Move your data to Immich (self-hosted)

medium Takes under an hour

Once you have your data out of the big services and cleaned up, it needs to live somewhere you control. This guide covers moving your archive to Immich (self-hosted).

Immich ->

Step by step

  1. Install Immich

    Immich is a self-hosted photo and video server with a phone app, a timeline, search and face grouping. It runs on a NAS, a home server or a small PC using Docker.

  2. Create your account

    Open the web interface and create the first admin user. This account exists only on your own machine.

  3. Upload your cleaned library

    Use the Immich command line tool for a large one-off import, or drag folders into the web interface for smaller sets. The command line handles tens of thousands of files far better.

  4. Check the dates

    Immich sorts by the date inside each file. Repair metadata in Muletto first, or photos from Google and Apple exports will land on the day you imported them instead of the day they were taken.

  5. Back up the library folder

    Immich keeps your originals on disk. Back up that folder and the database and you can rebuild the whole server from it.

Worth knowing

This is the closest thing to running your own Google Photos, with nobody else holding the data.
It needs a machine that stays on and some comfort with Docker. If that sounds like work, plain folders on a NAS make a perfectly good archive.