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FAQ

User​

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 see a list of all users in Immich?​

You can see the list of all users by running list-users Command on the Immich-server.

Mobile App​

What is the difference between the cloud icons on the mobile app?​

IconDescription
cloudAsset is only available on the server and was uploaded from some other device (like the web client) or was deleted from this device after upload
cloud-crossAsset is only available locally and has not yet been backed up
cloud-doneAsset was uploaded from this device and is now backed up to the server; the original file is still on the device

I cannot log into the application after an update. What can I do?​

Verify that the mobile app and server are both running the same version (major and minor).

note

App store updates sometimes take longer because the stores (Google Play Store and Apple App Store) need to approve the update first, and it can take some time.

If you still cannot log in to the app, try the following:

  • Check the mobile logs
  • Make sure login credentials are correct by logging in on the web app

Why does foreground backup stop when I navigate away from the app? Shouldn't it transfer the job to background backup?​

Foreground backup and background backup are two separate mechanisms. They don't communicate or interact with each other.

Foreground backup is controlled by the user's action, while background backup is controlled by your device's operating system. When the app is put in the background, the invocation of background tasks is delegated to the device's operating system scheduler. It decides when the background task can run and how long it can run.

The behaviors differ based on your device manufacturer and operating system, but most are related to battery-saving policies.

Why is background backup on iOS not working?​

On iOS (iPhone and iPad), the operating system determines if a particular app can invoke background tasks based on multiple factors, most of which the Immich app has no control over. To increase the likelihood that the background backup task is run, follow the steps below:

  • Enable Background App Refresh for Immich in the iOS settings at Settings > General > Background App Refresh.
  • Disable Background App Refresh for apps that don't need background tasks to run. This will reduce the competition for background task invocation for Immich.
  • Use the Immich app more often.

Why are features not working with a self-signed cert or mTLS?​

Due to limitations in the upstream app/video library, using a self-signed TLS certificate or mutual TLS may break video playback or asset upload (both foreground and/or background). We recommend using a real SSL certificate from a free provider, for example Let's Encrypt.

Assets​

Does Immich change the file?​

No, Immich does not modify the original files. All edited metadata is saved in companion .xmp sidecar files and the database. However, Immich will delete original files that have been trashed when the trash is emptied in the Immich UI.

Why do my file names appear as a random string in the file manager?​

When Storage Template is off (default) Immich saves the file names in a random string (also known as random UUIDs) to prevent duplicate file names. To retrieve the original file names, you must enable the Storage Template and then run the STORAGE TEMPLATE MIGRATION job. It is recommended to read about Storage Template before activation.

Can I add my existing photo library?​

Yes, with an External Library.

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.

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

This often happens when using a reverse proxy (such as Nginx 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. Also, check the disk space of your reverse proxy. In some cases, proxies cache requests to disk before passing them on, and if disk space runs out, the request fails.

Why are some photos stored in the file system with the wrong date?​

There are a few different scenarios that can lead to this situation. The solution is to rerun the storage migration job. The job is only automatically run once per asset after upload. If metadata extraction originally failed, the jobs were cleared/canceled, etc., the job may not have run automatically the first time.

How can I hide photos from the timeline?​

You can archive them.

How can I backup data from Immich?​

See Backup and Restore.

Does Immich support reading existing face tag metadata?​

No, it currently does not. There is an open feature request on GitHub.

Does Immich support the filtering of NSFW images?​

No, it currently does not. There is an open feature request on Github.

Why are there so many thumbnail generation jobs?​

There are three thumbnail jobs for each asset:

  • Blurred (thumbhash)
  • Preview (Webp)
  • Thumbnail (Jpeg)

Also, there are additional jobs for person (face) thumbnails.

Why do files from WhatsApp not appear with the correct date?​

Files sent on WhatsApp are saved without metadata on the file. Therefore, Immich has no way of knowing the original date of the file when files are uploaded from WhatsApp, not the order of arrival on the device. See #3527.

What happens if an asset exists in more than one account?​

There are no requirements for assets to be unique across users. If multiple users upload the same image, it is processed as if it were a distinct asset, and jobs run and thumbnails are generated accordingly.

