Install Immich

(Written April 2025)

Abstract

How to install Immich, a self-hosted photo and video management solution.

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu virtual machine
• Docker Compose installed

Hardware requirements

• RAM: Minimum 4GB, recommended 6GB.
• CPU: Minimum 2 cores, recommended 4 cores.

Install Immich

Step 1: Download files

• Make the directories. Feel free to change them to your liking:

  cd /home
  mkdir docker
  cd docker
  mkdir immich-app  
  cd immich-app
  

• Download docker-compose.yml and example.env by running the following commands:

The docker-compose file contains everything needed for the container.

wget -O docker-compose.yml https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml

The .env file contains all variables

wget -O .env https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/example.env

Step 2: Create a data and database location

• Create a location where to store your images. I created a separate folder:

cd /home/docker/
mkdir immich-data  

• Create a location for your database:

cd /home/docker/
mkdir immich-db  

Step 3: Change .env file variables

• Open the .env file:

cd /home/docker/immich-app
sudo nano .env 

• Change the values:
• UPLOAD_LOCATION: /home/docker/immich-data
• EZ: change to your timezone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones#List
• DB_PASSWORD: replace it with a unique password To avoid issues with Docker parsing this value, it is best to use only the characters A-Za-z0-9

Step 4: Start Immich

cd /home/docker/immich-app

docker compose up -d

Step 5: Configure Immich

• Go to http://:2283

  

• Create an admin user
  

• Login with the admin user
  
• Run through the setup. When asked if you wish to use storage templates, I would personally recommend to use it.
  
• After the setup, you will be presented with the Immich home page. From here you will be able to import your content
  

Step 6: (optional) Upload directly from your phone

• Install the Immich app on your phone, and login.
  
• Select which folders you wish to backup. I selected the camera folder, so that all my existing and future content will be uploaded to my server:
  
  
• Don't forget to also enable automatic background and forground backup: