Storing small mp3 files locally for Media player to play when used as a notifier

I’ve been using an i2s audio board connected to an esp32 dev board with ESPHome and media_player as a notifier in my living room to make sounds when certain events occur triggered by Home Assistant.

Everything works great, but there is a bit of a delay when the Mp3 files are read from my local server. I was wondering if there was a way to place the small mp3 files directly onto the ESP32 so media_player can play them locally? From what I can see it’s possible to read the files from the local file system, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how to GET the files onto the ESP32.

To be clear, I want to STORE the files on the same device media_player is running on.

Thank you in advance for any insight. This forum has been an absolute God-Send!

Hi LTKodiUser,

For me in configuration.yaml
yaml</s> <s>homeassistant:</s> <s> media_dirs:</s> <s> local: /media</s> <s>
Then the /media path becomes part of /local .

And put the mp3 in a folder in HA under
text</s> <s>/media/mp3</s> <s>
(The media folder already exists, you would want to add a sub folder to that, or at least I did, to keep your OCD happy.)

When I want to use an MP3, the path is
text</s> <s>media-source://media_source/local/mp3/Ships_Bell_4.mp3</s> <s>

That is not what is ask for

oops, misread.

There is this DF-Player mini — ESPHome

But it requires extra hardware.