diff --git a/unity_package/Runtime/VELConnectManager.cs b/unity_package/Runtime/VELConnectManager.cs
index f6027ac..c20a991 100644
--- a/unity_package/Runtime/VELConnectManager.cs
+++ b/unity_package/Runtime/VELConnectManager.cs
@@ -2,8 +2,10 @@ using System;
 using System.Collections;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 using System.Linq;
+using System.Net.Http;
 using System.Reflection;
 using System.Text;
+using System.Threading.Tasks;
 using Newtonsoft.Json;
 using UnityEngine;
 using UnityEngine.Networking;
@@ -14,7 +16,8 @@ namespace VELConnect
 	public class VELConnectManager : MonoBehaviour
 	{
 		public string velConnectUrl = "http://localhost";
-		private static VELConnectManager instance;
+		public static string VelConnectUrl => _instance.velConnectUrl;
+		private static VELConnectManager _instance;
 
 		public class State
 		{
@@ -27,6 +30,7 @@ namespace VELConnect
 				public string last_modified;
 				public Dictionary<string, string> data;
 			}
+
 			public class Device
 			{
 				public string hw_id;
@@ -136,8 +140,8 @@ namespace VELConnect
 
 		private void Awake()
 		{
-			if (instance != null) Debug.LogError("VELConnectManager instance already exists", this);
-			instance = this;
+			if (_instance != null) Debug.LogError("VELConnectManager instance already exists", this);
+			_instance = this;
 		}
 
 		// Start is called before the first frame update
@@ -382,10 +386,10 @@ namespace VELConnect
 
 			if (sendInitialState)
 			{
-				if (instance != null && instance.lastState?.device != null)
+				if (_instance != null && _instance.lastState?.device != null)
 				{
-					if (instance.lastState.device.GetType().GetField(key)
-						    ?.GetValue(instance.lastState.device) is string val)
+					if (_instance.lastState.device.GetType().GetField(key)
+						    ?.GetValue(_instance.lastState.device) is string val)
 					{
 						try
 						{
@@ -472,12 +476,12 @@ namespace VELConnect
 
 		public static string GetDeviceData(string key)
 		{
-			return instance != null ? instance.lastState?.device?.TryGetData(key) : null;
+			return _instance != null ? _instance.lastState?.device?.TryGetData(key) : null;
 		}
 
 		public static string GetRoomData(string key)
 		{
-			return instance != null ? instance.lastState?.room?.TryGetData(key) : null;
+			return _instance != null ? _instance.lastState?.room?.TryGetData(key) : null;
 		}
 
 
@@ -486,8 +490,8 @@ namespace VELConnect
 		/// </summary>
 		public static void SetDeviceField(Dictionary<string, object> device)
 		{
-			instance.PostRequestCallback(
-				instance.velConnectUrl + "/api/device/set_data/" + DeviceId,
+			PostRequestCallback(
+				_instance.velConnectUrl + "/api/device/set_data/" + DeviceId,
 				JsonConvert.SerializeObject(device),
 				new Dictionary<string, string> { { "modified_by", DeviceId } }
 			);
@@ -498,8 +502,8 @@ namespace VELConnect
 		/// </summary>
 		public static void SetDeviceData(Dictionary<string, string> data)
 		{
-			instance.PostRequestCallback(
-				instance.velConnectUrl + "/api/device/set_data/" + DeviceId,
+			PostRequestCallback(
+				_instance.velConnectUrl + "/api/device/set_data/" + DeviceId,
 				JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new Dictionary<string, object> { { "data", data } }),
 				new Dictionary<string, string> { { "modified_by", DeviceId } }
 			);
@@ -513,18 +517,34 @@ namespace VELConnect
 				return;
 			}
 
-			instance.PostRequestCallback(
-				instance.velConnectUrl + "/api/set_data/" + Application.productName + "_" + VelNetManager.Room,
+			PostRequestCallback(
+				_instance.velConnectUrl + "/api/set_data/" + Application.productName + "_" + VelNetManager.Room,
 				JsonConvert.SerializeObject(data),
 				new Dictionary<string, string> { { "modified_by", DeviceId } }
 			);
 		}
 
+		public static void UploadFile(string fileName, byte[] fileData, Action<string> successCallback = null)
+		{
+			MultipartFormDataContent requestContent = new MultipartFormDataContent();
+			ByteArrayContent fileContent = new ByteArrayContent(fileData);
 
-		public void GetRequestCallback(string url, Action<string> successCallback = null,
+			requestContent.Add(fileContent, "file", fileName);
+
+			Task.Run(async () =>
+			{
+				HttpResponseMessage r = await new HttpClient().PostAsync(_instance.velConnectUrl + "/api/upload_file", requestContent);
+				string resp = await r.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
+				Dictionary<string, string> dict = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string,string>>(resp);
+				successCallback?.Invoke(dict["key"]);
+			});
+		}
+
+
+		public static void GetRequestCallback(string url, Action<string> successCallback = null,
 			Action<string> failureCallback = null)
 		{
-			StartCoroutine(GetRequestCallbackCo(url, successCallback, failureCallback));
+			_instance.StartCoroutine(_instance.GetRequestCallbackCo(url, successCallback, failureCallback));
 		}
 
 		private IEnumerator GetRequestCallbackCo(string url, Action<string> successCallback = null,
@@ -548,13 +568,14 @@ namespace VELConnect
 			}
 		}
 
