Setup guide

From download to every screen

Honest estimate: about ten minutes, most of it watching the scanner fetch your artwork. If anything fights you, the troubleshooting section at the bottom has the usual suspects — and the feedback page reaches a real person.

System requirements

The server PC

	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system	Windows 10, 64-bit	Windows 11, 64-bit
Processor	Dual-core (direct play only)	Quad-core i5-class or better — comfortable transcoding
Memory	4 GB	8 GB+
Graphics	Not required	Intel Quick Sync or NVIDIA NVENC — hardware transcoding, detected and used automatically
Storage	~1 GB for Squink + room for your media	SSD or 7200rpm drive — artwork and thumbnails feel much snappier
Network	Wi-Fi	Wired gigabit — the difference for smooth 4K

Rule of thumb: if the devices can play your files natively (most modern TVs handle H.264/H.265 fine), even a modest office PC serves the whole house. Transcoding is where CPU/GPU grunt starts to matter.

The screens

Device	Requirement
Fire TV	Any Fire TV Stick, Cube or built-in Fire TV from ~2017 on (Fire OS 6+) · ~50 MB free
Android TV / Google TV	Android 7.0 or newer
Android phone / tablet	Android 7.0 or newer
iPhone / iPad	iOS / iPadOS 16 or newer (App Store — coming soon)
Web	Any modern browser — Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari

Your media can live on a local drive, USB drive or NAS share — anywhere the server PC can reach.
Everything on the same home network for setup (Wi-Fi or wired); see Away from home for the rest of the world.

1 Install the server

Download the installer: ⬇ Squink for Windows
Run it. Everything is bundled — there's nothing else to install. Squink sets itself up as a background service (it starts with Windows and keeps running with nobody logged in) and opens your firewall for local streaming.
When it finishes, your browser opens Squink automatically. Create your admin account — this stays on your PC; there's no cloud signup.

Later: Squink lives at http://localhost:8730 on the server PC, and at http://<your-pc's-ip>:8730 from everything else in the house. There are Start-menu and desktop shortcuts too.

2 Add your media

In Squink, open Server → Libraries.
Add a library for each kind of thing you have — Movies, TV shows, Music, Photos — and point each one at the right folder.
Hit Scan. Posters, plots, ratings and album art arrive automatically — no accounts or API keys needed, it's all built in.

Naming that helps the scanner

Type	Works best
Movies	`The Matrix (1999).mkv` — title plus year in the file or folder name
TV shows	`Show Name\Season 01\Show Name S01E01.mkv`
Music	`Artist\Album\01 Track.mp3` — tags are read too, folders fill the gaps
Photos	Any folders — Squink groups the wall by the day they were taken

Don't stress about perfection. Squink is forgiving with messy names, reads embedded tags, and even draws cover art for albums it can't identify. You can always rescan after a tidy-up.

3 Connect your screens

Any browser

Go to http://<server-ip>:8730 and sign in. (Find the IP on the server under Server → Overview.)

Fire TV / Android TV

The TV app is sideloaded (it's heading to the stores too). One-time prep on the TV, then pick whichever install method suits you.

First: unlock sideloading on the TV

Reveal Developer Options — on newer Fire TVs they're hidden: go to Settings → My Fire TV → About, highlight your device's name and click it 7 times until it says "you are now a developer".
Back in My Fire TV → Developer Options, turn on Apps from Unknown Sources (older Fire OS) or use Install unknown apps and allow it for the app you'll install from (Downloader, your file manager, etc.).
On Google/Android TV boxes it's similar: Settings → Apps → Security & restrictions → Unknown sources.

Method 1 — Downloader app (easiest)

Install the free Downloader app from the TV's app store.
Open Squink on any browser or phone and go to Get the apps — it shows the TV app's address and a QR code, served from your own server.
Type that address into Downloader, install, open Squink — it finds your server by itself; pick it from the list and sign in.

Method 2 — USB thumb drive

Copy squink-tv.apk onto a USB stick from your PC.
Plug it into the TV box. Fire TV Sticks have no spare USB port — you'll need a cheap micro-USB OTG cable with power passthrough (the Y-shaped "2-in-1" ones, ~$10–15 — e.g. the AuviPal 2-in-1; plain adapters without the power leg cut power to the Stick). Boxes like the Cube, Shield or most Android TV boxes take the stick directly.
Open a file manager on the TV (X-plore or File Commander from the app store are free), browse to the stick, click the APK, install.

Method 3 — ADB from your PC (for the experienced)

In the TV's Developer Options, also turn on ADB Debugging.
Note the TV's IP address (Settings → My Fire TV → About → Network), then from a PC with platform-tools installed:

adb connect 192.168.1.xx:5555 → accept the prompt on the TV, then
adb install squink-tv.apk

Tidy-up tip: once Squink's installed, you can switch Developer Options / ADB back off — they're only needed for the install itself.

Android phone

Scan the QR on the Get the apps page (or download the APK here), install, and the app discovers your server automatically.

iPhone & iPad

Coming to the App Store — the site's download section will light up the moment it's live.

Using the Jukebox

One queue for the whole house. Anyone on any device can add the next song — the TV, web and phones all see the same live queue instantly.
Open an album to play it, queue individual songs, or save them to playlists the whole house shares.
On the TV, scroll the record shelf and covers bloom as you pass; press OK on a song for its options. While music plays, the TV shows a proper now-playing screen with what's coming up.

Casting & remote control

Squink Cast: in the phone app, flick any photo to the TV in one tap — complete with a live highlighter for pointing things out from the couch.
Remote: the phone app's Remote tab drives whichever Squink screen is playing — browse, play, pause, skip and queue. The phone and the TV need to be signed into the same server.

Settings worth knowing

Setting	What it does
Server → Transcoding	Converts video on the fly when a device can't play it natively. Leave it on; set a resolution limit if your PC is modest. GPU acceleration is used automatically when detected.
Server → Appearance	The ambient background art behind the web app — use your own library's backdrops, the built-in set, or turn it off.
TV → Settings → Photo screensaver	After the TV sits idle, your photo wall takes over as a slideshow. Pick the delay, or turn it off.
Server name	Give your server a name (bedroom PC vs lounge NAS) — it's what the apps show when they discover it.
Settings → Metadata	Artwork is built in and automatic. The Advanced toggle lets power users supply their own TMDB key — most people never need to open this.

Away from home

Squink has built-in support for Tailscale — a free private network between your own devices. Install Tailscale on the server PC and your phone, and Squink quietly learns its away-from-home address: the apps keep working from anywhere, with no port forwarding and nothing exposed to the internet. The guided setup lives in Server → Remote access.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Usual fix
Apps can't find the server	Same network? Guest Wi-Fi and VPNs block discovery — you can always type the server's IP in manually.
Nothing loads from another device	The installer opens the firewall automatically, but third-party antivirus can re-block it — allow `squink-server.exe` or port `8730`.
A movie shows no artwork	Check the name has the title and year, then rescan the library.
New files aren't appearing	Run a scan from Server → Libraries — or just wait; libraries rescan periodically.
Video stutters on the TV	Wired beats Wi-Fi for 4K. Or set a transcode resolution limit so the server sends a lighter stream.
Something else	Tell us on the feedback page — it goes straight to the people who build Squink.