is up to the storage’s WebDAV Policy, under Storages, the storage, then Edit.

• Native proxy: OpenList fetches the video from the drive and passes it on. The video plays only as fast as OpenList can fetch it, so a slow drive, or a slow connection on the machine OpenList runs on, means waiting to start and to seek. It is the only choice, with Use proxy URL, on a Local storage.
• 302 redirect: OpenList sends the television to the file’s own link, and the television fetches the video from there. OpenList chooses it by default where a driver offers it. We played a video this way, from a link on our own network rather than a real cloud drive.

If a video from a cloud drive does not play with 302 redirect, switch that storage to Native proxy, which OpenList’s guide calls the most compatible.

Free or Pro

An OpenList or Alist library is one source, however many storages it holds, and your first source is free. A second source, such as a share on your NAS or a Jellyfin server, needs Pro. On our website it is US$7.47 instead of US$14.95 while the offer runs, until December 31, 2026, one payment, not a subscription, and one licence works on up to 5 devices at a time. In the app on Android TV and Android phones and tablets, you can try Pro free for 7 days, once per device, with no payment details, and it ends on its own. Yonto Pro says how to buy it and turn it on.

If it does not connect

These show in Browse, with Retry.

“Couldn’t reach the server. Check that it’s on and on the same network.” Check that OpenList is running, that the television can reach the machine it runs on, and that the Server address has its IP address and port, like http://192.168.1.20:5244/dav.

“The server didn’t accept the username or password. Check them in this source’s settings.” Go to Settings, Sources, choose the source, then Edit, and correct them. They are the OpenList user’s, the same ones that sign in to its web page.

“This folder is no longer there.” The path after /dav does not match a folder in the library, or the storage’s Mount Path changed. Check the path’s spelling and capitals against Storages.

“This account can’t open this folder. Check the username in this source’s settings, or the account’s permissions on the server.” The OpenList user does not have WebDAV read. Go to Users, choose Edit on the user, tick WebDAV read and choose Save.

Troubleshooting lists every message the app shows.

Yonto Player provides no content. OpenList and Alist are independent open-source projects, and Yonto Player is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.