-		public void PostRequestCallback(string url, string postData, Dictionary<string, string> headers = null,
+		public static void PostRequestCallback(string url, string postData, Dictionary<string, string> headers = null,
 			Action<string> successCallback = null,
 			Action<string> failureCallback = null)
 		{
-			StartCoroutine(PostRequestCallbackCo(url, postData, headers, successCallback, failureCallback));
+			_instance.StartCoroutine(PostRequestCallbackCo(url, postData, headers, successCallback, failureCallback));
 		}
 
+
 		private static IEnumerator PostRequestCallbackCo(string url, string postData,
 			Dictionary<string, string> headers = null, Action<string> successCallback = null,
 			Action<string> failureCallback = null)
diff --git a/velconnect/CreateDB.sql b/velconnect/CreateDB.sql
index ebc88b8..380017c 100644
--- a/velconnect/CreateDB.sql
+++ b/velconnect/CreateDB.sql
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ CREATE TABLE `DataBlock` (
     `id` TEXT NOT NULL,
     -- id of the owner of this file. Ownership is not transferable because ids may collide,
     -- but the owner could be null for global scope
-    `owner_id` TEXT,
+    `owner_id` TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT 'none',
     `visibility` TEXT CHECK( `visibility` IN ('public','private','unlisted') ) NOT NULL DEFAULT 'public',
     -- This is an indexable field to filter out different types of datablocks
     `category` TEXT,
diff --git a/velconnect/routes/api.py b/velconnect/routes/api.py
index 3dbf467..4096c6e 100644
--- a/velconnect/routes/api.py
+++ b/velconnect/routes/api.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import os
 import secrets
 import json
 import string
@@ -129,7 +130,7 @@ def create_device(hw_id: str):
 
 
 @router.get('/device/get_data/{hw_id}')
-def get_state(request: Request, response: Response, hw_id: str):
+def get_device_data(request: Request, response: Response, hw_id: str):
     """Gets the device state"""
 
     devices = db.query("""
@@ -155,7 +156,7 @@ def get_state(request: Request, response: Response, hw_id: str):
 
 
 @router.post('/device/set_data/{hw_id}')
-def set_state(request: fastapi.Request, hw_id: str, data: dict, modified_by: str = None):
+def set_device_data(request: fastapi.Request, hw_id: str, data: dict, modified_by: str = None):
     """Sets the device state"""
 
     create_device(hw_id)
@@ -343,21 +344,53 @@ def get_user_dict(user_id: str) -> dict | None:
     return None
 
 
+@router.post("/upload_file")
+async def upload_file_with_random_key(request: fastapi.Request, file: UploadFile, modified_by: str = None):
+    return await upload_file(request, file, None, modified_by)
+
+
 @router.post("/upload_file/{key}")
-async def upload_file(request: fastapi.Request, file: UploadFile, key: str, modified_by: str = None):
+async def upload_file(request: fastapi.Request, file: UploadFile, key: str | None, modified_by: str = None):
+    if not os.path.exists('data'):
+        os.makedirs('data')
+
+    # generates a key if none was supplied
+    if key is None:
+        key = generate_id()
+
+        # regenerate if necessary
+        while len(db.query("SELECT id FROM `DataBlock` WHERE id=:id;", {"id": key})) > 0:
+            key = generate_id()
+
     async with aiofiles.open('data/' + key, 'wb') as out_file:
         content = await file.read()  # async read
         await out_file.write(content)  # async write
     # add a datablock to link to the file
-    set_data(request, {'filename': file.filename}, key, 'file', modified_by)
-    return {"filename": file.filename}
+    set_data(request, data={'filename': file.filename}, key=key, category='file', modified_by=modified_by)
+    return {"filename": file.filename, 'key': key}
 
 
 @router.get("/download_file/{key}")
-async def download_file(key: str):
+async def download_file(response: Response, key: str):
     # get the relevant datablock
-    data = get_data(key)
+    data = get_data(response, key)
     print(data)
+    if response.status_code == status.HTTP_404_NOT_FOUND:
+        return 'Not found'
     if data['category'] != 'file':
-        return 'Not a file', 500
-    return fastapi.FileResponse(data['data']['filename'])
+        response.status_code = status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST
+        return 'Not a file'
+    return FileResponse(path='data/' + key, filename=data['data']['filename'])
+
+
+@router.get("/get_all_files")
+async def get_all_files():
+    data = db.query("""
+        SELECT * 
+        FROM `DataBlock`
+        WHERE visibility='public' AND category='file';  
+        """)
+    data = [dict(f) for f in data]
+    for f in data:
+        parse_data(f)
+    return data