🚨 MinIO UI Missing in Latest Builds? Here’s a Docker-Based Fix with buildforyou/minio-ui

🧨 What Happened?

Starting in late 2025, MinIO moved all admin UI features behind its Enterprise Edition paywall. So if you're using the Community Edition, even though the API works perfectly, you’ll no longer get access to the UI dashboard to:

• Manage buckets

• View users

• Apply IAM policies

• Monitor metrics

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🛠️ The Fix: Use buildforyou/minio-ui

Thankfully, the open source community has your back.

buildforyou/minio-ui is a build for MinIO that restores the most useful UI features for Community Edition users.

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✅ Docker Compose Setup

Here’s a fully working docker-compose.yml setup:

version: '3'

services: 
  minio: 
    image: minio/minio:latest
    container_name: 'minio'
    volumes: 
      - minio:/data
    ports: 
      - 9002:9002  # MinIO API only
    environment: 
      MINIO_ROOT_USER: 'admin'
      MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD: 'admin'
      MINIO_ADDRESS: ':9002'
      MINIO_CONSOLE_ADDRESS: ''  # Disable official console
    command: minio server /data
    networks:
      - minio-net

  minio-ui:
    image: buildforyou/minio-ui:latest
    container_name: 'minio-ui'
    ports:
      - 9090:9090  # Access UI at localhost:9090
    environment:
      CONSOLE_MINIO_SERVER: 'http://minio:9002'
      CONSOLE_PBKDF_PASSPHRASE: 'supersecret'
      CONSOLE_PBKDF_SALT: 'supersecret'
    depends_on:
      - minio
    networks:
      - minio-net

volumes: 
  minio:

networks:
  minio-net:

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🧪 How It Works

• MinIO API is served on port 9002

• The built-in MinIO console is disabled (MINIO_CONSOLE_ADDRESS: '')

• buildforyou/minio-ui connects to MinIO’s API over Docker network using:

    CONSOLE_MINIO_SERVER: 'http://minio:9002'
  

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🌐 Access the UI

• 📦 MinIO API: http://localhost:9002

• 🎛️ Custom UI: http://localhost:9090

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👀 Why This Matters

If you’re running MinIO in a homelab, dev environment, or on a budget, you don’t need to pay for Enterprise just to get a UI.

This setup gives you:

✅ Full object browser
✅ Bucket management
✅ Access control via MinIO API
✅ Works with mc CLI too

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🙏 Credits

This UI project is based on the amazing work by the OpenMaxIO team, who forked and maintained the original MinIO Console UI before it moved behind the Enterprise paywall.

If you're looking to explore or contribute, check out the source here:
🔗 github.com/OpenMaxIO/openmaxio-object-browser

All credit goes to their community for keeping the admin interface accessible to everyone.

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🗣️ Spread the Word

Found this helpful? Share it on Twitter/X with your fellow #selfhosted, #devops, or #docker folks.

And if you’re running into issues, feel free to reach out!