TL;DR — Quick Summary

Deploy Immich as a self-hosted Google Photos alternative with automatic backup, AI face recognition, map view, shared albums, and full-text CLIP search.

Why Immich?

Google Photos is convenient but your memories live on Google’s servers. Immich brings the same experience home:

  • Automatic phone backup — iOS and Android apps with background sync.
  • AI face recognition — Automatically groups photos by person.
  • Natural language search — Find “sunset over mountains” using CLIP.
  • Map view — See photos on a world map by GPS location.
  • Shared albums — Share with family with comments and likes.
  • No storage limits — Your disk, your rules.

Prerequisites

  • Docker with docker-compose.
  • 4 GB RAM minimum (8 GB for AI features).
  • Sufficient storage for your photo library.

Step 1: Deploy with Docker Compose

mkdir immich && cd immich
curl -o docker-compose.yml \
  https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml
curl -o .env \
  https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/example.env

Edit .env:

UPLOAD_LOCATION=/mnt/photos/immich
DB_PASSWORD=your-secure-password
docker compose up -d

Access at http://your-server:2283.

Step 2: Mobile App Setup

  1. Install Immich from Google Play or App Store.
  2. Enter your server URL: http://your-server:2283
  3. Log in with your admin account.
  4. Enable Automatic Backup in settings.
  5. Select which albums to back up.

Step 3: Bulk Import Existing Photos

# Install the Immich CLI
npm i -g @immich/cli

# Import a directory
immich upload --recursive /path/to/existing/photos

AI Features Overview

Feature What it does Resource impact
Face Recognition Groups photos by person ~1 GB RAM
CLIP Search Natural language photo search ~1.5 GB RAM
Object Detection Tags objects in photos (car, dog, food) Included in CLIP
Map View Shows photos by GPS location Minimal
Memories “On this day” flashbacks Minimal

Immich vs Google Photos

Feature Immich Google Photos
Storage Unlimited (your disk) 15 GB free, then $2+/mo
Privacy Self-hosted, your data Google’s servers
Face recognition Yes (on-device ML) Yes (Google Cloud)
Natural language search Yes (CLIP) Yes (Google AI)
Shared albums Yes Yes
Offline access Via app cache Via app cache
Cost Free (+ your hardware) Free tier + paid plans

Troubleshooting

Problem Solution
Mobile app can’t connect Verify server URL and port 2283 is accessible; check firewall
Face recognition not working Ensure the ML container is running: docker compose logs immich-machine-learning
Photos not appearing after upload Wait for processing; check the Jobs queue in admin panel
High RAM usage Disable ML features if running on <4 GB RAM; reduce worker count
Duplicate photos detected Immich detects duplicates by hash; use the Duplicates view to review

Summary

  • Google Photos experience without giving Google your photos.
  • AI-powered face recognition and natural language search.
  • Auto-backup from iOS and Android with background sync.
  • Bulk import existing libraries with the CLI tool.