Immich: your photos at home. What happens next?

A photo library you maintain yourself

Immich brings your photos together in a gallery you host yourself. You choose the server and storage. You also replace failed drives, follow updates and check that photos from your phone have arrived.

The project suits people who want to administer their setup. If you just want to free space on your phone, consider that workload first: a full-disk alert or a failed update will need attention from you or someone you have assigned.

• Self-hosting or cloud: who protects the data, who maintains the service?↗

The machine, the storage and the spare capacity

Current documentation specifies at least 6 GB of memory and two cores, recommending 8 GB and four cores. It recommends local SSD storage for PostgreSQL. Allow additional space for generated files such as thumbnails and transcoded videos.

These minimums do not size your library for you. List its current volume, growth and the other services sharing the machine. An initial import can be much more demanding than everyday browsing. Leave room for a restoration test that does not overwrite the running installation.

An old computer can be useful for learning, but its disk, power supply and electricity use still matter. Consider the whole cost: hardware, backup media, power and maintenance time.

Try a sample of photos and videos

Prepare representative copies: old and recent pictures, videos, your phone’s formats, portraits and images whose dates you know. Variety matters more than the exact count. Keep the originals in their usual location throughout this trial.

1. Set up a test instance using the documentation for your version. Record the locations of the files, database and deployment settings.
2. Import the small sample, then check dates, orientation, video playback and access to downloadable originals.
3. Select the phone albums to back up. Watch the upload queue until it finishes, including after returning the application to the foreground.
4. Make a complete backup and restore it into an isolated instance. Open several restored files and find the albums you expect.
5. Only then decide how to organise a larger migration. Do not delete source copies before checking restoration and the other backups.

The backup has two parts

Photos and videos are one part of the data. The database is another, holding information such as the organisation managed by the application. Immich’s documentation requires both. Automatic database backups do not copy the media and, by default, remain within the installation’s storage.

A copy on the same disk does not cover failure of that disk. Arrange a separate copy with history and a destination that will not disappear with the server. If it leaves your home, consider encryption and how you will retain its key.

The decisive test happens away from the main instance. Use copies and follow the restoration order documented for that version: database operations can replace existing data. Record the restored version, the sample checked and any missing files.

Check that phone uploads have finished

Mobile backup depends on selected albums and the operating system’s background-execution rules. On iOS in particular, the system decides when the application can work. Enabling the feature is not confirmation that every file has arrived.

Before travelling or clearing phone storage, open the application, inspect pending items and check recent files on the server. Include large videos: three visible photos may not represent the whole weekend.

Already have neatly organised folders?

External libraries can index existing files without treating them like new uploads. Some information still lives in Immich’s database, however; moving files and rescanning can affect what the application finds.

Decide where you manage organisation: in folders, in Immich, or in both with clear rules. Test moving a small copied sample before reorganising originals. Then check what the gallery retains or loses.

Remote access is a separate decision

Start on the local network. For remote access, the documentation discusses options including a VPN into the home network or a reverse proxy properly protected by HTTPS. It advises against directly exposing port 2283 to the internet.

A commercial VPN that changes your browsing exit address does not automatically fulfil this role. Here you need a route into your own server. If you expose a service, treat updates, authentication and incident monitoring as recurring work.

The server administrator can access the files: self-hosting does not hide them from that person. Identify who has that access and check that you can recover the originals on another machine.