Immich 3.0

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall sentiment & use cases

  • Many describe Immich as one of the best self‑hosted apps they run, “on par or better than Google/Apple Photos” for home use.
  • Common use: full family archive, large videos not suitable for cloud services, local snappy browsing, and escape from storage limits/pricing of Google One/iCloud.

Setup, upgrades & reliability

  • Several report years of stable Docker deployments, auto‑updates, and easy backups; database and library folder backups are straightforward.
  • Others recount painful migrations or corruption (DB, thumbnails), particularly with earlier versions or Proxmox LXC; a few say bad upgrade experiences made them wary of updating.
  • Some note that self‑hosting in general carries risk: breakage on upgrades, latent corruption, and the need for long‑term maintainability.

Self‑hosting vs cloud & cost

  • Some don’t want another self‑hosted service (maintenance, power, hardware failures) and lean toward hosted options.
  • Others argue VPS or rented dedicated servers count as “good enough” self‑hosting; backups to cheap cloud storage or NAS are common patterns.
  • Concern that cloud backup pricing can change, forcing periodic migrations.

Encryption, privacy & threat models

  • Large sub‑thread debates lack of end‑to‑end encryption (E2EE).
    • One camp: for self‑hosting, filesystem/disk encryption + TLS/VPN is sufficient; app‑level E2EE would kill server‑side ML, search, and transcoding, and increase complexity.
    • Other camp: anything on someone else’s computer (VPS, managed hosting) should be E2EE; they cite risks from providers scanning data or law enforcement requests.
    • Clarifications: E2EE vs “encryption at rest” is repeatedly confused; some point out recovery features and E2EE are inherently in tension.
  • Some want E2EE mainly to host for family/friends or on untrusted VPS while guaranteeing operators can’t inspect photos.

Data import & export

  • Google Takeout → Immich is a recurring pain point:
    • immich‑go is the de facto tool; some report smooth 100–700GB imports with preserved albums, others see numerous broken Live Photos or metadata failures and call it “abandonware.”
    • Takeout’s quirks (split archives, metadata JSON, naming) add friction; downloading via curl from browser “Copy as cURL” is a popular workaround.
  • Import from iCloud via Immich’s iOS app has longstanding bugs, especially around Live Photos, per some reports.
  • Export/migration out of Immich:
    • Some complain there’s no obvious “download all” in the UI; others note bulk download was recently added, and in any case raw files reside on disk and can be copied directly.

Mobile apps & sync behavior

  • Android: background backup has reportedly improved significantly in 3.0 using a new scheduler; some users already had reliable background uploads before.
  • iOS: synchronization is described as more fragile:
    • Some say it’s now acceptable; others report very slow or never‑completing full-library uploads and non‑resumable large video uploads.
    • Comparisons to Synology/Ente suggest Immich’s iOS experience can lag behind in reliability for large first‑time syncs.
  • Desire for “set and forget” behavior for non‑technical relatives is strong; whether this is fully solved is unclear.

External libraries, read‑only folders & storage

  • External (read‑only) libraries are available and widely used:
    • Good for those who want to preserve existing folder structures and keep Immich as an indexer only.
    • Recommended to mount external library volumes read‑only in Docker.
  • Complaints:
    • UI and logic have rough edges; some recurring date‑taken issues with subsets of photos.
    • External libraries per‑user currently cause duplicated thumbnails and increased storage; multi‑user face recognition amplifies this.
    • Maintainers indicate plans to better unify external and internal libraries and improve this.

Networking, exposure & access

  • Many run Immich behind:
    • Tailscale/WireGuard for private access; battery impact on phones is reported as small if not using full exit nodes.
    • Nginx/Caddy, sometimes via Cloudflare Tunnel (but Cloudflare’s 100MiB limit can break large video uploads).
  • Debate over exposing Immich directly to the internet:
    • Some say it’s fine with updates, WAF/CrowdSec, and IP geofencing.
    • Others insist on VPN‑only to minimize attack surface, citing the complexity of the codebase.

Alternatives & comparisons

  • Ente is the main alternative discussed:
    • Praised for polished UX, E2EE, album sharing with public upload links, and optional self‑hosting.
    • Some report serious upload bugs in self‑hosted setups; others say it runs flawlessly.
    • Viewed as complementary: Ente for E2EE/cloud use, Immich for trusted self‑hosting.
  • Photoprism and Synology Photos are mentioned as existing solutions; several are considering or planning migration to Immich.

Feature gaps & wishes

  • Frequently requested:
    • Better, first‑class import tooling from Google Photos/iCloud (not relying on external projects).
    • Smarter workflows (e.g., face‑based automatic albums), nested albums/folders, and album elements beyond photos (text, maps) to mimic Google Photos’ “story” feel.
    • Per‑photo “vault”/locked area for especially sensitive images.
    • More robust multi‑user handling of external libraries and shared collections.