Why do HDR videos appear pale in Immich player but look normal after download?​

Immich uses a player with known HDR color display issues. We are experimenting with a different player that provides better color profiles for HDR content for future improvements.

Why does Immich transcode my videos to a lower quality?​

Immich always keeps your original files. Alongside that, it generates a transcoded version for compatibility and performance reasons.

How can I delete transcoded videos without deleting the original?​

The transcoded version of an asset can be deleted by setting a transcode policy that makes it unnecessary and then running a transcoding job for that asset. This can be done on a per-asset basis by starting a transcoding job for a single asset with the Refresh encoded videos button in the asset viewer options or for all assets by running transcoding jobs for all assets from the administration page.

To update the transcode policy, navigate to Administration > Video Transcoding Settings > Transcoding Policy and select a policy from the drop-down. This policy will determine whether an existing transcode will be deleted or overwritten in the transcoding job. If a video should be transcoded according to this policy, an existing transcode is overwritten. If not, then it is deleted.

note

For example, say you have existing transcodes with the policy "Videos higher than normal resolution or not in the desired format" and switch to a narrower policy: "Videos not in the desired format." If an asset was only transcoded due to its resolution, running a transcoding job for it will delete the existing transcode. This is because resolution is no longer part of the transcode policy and the transcode is unnecessary. Likewise, if you set the policy to "Don't transcode any videos" and run transcoding jobs for all assets, this will delete all existing transcodes as they are unnecessary.

Is it possible to compress images during backup?​

No. Our design principle is that the original assets should always be untouched.

Albums​

Can I keep my existing album structure while importing assets into Immich?​

Yes, by using the Immich CLI along with the --album flag.

Is there a way to reorder photos within an album?​

No, not yet. For updates on this planned feature, follow the GitHub discussion.

External Library​

Can I add an external library while keeping the existing album structure?​

We haven't implemented an official mechanism for creating albums from external libraries, but there are some workarounds from the community to help you achieve that.

What happens to duplicates in external libraries?​

Duplicate checking only exists for upload libraries, using the file hash. Furthermore, duplicate checking is not global, but per library. Therefore, a situation where the same file appears twice in the timeline is possible, especially for external libraries.

Why are my edits to files not being saved in read-only external libraries?​

Images in read-write external libraries (the default) can be edited as normal. In read-only libraries (:ro in the docker-compose.yml), Immich is unable to create the .xmp sidecar files to store edited file metadata. For this reason, the metadata (timestamp, location, description, star rating, etc.) cannot be edited for files in read-only external libraries.

How are deletions of files handled in external libraries?​

Immich will attempt to delete original files that have been trashed when the trash is emptied. In read-write external libraries (the default), Immich will delete the original file. In read-only libraries (:ro in the docker-compose.yml), files can still be trashed in the UI. However, when the trash is emptied, the files will re-appear in the main timeline since Immich is unable to delete the original file.

Machine Learning​

How does smart search work?​

Immich uses CLIP models. An ML model converts each image to an "embedding", which is essentially a string of numbers that semantically encodes what is in the image. The same is done for the text that you enter when you do a search, and that text embedding is then compared with those of the images to find similar ones. As such, there are no "tags", "labels", or "descriptions" generated that you can look at. For more information about CLIP and its capabilities, read about it here.

How does facial recognition work?​

See How Facial Recognition Works for details.

How can I disable machine learning?​

info

Disabling machine learning will result in a poor experience for searching and the 'Explore' page, as these are reliant on it to work as intended.

Machine learning can be disabled under Administration > Settings > Machine Learning Settings, either entirely or by model type. For instance, you can choose to disable smart search with CLIP, but keep facial recognition enabled. This means that the machine learning service will only process the enabled jobs.

However, disabling all jobs will not disable the machine learning service itself. To prevent it from starting up at all in this case, you can comment out the immich-machine-learning section of the docker-compose.yml.

I'm getting errors about models being corrupt or failing to download. What do I do?​

You can delete the model cache volume, where models are downloaded. This will give the service a clean environment to download the model again. If models are failing to download entirely, you can manually download them from Hugging Face and place them in the cache folder.

