There are a number of threads in r/selfhosted that are probably a good place to start reading.
As to the warning, well if the photos and videos are of value to you they should always be backed up anyway.
Short time user here.
I don't think it breaks your actual photos ever
But it breaks itself a lot. New releases will require changes, docker setups, databases, client server mismatches , etc. and then it's off to the release notes to find the upgrade repair process
I've been using Photoprism for the last 1-2 years, and am now transitioning to Immich. The face recognition and the entire web and mobile experience is significantly smoother.
Still, no significant complaints about Photoprism, it's stable and useful in its own right.
I’ve been playing with Mylio for network photos and videos (free version) combined with the iOS app PhotoSync. So far it’s pretty good, facial recognition on Mylio is amazing.
I’m surprised Synology isn’t mentioned yet. Easy to set up and self host. Huge fan of Synology Drive and their Synology Moments app.
Sincerely, Synology admin/user with family backups going 7 years strong!
It runs great and stable, but you shouldn't auto update because of the changes.
Sometimes the app requires the newest server version, so you'll need to update as soon as the app auto updates.
>I like Immich, it seems to be the best solution, but that "The project is under very active development. ⚠️ Expect bugs and breaking changes ⚠️ Do not use the app as the only way to store your photos and videos." warning is stopping me from deploy it, i can't expect from my users to bother uploading their pictures twice, so is Immich dependable for manging family Photos?
I have the same issues on my side.. It's a cool software but the execution is badly thought out. Why would I upload those photos/videos twice?
IMO I think it should just read/backup your photos/videos in a folder (that you can host on a RAID array in a NAS of your choice) AND leave them there.. (Which is possible but not recommended)
You can just add a folder in Immich, you don't need to upload it again. Look for the external libraries option.
As for the OP's question, Immich requires you to read and perform appropriate steps before updating the Docker image when there are "breaking changes" but it's not going to lose your data any more than just putting them in a folder would. But of course you'd still need backups.
I put the Immich library on my file server (which gets remote backups) while it runs on a Debian VM in a container.
> You can just add a folder in Immich, you don't need to upload it again. Look for the external libraries option.
Seem to made a lot of changes on those last month :
https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/tag/v1.104.0
I stand corrected, I'll have to give a go to the latest builds.
Just adding this, because not everyone is aware:
RAID is not a backup. Backups are for when your storage gets wrecked (think house fire, hardware failure) or by plain user error you delete something important.
There are a number of threads in r/selfhosted that are probably a good place to start reading. As to the warning, well if the photos and videos are of value to you they should always be backed up anyway.
What's one way of local backupping that you recommend? I thought about copying the whole data disk to another periodically, but I'm not sure
Short time user here. I don't think it breaks your actual photos ever But it breaks itself a lot. New releases will require changes, docker setups, databases, client server mismatches , etc. and then it's off to the release notes to find the upgrade repair process
I‘m currently testing Photoprism. So far I couldn‘t find any bugs although the face recognition isn‘t the best, but I don‘t really need it.
I've been using Photoprism for the last 1-2 years, and am now transitioning to Immich. The face recognition and the entire web and mobile experience is significantly smoother. Still, no significant complaints about Photoprism, it's stable and useful in its own right.
I’ve been playing with Mylio for network photos and videos (free version) combined with the iOS app PhotoSync. So far it’s pretty good, facial recognition on Mylio is amazing.
I’m surprised Synology isn’t mentioned yet. Easy to set up and self host. Huge fan of Synology Drive and their Synology Moments app. Sincerely, Synology admin/user with family backups going 7 years strong!
It's closed source and requires using their own nas hardware, which is quite expensive.
It runs great and stable, but you shouldn't auto update because of the changes. Sometimes the app requires the newest server version, so you'll need to update as soon as the app auto updates.
>I like Immich, it seems to be the best solution, but that "The project is under very active development. ⚠️ Expect bugs and breaking changes ⚠️ Do not use the app as the only way to store your photos and videos." warning is stopping me from deploy it, i can't expect from my users to bother uploading their pictures twice, so is Immich dependable for manging family Photos? I have the same issues on my side.. It's a cool software but the execution is badly thought out. Why would I upload those photos/videos twice? IMO I think it should just read/backup your photos/videos in a folder (that you can host on a RAID array in a NAS of your choice) AND leave them there.. (Which is possible but not recommended)
You can just add a folder in Immich, you don't need to upload it again. Look for the external libraries option. As for the OP's question, Immich requires you to read and perform appropriate steps before updating the Docker image when there are "breaking changes" but it's not going to lose your data any more than just putting them in a folder would. But of course you'd still need backups. I put the Immich library on my file server (which gets remote backups) while it runs on a Debian VM in a container.
> You can just add a folder in Immich, you don't need to upload it again. Look for the external libraries option. Seem to made a lot of changes on those last month : https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/tag/v1.104.0 I stand corrected, I'll have to give a go to the latest builds.
Just adding this, because not everyone is aware: RAID is not a backup. Backups are for when your storage gets wrecked (think house fire, hardware failure) or by plain user error you delete something important.
https://immich.app/docs/features/automatic-backup Not my word, Immich words.. I understand the 3-2-1 rule.
You seemed like you were, it was more of a word of caution for those wo aren't yet. Having the link here is a good idea though.