Self-hosting my photos with Immich
11 days ago
- #backup
- #photo-management
- #self-hosting
- The author needed an alternative to gphotos-sync after Google restricted OAuth scopes in March 2025.
- They chose Immich, a self-hostable photo manager, and detailed their setup process.
- Hardware used: Ryzen 7 Mini PC with Proxmox for virtualization.
- Installed NixOS on a VM with 500 GB disk space, 4 CPU cores, and 4 GB RAM.
- Configured Immich to be accessible only via Tailscale VPN for security.
- Initial photo import faced issues with Immich CLI, switched to immich-go for better performance and metadata handling.
- Set up automatic photo backup from iPhone using the Immich app, with recommendations to disable notifications.
- Backup strategy includes rsync to copy Immich data to a PC enrolled in a 3-2-1 backup scheme.
- Noted missing features in Immich like photo editing and easy sharing options.
- Compared Immich with Ente, preferring Immich for its simplicity and existing encryption layers.
- Overall, Immich is praised for its speed and functionality, despite some initial setup challenges.