Can I use a custom CLIP model?​

No, this is not supported. Only models listed in the Hugging Face page are compatible. Feel free to make a feature request if there's a model not listed here that you think should be added.

I want to be able to search in other languages besides English. How can I do that?​

You can change to a multilingual CLIP model. See here for instructions.

Does Immich support Facial Recognition for videos?​

Immich's machine learning feature operates on the generated thumbnail. If a face is visible in the video's thumbnail it will be picked up by facial recognition. Scanning the entire video for faces may be implemented in the future.

Does Immich have animal recognition?​

No.

tip

You can use Smart Search for this to some extent. For example, if you have a Golden Retriever and a Chihuahua, type these words in the smart search and watch the results.

I'm getting a lot of "faces" that aren't faces, what can I do?​

You can increase the MIN DETECTION SCORE to 0.8 to help prevent bad thumbnails. Setting the score too high (above 0.9) might filter out too many real faces depending on the library used. If you just want to hide specific faces, you can adjust the 'MIN FACES DETECTED' setting in the administration panel
to increase the bar for what the algorithm considers a "core face" for that person, reducing the chance of bad thumbnails being chosen.

The immich_model-cache volume takes up a lot of space, what could be the problem?​

If you installed several models and chose not to use some of them, it might be worth deleting the old models that are in immich_model-cache. To do this you can mount the model cache and remove the undesired models.

Steps
docker run -it --rm -v immich_model-cache:/mnt-models alpine sh
cd /mnt-models
ls clip/ facial-recognition/
# rm -r clip/ABC facial-recognition/DEF # delete unused models

Performance​

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

Immich optionally uses transcoding and machine learning for several features. However, it can be too heavy to run on a Raspberry Pi. You can mitigate this or host Immich's machine-learning container on a more powerful system, or disable machine learning entirely.

Can I lower CPU and RAM usage?​

The initial backup is the most intensive due to the number of jobs running. The most CPU-intensive ones are transcoding and machine learning jobs (Smart Search, Face Detection), and to a lesser extent thumbnail generation. Here are some ways to lower their CPU usage:

  • Lower the job concurrency for these jobs to 1.
  • Under Settings > Transcoding Settings > Threads, set the number of threads to a low number like 1 or 2.
  • Under Settings > Machine Learning Settings > Facial Recognition > Model Name, you can change the facial recognition model to buffalo_s instead of buffalo_l. The former is a smaller and faster model, albeit not as good.
    • For facial recognition on new images to work properly, You must re-run the Face Detection job for all images after this.
  • At the container level, you can set resource constraints to lower usage further.
    • It's recommended to only apply these constraints after taking some of the measures here for best performance.
  • If these changes are not enough, see below for instructions on how to disable machine learning.

Can I limit CPU and RAM usage?​

By default, a container has no resource constraints and can use as much of a given resource as the host's kernel scheduler allows. To limit this, you can add the following to the docker-compose.yml block of any containers that you want to have limited resources.

docker-compose.yml
deploy:
  resources:
    limits:
      # Number of CPU threads
      cpus: '1.00'
      # Gigabytes of memory
      memory: '1G'

For more details, you can look at the original docker docs or use this guide.

Note that memory constraints work by terminating the container, so this can introduce instability if set too low.

How can I boost machine learning speed?​

note

This advice improves throughput, not latency. This is to say that it will make Smart Search jobs process more quickly, but it won't make searching faster.

You can increase throughput by increasing the job concurrency for machine learning jobs (Smart Search, Face Detection). With higher concurrency, the host will work on more assets in parallel. You can do this by navigating to Administration > Settings > Job Settings and increasing concurrency as needed.

danger

On a normal machine, 2 or 3 concurrent jobs can probably max the CPU. Storage speed and latency can quickly become the limiting factor beyond this, particularly when using HDDs.

The concurrency can be increased more comfortably with a GPU, but should still not be above 16 in most cases.

Do not exaggerate with the job concurrency because you're probably thoroughly overloading the server.

My server shows Server Status Offline | Version Unknown. What can I do?​

You need to enable WebSockets on your reverse proxy.

