Just tried Immich to replace Google photos
Just tried Immich to replace Google photos
Wow. I've only just started testing it against GP, but it's really slick and works really well. Lots more fine control than GP, and the only thing that isn't quite as good is the photo editing on the app and web site, and that is on the roadmap. Oh, and I can't see how to set up TLS but I might just be missing something.
This is self hosted right? I would be afraid of a disk dying and losing all my photos. That happened to my Plex NAS.
Always have at least 3 copies of any important data. Follow the 3-2-1 rule.
Data loss can happen due to so many reasons, the only safe option is reliable and tested backups.
To expand on the 3-2-1 rule:
3 total copies 2 onsite, using dissimilar media 1 offsite, for disaster recovery
I use SyncThing to monitor and copy my photos to an (encrypted, offsite) drive.
My wife and I use Immich via Tailscale to avoid the need of any proxying and serious account management. That said, I have yet to fully transition from GP because I have at least one shared album that a few dozen people regularly access. Still need to test setting up a shared album w/ reverse proxy for this one. But then if I want to share another album I'd likely need to set up another proxy...or see if shared albums share a common URL I could use as a catch all. Still need to test.
Tls u need a domain (can use duckdns if u dont have a static ip) then get an ssl cert from lets encrypt then proxy immich through a reverse proxy like ngnx. Its what ive got set up.
Try ENTE!! Everything you store is e2e encrypted, their software is foss and you can share files easily, they even have a mid free plan. I've been using them for some time and they offer a great service.
It's https://www.ente.io
My referal code is SVZWEU, you can use it if you want to get an extra 10 gb for the both of us, free of charge, when signing up to a paid plan.
You don't have to use it, but thx if you do!
I really like Ente.
Disadvantages:
- the photos that you're self hosting are encrypted so if you want to have good sleeps you need to do daily exports
- Videos are also encrypted so no transcoding is possible. Client needs to download whole file before starting play (they say they have a solution coming for this)
Advantages:
- requires very little resources. The web album is static HTML and you can host it anywhere, even on GitHub pages, for free. Photos are saved in any S3 server, I chose garage. Then it has a postgresql database and a very light coordinator service. In total takes like 100mb of RAM.
- All the ML stuff is done on the client side when you're browsing your photos (on mobile devices it's disabled by default in order to not kill the battery)
- Desktop client can be set to automatically backup all your photos in background
- Because it uploads to S3 and S3 natively supports chunked uploads you can upload files bigger than 100mb if using cloudflare free (immich uses a workaround for this but only works on desktop)
- Uploads are resumable
- Doesn't have breaking changes where you need to use specific docker images like other galleries
I'd put the client ML as a disadvantage.
Having the AI processes run on a beefy server is much nicer in my book, but of course can only be done without E2E encryption.
Put this in the other comment, but why?
But it doesnt have all the local-AI image recognition features, does it? Being able to search for "black car interior" is as random as it is effective in Immich.
I see people suggest Ente, but Immich has been fantastic for me, and is funded by FUTO which means it's less likely to enshittify.
In other words:
Try Immich!! It's worth trying.
I self host. I'm not going to pay money for someone else to save my photos on another computer when something free (immich) does the same thing for me on my own hardware.
Ente is also able to be self-hosted.
btw i know i copy pasted this from one of my previous posts but it's related and i didn't feel like retyping all of this just to recommend something. I am not a bot! (probably)
Im also using this, works very well and has machine learning to detect faces in pics and categorize them automatically. Plus it's reading the geo tags of images.
My Pixel is taking short video snippets from which you can then choose the best frame, and so far no other app than GP is able to handle those (as far as I know at least).
Can Immich work with those?Just tried it with top photo and it seems to recognize it as such. There is a little playback button up top and it's clearly not recognized as video. Although no way to extract a single frame.
TLS is if you are use immich behind a proxy. If you just use it in your network there is no need for TLS.
Yes, looks like a reverse proxy is the way to go.
Immich is easy to handle with standard proxy settings, nothing special. My caddy entry for immich is the typical one liner from caddy.
I personally switched to Ente.io for shared photo albums. Works great. Encrypted, cheap and you don’t have to make an account as a guest user. I highly recommend that you give it a try. Also if you want to (opt-in). It got on device AI/ML for face and object recognition.
I forgot to mention. You can obviously self host it. Server and client are open source.
But it doesnt have all the local-AI image recognition features, does it? Being able to search for "black car interior" is as random as it is effective in Immich.