diff --git a/doc/changelog.rst b/doc/changelog.rst
index 8f501453b..452a889e0 100644
--- a/doc/changelog.rst
+++ b/doc/changelog.rst
@@ -18,9 +18,10 @@ Bugfixes:
 
 Type hints:
 
-* Type hints added to all functions and methods (some using `typing.Any` where full typing not yet available)
+* Type hints added to all functions and methods (some still use `typing.Any` where full typing not yet available)
 * Updated InlineBaseFormAdmin.get_form() to return type[BaseForm] | None rather than T_MODEL_VIEW | None
 * Minor type hinting improvements for peewee backend
+* Admin(index_view=...) now accepts a BaseView instance rather than AdminIndexView, allowing e.g. FileAdmin
 
 2.2.0
 ------------------
diff --git a/flask_admin/base.py b/flask_admin/base.py
index 90faf838d..85f7c72fb 100644
--- a/flask_admin/base.py
+++ b/flask_admin/base.py
@@ -548,7 +548,7 @@ def __init__(
         name: str | None = None,
         url: str | None = None,
         subdomain: str | None = None,
-        index_view: AdminIndexView | None = None,
+        index_view: BaseView | None = None,
         translations_path: str | None = None,
         endpoint: str | None = None,
         static_url_path: str | None = None,
@@ -667,7 +667,7 @@ def add_view(self, view: BaseView) -> None:
 
     def _set_admin_index_view(
         self,
-        index_view: AdminIndexView | None = None,
+        index_view: BaseView | None = None,
         endpoint: str | None = None,
         url: str | None = None,
     ) -> None:
@@ -683,7 +683,7 @@ def _set_admin_index_view(
              `Admin` class with a single Flask application, you have to set a unique
              endpoint name for each instance.
         """
-        self.index_view: AdminIndexView = (  # type: ignore[no-redef]
+        self.index_view: BaseView = (  # type: ignore[no-redef]
             index_view or AdminIndexView(endpoint=endpoint, url=url)
         )
         self.endpoint = endpoint or self.index_view.endpoint
@@ -856,7 +856,7 @@ def get_category_menu_item(self, name: str) -> MenuCategory | None:
     def init_app(
         self,
         app: Flask,
-        index_view: AdminIndexView | None = None,
+        index_view: BaseView | None = None,
         endpoint: str | None = None,
         url: str | None = None,
     ) -> None:
diff --git a/flask_admin/tests/test_base.py b/flask_admin/tests/test_base.py
index 80e903889..3933ad4c7 100644
--- a/flask_admin/tests/test_base.py
+++ b/flask_admin/tests/test_base.py
@@ -116,7 +116,10 @@ def test_base_defaults() -> None:
     assert admin.endpoint == "admin"
     assert admin.app is None
     assert admin.index_view is not None
-    assert admin.index_view._template == "admin/index.html"
+    assert (
+        isinstance(admin.index_view, base.AdminIndexView)
+        and admin.index_view._template == "admin/index.html"
+    )
 
     # Check if default view was added
     assert len(admin._views) == 1