Struggling to find the best way to store photos for my scenario
Hi,
I am having issues trying to figure out how to store and use immich with my photos.
Currently I have all my photos/videos stored on a share on my unraid server. This share acts as a big vault for both myself and my parents to store all the photos, currently I would manually back them up via copy paste every few months.
I am now trying to use immich to simply this, I have currentely deployed immich as a docker on my unraid server with a mount mapping to the share in unraid array with all my pics ( /libraries path -> /mnt/user/HDDNAS/ , /photos path -> /mnt/user/HDDNAS/ ). I am using external libraries at the moment which does import my folders. i have set each user to every sub folder.
Nas structure:
(see pictures, inside all those folders are more smaller folders with the date of when i done the backup dump)
External libraries structure:
myself account
/libraries/phone backups/my_phone
mum account /libraries/phone backups/mum_phone dad account /libraries/phone backups/dad_phone This all seems to be working great for now as it sees all my old backups ive done over the past 10+ years. However now ive ran into an issue where once on the immich phone app, I want to upload new pictures it would save them onto the /immich share mount thats been created for this docker container, I would like the uploads to be uploaded to the corresponding share folders on my nas instead, is this possible, are there better ways of doing this? Thank you. Feel free to @ me and if there is anything that doesnt make sense please do let me know!
mum account /libraries/phone backups/mum_phone dad account /libraries/phone backups/dad_phone This all seems to be working great for now as it sees all my old backups ive done over the past 10+ years. However now ive ran into an issue where once on the immich phone app, I want to upload new pictures it would save them onto the /immich share mount thats been created for this docker container, I would like the uploads to be uploaded to the corresponding share folders on my nas instead, is this possible, are there better ways of doing this? Thank you. Feel free to @ me and if there is anything that doesnt make sense please do let me know!
30 Replies
:wave: Hey @elco,
Thanks for reaching out to us. Please carefully read this message and follow the recommended actions. This will help us be more effective in our support effort and leave more time for building Immich :immich:.
References
- Container Logs:
docker compose logs docs
- Container Status: docker ps -a docs
- Reverse Proxy: https://immich.app/docs/administration/reverse-proxy
- Code Formatting https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/210298617-Markdown-Text-101-Chat-Formatting-Bold-Italic-Underline#h_01GY0DAKGXDEHE263BCAYEGFJA
Checklist
I have...
1. :blue_square: verified I'm on the latest release(note that mobile app releases may take some time).
2. :blue_square: read applicable release notes.
3. :blue_square: reviewed the FAQs for known issues.
4. :blue_square: reviewed Github for known issues.
5. :blue_square: tried accessing Immich via local ip (without a custom reverse proxy).
6. :blue_square: uploaded the relevant information (see below).
7. :blue_square: tried an incognito window, disabled extensions, cleared mobile app cache, logged out and back in, different browsers, etc. as applicable
(an item can be marked as "complete" by reacting with the appropriate number)
Information
In order to be able to effectively help you, we need you to provide clear information to show what the problem is. The exact details needed vary per case, but here is a list of things to consider:
- Your docker-compose.yml and .env files.
- Logs from all the containers and their status (see above).
- All the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far.
- Any recent changes you've made to Immich or your system.
- Details about your system (both software/OS and hardware).
- Details about your storage (filesystems, type of disks, output of commands like fdisk -l and df -h).
- The version of the Immich server, mobile app, and other relevant pieces.
- Any other information that you think might be relevant.
Please paste files and logs with proper code formatting, and especially avoid blurry screenshots.
Without the right information we can't work out what the problem is. Help us help you ;)
If this ticket can be closed you can use the /close command, and re-open it later if needed.This is not possible without manual intervention of some kind on your side. Uploads from the app, web interface, cli and such go into the internal library. You would need to manually copy the files over then delete them from the Web interface in some manner, so a lot of manual work.
understood, so how do people manage multiple users and seperate all their sections ?
is that all within that one single share that immich is instaled on ?
then how does immich diffrentiate between one uploaded by X user and one by Y user
Under the upload location (The immich location where items are uploaded by phone app), each user has their own folder where their assets are stored.
Personally I don't use external libraries and just let immich handle it all.
this one ?
Correct. Under upload each users photos are stored in their own folder.
and to upload my stuff from the phone i need to backup an album ?
Yes, you choose an album for backup.
cool let me try this
anything not to include in the album or just do it all ? camera shows me 600 ish but something called "recents" has over 1k ..
Camera is probably photos you have taken vs Recents may contain things like screenshots and other photo related items.
adding both will cause duplications ?
No, immich will reject byte for byte duplicate photos per user
so this long string is my user i recon ?
Correct. If you would like it in a nicer format you can use the storage template:
https://immich.app/docs/administration/storage-template/
got it thanks
Nope
The user's storage folder name can be specified in the user settings
https://my.immich.app/admin/user-management
ive added locaitoin tags on my phone now but doesnt seem to be in immich ? does this take time to come or is it broken
Location tags as in geodata?
thats right, location
That will be visible once metadata extraction is done on those images
Does the storage label apply to the upload location and storage template?
That is actually a good question lol
I think you're right and it only applies if you're using the storage template
hi again so ive enabled storage template engine and done the storage template migration job, ive also changed the storage label to my name but it still is like that long string, and to add the 2 letter folders also have nothing in them ?
The files would be in the library folder now, not the upload.
ahhhh nice!!! thanks. :)
sorry another question. so now if i want to move all my external libary off and into the immich share, what would be the best way of going about doing that ? via copy pasting straight into the libary and running the template migration job ?
You should never touch the items directly in the internal library. If you would like to move everything into immich management, you will want to use the cli
If you want to break up the external library folders per user, you will need an api key per user to make sure the assets go into correct user space
gotchaa will take al ook