immich/docs/docs/FAQ.md

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FAQ

What is the difference between the cloud icon on the mobile app?

Icon	Description
	Asset is only available in the cloud and was uploaded from some other device (like the web client) or was deleted from this device after upload
	Asset is only available locally and has not yet been backed up
	Asset was uploaded from this device and is now backed up in the cloud/server and still available in original on the device

How can I sync an existing directory with Immich's server?

Immich doesn't have two-way synchronization (yet), but the command line tool can bulk upload items from a directory to Immich.

Why doesn't Immich watch an existing photo gallery directory?

The initial approach of Immich is to become a backup tool, primarily for mobile device usage. Thus, all the assets must be uploaded from the mobile client. The app was architectured to perform that job well.

Why does my uploaded photo show up with the wrong date or time in Immich?

When a photo is initially uploaded Immich uses the create date of the file to determine where it belongs in the timeline. After that, background jobs will run that extract exif metadata, including the CreateDate, to provide a more accurate date for the photo. If that is not available it will fallback to the modified date. If you want to ensure your photo has the right date, check the exif metadata before uploading.

If the timezone is incorrect in an uploaded photo, check the DateTimeOriginal exif field of the uploaded file. Immich uses the very competent library exiftool-vendored.js to handle timezone parsing, but in some cases (like photos taken with DSLR cameras) it has to fallback on the local timezone. If you are using docker, this fallback will be UTC. (Note that even the photo backup app that can't be named has the same bug!) In Immich, it is possible to change this assumed fallback timezone system-wide by setting the timezone in the microservices docker container. You might need to run the "Extract Metadata" job after to effect the change.

As an example, the following modification of docker-compose.yml will set the timezone of the microservices container to be Europe/Stockholm

    environment:
      - TZ=Europe/Stockholm # <---- Add this line in the microservices config

Why are only photos and not videos being uploaded to Immich?

This often happens when using a reverse proxy or cloudflare tunnel in front of Immich. Make sure to set your reverse proxy to allow large POST requests. In nginx, set client_max_body_size 50000M; or similar. Cloudflare tunnels are limited to 100 mb file sizes.

Why is Immich slow on low-memory systems like the Raspberry Pi?

Immich uses optional machine-learning features to enhance search results. This feature, however, can be too heavy to run on a Raspberry Pi. To disable machine learning, comment out the immich-machine-learning section of your docker-compose.yml and set IMMICH_MACHINE_LEARNING_URL=false in your .env file.

How to disable machine-learning and TypeSense?

:::warning Disabling both will result in poor search experience and typesense utilizes CLIP embeddings which are generated by machine-learning. :::

These features can be disabled by commenting out immich-typesense and immich-machine-learning sections of the docker-compose.yml and setting IMMICH_MACHINE_LEARNING_URL=false & TYPESENSE_ENABLED=false in your .env file.

What happens to existing files after I choose a new Storage Template?

Template changes will only apply to new assets. To retroactively apply the template to previously uploaded assets, run the Storage Migration Job, available on the Jobs page.

In the uploads folder, why are photos stored in the wrong date?

This is fixed by running the storage migration job.

Why is object detection not very good?

The model we used for machine learning is a prebuilt model, so the accuracy is not very good. It will hopefully be replaced with a better solution in the future.

How can I see Immich logs?

Most Immich components are typically deployed using docker. To see logs for deployed docker containers, you can use the Docker CLI, specifically the docker logs command. For examples, see Docker Help

How can I run Immich as a non-root user?

1. Set the PUID/PGID environment variables (in .env).
2. Set the corresponding user argument in docker-compose for each service.
3. Add an additional volume to immich-microservices that mounts internally to /usr/src/app/.reverse-geocoding-dump.

The non-root user/group needs read/write access to the volume mounts, including UPLOAD_LOCATION.

How can I reset the admin password?

The admin password can be reset by running the reset-admin-password command on the immich-server.

How can I backup data from Immich?

See backup and restore.

How can I purge data from Immich?

Data for Immich comes in two forms:

1. Metadata stored in a postgres database, persisted via the pg_data volume
2. Files (originals, thumbs, profile, etc.), stored in the UPLOAD_LOCATION folder.

To remove the Metadata you can stop Immich and delete the volume.

docker-compose down -v

After removing the containers and volumes, the Files can be cleaned up (if necessary) from the UPLOAD_LOCATION by simply deleting an unwanted files or folders.

Why iOS app shows duplicate photos on the timeline while the web doesn't?

If you are using My Photo Stream, the Photos app temporarily creates duplicates of photos taken in the last 30 days. These photos are included in the Recents album and thus shown up twice. To fix this, you can disable My Photo Stream in the native Photos app or choose a different album in the backup screen in Immich.

How can I move all data (photos, persons, albums) from one user to another?

This requires some database queries. You can do this on the command line (in the PostgreSQL container using the psql command), or you can add for example an Adminer container to the docker-compose.yml file, so that you can use a web-interface.

:::warning This is an advanced operation. If you can't to do it with the steps described here, this is not for you. :::

1. MAKE A BACKUP - See backup and restore.

2. Find the id of both the 'source' and the 'destination' user (it's the id column in the users table)

3. Three tables need to be updated:

   // reassign albums
   update albums set "ownerId" = '<destinationId>' where "ownerId" = '<sourceId>';
   
   // reassign people
   update person set "ownerId" = '<destinationId>' where "ownerId" = '<sourceId>';
   
   // reassign assets
   update assets set "ownerId" = '<destinationId>' where "ownerId" = '<sourceId>'
    and checksum not in (select checksum from assets where "ownerId" = '<destinationId>');
   

4. There might be left-over assets in the 'source' user's library if they are skipped by the last query because of duplicate checksums. These are probably duplicates anyway, and can probably be removed.