Docker​

How can I see Immich logs?​

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 reduce the log verbosity of Redis?​

To decrease Redis logs, you can add the following line to the redis: section of the docker-compose.yml:

command: redis-server --loglevel warning

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

You can change the user in the container by setting the user argument in docker-compose.yml for each service. You may need to add mount points or docker volumes for the following internal container paths:

  • immich-machine-learning:/.config
  • immich-machine-learning:/.cache
  • redis:/data

The non-root user/group needs read/write access to the volume mounts, including UPLOAD_LOCATION and /cache for machine-learning.

Docker Compose Volumes

The Docker Compose top level volume element does not support non-root access, all of the above volumes must be local volume mounts.

For a further hardened system, you can add the following block to every container except for immich_postgres.

docker-compose.yml
security_opt:
  # Prevent escalation of privileges after the container is started
  - no-new-privileges:true
cap_drop:
  # Prevent access to raw network traffic
  - NET_RAW

How can I purge data from Immich?​

Data for Immich comes in two forms:

  1. Metadata stored in a Postgres database, stored in the DB_DATA_LOCATION folder (previously pg_data Docker volume).
  2. Files (originals, thumbs, profile, etc.), stored in the UPLOAD_LOCATION folder, more info.
warning

This will destroy your database and reset your instance, meaning that you start from scratch.

Remove Immich (containers and volumes)
docker compose down -v

After removing the containers and volumes, there are a few directories that need to be deleted to reset Immich to a new installation. Once they are deleted, Immich can be started back up and will be a fresh installation.

  • DB_DATA_LOCATION contains the database, media info, and settings.
  • UPLOAD_LOCATION contains all the media uploaded to Immich.
Portainer

If you use portainer, bring down the stack in portainer. Go into the volumes section
and remove all the volumes related to immich then restart the stack.

Why does the machine learning service report workers crashing?​

note

If the error says the worker is exiting, then this is normal. This is a feature intended to reduce RAM consumption when the service isn't being used.

There are a few reasons why this can happen.

If the error mentions SIGKILL or error code 137, it most likely means the service is running out of memory. Consider either increasing the server's RAM or moving the service to a server with more RAM.

If it mentions SIGILL (note the lack of a K) or error code 132, it most likely means your server's CPU is incompatible. This is unlikely to occur on version 1.92.0 or later. Consider upgrading if your version of Immich is below that.

If your version of Immich is below 1.92.0 and the crash occurs after logs about tracing or exporting a model, consider either upgrading or disabling the Tag Objects job.

Database​

Why am I getting database ownership errors?​

If you get database errors such as FATAL: data directory "/var/lib/postgresql/data" has wrong ownership upon database startup, this is likely due to an issue with your filesystem. NTFS and ex/FAT/32 filesystems are not supported. See here for more details.

How can I verify the integrity of my database?​

If you installed Immich using v1.104.0 or later, you likely have database checksums enabled by default. You can check this by running the following command. A result of on means that checksums are enabled.

Check if checksums are enabled
docker exec -it immich_postgres psql --dbname=immich --username=<DB_USERNAME> --command="show data_checksums"
 data_checksums
----------------
 on
(1 row)

If checksums are enabled, you can check the status of the database with the following command. A normal result is all zeroes.

Check for database corruption
docker exec -it immich_postgres psql --dbname=immich --username=<DB_USERNAME> --command="SELECT datname, checksum_failures, checksum_last_failure FROM pg_stat_database WHERE datname IS NOT NULL"
  datname  | checksum_failures | checksum_last_failure
-----------+-------------------+-----------------------
 postgres  |                 0 |
 immich    |                 0 |
 template1 |                 0 |
 template0 |                 0 |
(4 rows)

If corruption is detected, you should immediately make a backup before performing any other work in the database. To do so, you may need to set the zero_damaged_pages=on flag for the database server to allow pg_dumpall to succeed. After taking a backup, the recommended next step is to restore the database from a healthy backup before corruption was detected. The damaged database dump can be used to manually recover any changes made since the last backup, if needed.

The causes of possible corruption are many, but can include unexpected poweroffs or unmounts, use of a network share for Postgres data, or a poor storage medium such an SD card or failing HDD/SSD.