Why a local WebDAV server instead of a driver
Putting cloud storage on your desktop as a drive normally means installing something into the operating system itself. On macOS that has meant macFUSE, which needs a kernel extension, which on Apple Silicon means booting into Recovery, lowering the security policy, rebooting, and then doing it again after the next major OS update. On Windows it means a WinFsp installer asking for administrator rights. Neither is reckless. Both are a maintenance commitment you signed up for without quite realizing it.
A local WebDAV server sidesteps the whole category, because it is just an HTTP service and your computer already speaks HTTP. Finder has had a WebDAV client built in for about two decades. Windows ships the WebClient redirector. Most Linux file managers open a dav:// address without extra packages. And a long tail of applications accept a WebDAV URL in a settings field: media players, backup tools, document editors, e-readers.
So AnyStorage runs one, locally, for the storage you have already connected.
What the feature actually looks like
In the sidebar, under Services, there is a WebDAV tab. It holds a Start button, a port field, and a set of credentials. Press Start and the app listens on http://127.0.0.1:3211.
- The port is yours. Anything from 1 to 65535 works; 3211 is the default only because something had to be.
- HTTP Basic authentication is always on and cannot be switched off. The username defaults to anystorage, and the password is 24 random characters generated the first time you open the tab. Both are editable, and a Regenerate button gives you a fresh password.
- Copy buttons sit next to the URL, the username and the password, since all three are getting pasted into some other program in a minute.
- Leave the server enabled and it comes back up with the app on the next launch.
We bind to 127.0.0.1 and nothing else by default. There is a LAN access option that binds 0.0.0.0 instead, and the app shows a warning next to it, because this version has no TLS. The URL is plain http, and Basic auth means the credentials cross the wire encoded but not encrypted. Over loopback that is a non-issue. Over shared Wi-Fi it is a real one. Keep it on localhost unless you have a specific reason and a network you trust.
Every connection shows up as a folder
Open the WebDAV root and you get a directory listing: one folder per storage connection that is currently connected in AnyStorage, named after the connection.
Twenty connection types can appear there — local folders, Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, Alibaba Cloud OSS, Tencent COS, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Aliyun Drive, Koofr, pCloud, Seafile, Yandex Disk, Hugging Face, another WebDAV server, FTP and SFTP. A production S3 bucket and a personal Dropbox sitting side by side as two folders under the same mount is the part that tends to rearrange how people work.
One wrinkle to know before it confuses you: connections attach lazily. After you restart the app, a connection appears under the WebDAV root only once you have opened it in AnyStorage at least once in that session. Create a new connection while the server is running and it shows up right away, no restart required.
Pointing things at it
There is no mount button in AnyStorage. We show a URL and give you a copy button; the mounting is done by whatever is going to consume it.
macOS
Finder, then Go, then Connect to Server (Cmd+K). Paste http://127.0.0.1:3211, choose Registered User, and enter the username and password from the app.
Windows
File Explorer, This PC, Map network drive, same URL. The server side is the easy half here — Windows' native client is where the friction lives. As of 2026 the WebClient service is deprecated and usually not running, so start it in services.msc first. Windows also refuses Basic auth over plain http by default, so set BasicAuthLevel to 2 under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters and restart the service. Skip either step and you get "The folder you entered does not appear to be valid", System error 67, or 0x80070043. There is a size cap too: FileSizeLimitInBytes defaults to 50,000,000 bytes, which is 50 MB and not 50 GB no matter how often the web says otherwise, and larger copies fail with 0x800700DF. A third-party WebDAV client has none of these limits, and neither does AnyStorage's own transfer window.
Anything else that speaks WebDAV
Media players such as Infuse and VLC, backup tools, document apps, Linux file managers. Reads are streamed with HTTP range support, which is what makes video usable: a player can jump to the 40-minute mark of a file in a bucket without pulling the first 40 minutes down. Writes stream too, so a large upload is never buffered whole into memory.
The limits, in the open
- On the free tier the WebDAV server runs read-only. Browsing, streaming and copying files out all work; writing back needs a Pro license and Full control mode. Pro users can deliberately set read-only too, which is a sensible thing to do before you point a media player at production data.
- No TLS in the current version, which is the whole reason localhost is the default.
- No real file locking. Two machines editing the same file through the mount are not protected from each other, so this is not team collaboration infrastructure and we won't pretend otherwise.
- The top-level connection folders cannot be renamed or deleted over WebDAV. They are connections, not directories.
- You cannot move or copy a file directly between two connection folders through the mount. Copy it down and back up, or use the app's transfer UI, which handles that path properly.
Where this sits
AnyStorage is a storage browser first — tabs, transfers, search, preview — and most work happens in that window. Having a local WebDAV server running beside it covers the other moments: when a file needs to be in Finder, or on a drive letter, or open in an app that only knows how to read from a URL. One endpoint, no kernel extensions, no admin prompt, nothing to reinstall after the next OS upgrade.