Immich (photos & videos platform)

Important: For installs/upgrades, always check the official guide and use the compose file from the latest release: https://immich.app/docs/install/docker-compose and the release compose at: https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml

What it is

Immich is a self‑hosted photo & video platform with fast mobile upload and on‑device/server ML (face/object search).

Why I use it

To keep my photo library private while retaining the speed and discovery features of commercial cloud services.

Services in this compose

• immich-server — web/API on 2283
• immich-machine-learning — ML workers (can use GPU with accel tags)
• redis — lightweight cache/queue (Valkey)
• database — Postgres with vector extension

Hardware acceleration

• For transcoding or ML acceleration, append a tag to the images (e.g., ${IMMICH_VERSION}-cuda) and follow the Immich docs for the matching hwaccel.*.yml include.

Volumes & data

• Uploads: ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/data
• Postgres data: ${DB_DATA_LOCATION}:/var/lib/postgresql/data
• ML cache: model-cache:/cache

Security & backup

• Place behind a reverse proxy (Cloudflare Tunnel or Nginx Proxy Manager) with TLS and auth.
• Back up:
  • the upload path (${UPLOAD_LOCATION})
  • Postgres data (${DB_DATA_LOCATION})
• Rotate DB creds if exposed. Keep .env out of git.

Quick start

1. Copy .env.example → .env and fill values (paths, DB creds).
2. Create host directories for upload and DB data.
3. Launch:

   docker compose up -d
   

4. Access Immich at: http://HOST:2283/