[Feature] Backup & Restore via GUI

[DrSpaldo]

The feature

I was hoping that there would be an option in the GUI to backup Immich & restore once moving server, etc. The current method isn't very user friendly...

Platform

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

[bo0tzz]

It's much better to use tried and tested tools for backing up the filesystem & database than for us to reinvent the wheel about that.

[dkerlee]

I’m all about tried and true methods. Can those methods get wrapped up and skinned into the Immich gui?

[dkerlee]

I’m sure there must be a reason for requiring a full external PostgreSQL database for this. But, what kind of speed or install size increase would we take if some version of PostgreSQL (or whatever) was just included with this docker? Backup and restore could be much simpler if you had control of the entire database machine right there.

[mmomjian]

You can try the all in one Docker image

[dkerlee]

Additionally, self-hosting puts the files and controls with the owner. The files Immich deals is are super important. If I’m going to go whole hog to Immich, (100% planning on it eventually!) these pics of my kids etc are the first irreplaceable files I’ll be self-hosting. There will be gobs of other people attempting to self-host their own irreplaceable files; all different skill levels and hardware. I know backup isn’t as glamorous as new facial recognition, but it’s going to be an essential part of client retention.

[DrSpaldo]

💯

[victor-marino]

+1 for this.

I'm considering moving my whole photo and video library to Immich, but since I would now be self-hosting, I would be responsible for making regular copies of everything in case of total failure (HDDs/house burning down, etc.). It's one of the main responsibilities you take on (or the benefits you give up) once you move from a cloud-based platform to a self-hosted solution.

It's not that I'm not capable of running the commands in the backup & restore section - I work as a software engineer and I'm comfortable with the command line. It's that the page is full of warnings, notes, tips, etc., looks like it could change with any update, and something tells me it would be really easy to screw up if I try to automate it with my own script. This gives me a bit of pause when planning the migration.

I think it would be really valuable if we could get a built-in, one-click export/import feature that removes all that friction and also allows us to schedule periodic exports to a folder of our choice.

Just my 2 cents!

Thanks for the excellent work people are doing on this... what an amazing piece of software!

[blublub]

+1 or better +10

Since a DB is involved this seems a bit tricky and I get the " we do not want to re-invent the wheel".
However the current approach is not easy or user friendly for "general folks"

One idea I have for such a backup option would be:
all images will be copied to a backup location, alongside with every image there is a sidecar file with all the db info (tags, persons, album gps, etc...) which was stored in immich

So if the backup gets imported immich can build a new database entries for each image using the sidecar file

[freak12techno]

+1 on that.

There's already an existing guide on backing up and restoring (https://immich.app/docs/administration/backup-and-restore/), however it isn't really suitable for non tech-savvy people and it 1) makes it extra complex and 2) as an Immich operator you have to reinvent the wheel if you need something custom.

My use case is: I want to be able to have periodic backups. For that. I'd need to automate the following:

1. backing up the service
2. uploading the backup to a system I am using (S3? FTP? whatever?)
3. maybe notify me somehow (via email or something) that the backup was done (or for sure let me know if it's failed)
4. remove older backups so it'd have N last backups

The only way to do it now I know is by writing a custom bash script that does it, which makes me reinvent the wheel basically and doing it on my own. (There's also the "borg" way of doing it, also found in docs: https://immich.app/docs/guides/template-backup-script/, but it also makes it way more complex for an end user than what I suggest below.)

Instead, here's how it might look like, this is somewhat similar to what HomeAssistant has:

• a user goes to admin page of their Immich instance, there's a "Backup and Restore" tab
• they can trigger the "Backup" method, which would make a dump in some specific format (maybe a zip file with some specified folder structure?)
• they are able to download the latest backup to a local PC
• they are able to upload a zip file done via the same method and restore it (that'd be actually handy if someone would need to migrate their Immich instance to another service)
• there's a way to set up a backup schedule
• there's a way to configure where the backups should be uploaded (and probably whether the local backups should be deleted once uploaded)

If Immich would be able to do something like this, that would be really awesome.

[bo0tzz]

Data portability through XMP sidecars and such is absolutely a goal, but is distinct from a GUI backup/restore option.

[freak12techno]

I'd also add the following thought: given that Immich is in rapid development stage and everything might change rapidly, I think that for now it's acceptable to have backups that might not be backward-compatible (e.g a backup done with Immich 1.1 can't be restored on Immich 1.2). Actually restoring them this way would be just deploying the older Immich version, restoring on it, then upgrading. This sounds like way less effort to set it up in order to have a proper backup solution compared to inventing something on your own.

Also this might be really important to have right now exactly because I saw a bunch of people on Reddit who are afraid to switch to Immich because it's in rapid development stage and everything might break, and setting up a backup solution being a lot of effort might really turn them off.

Having a built-in backup/restore solution (or maybe at least a backup solution and a script that does the restore which is not a part of Immich GUI, if a restore can take a lot of time to implement?) would show these users that their data is safe and even if Immich does some update that destroys users data in some way (or rather, seeing it happening way more often, them upgrading in a wrong way somehow causing this), they can easily get their data back.

One downside I see here is that the backup solution done this way should be tested extra carefully so it may never fail, because if people are trusting Immich claiming they have a backup system, and later something happens and the restore wouldn't work, causing them to lose their data, this would be a disaster for a project's reputation, compared to users done their backups wrong somehow and losing their data (because then it's their responsibility, not Immich one).

What do you think of that?

[blublub]

Data portability through XMP sidecars and such is absolutely a goal, but is distinct from a GUI backup/restore option.

no no really. If the GUI exports all images with a sideacard and can re-import them and add all the info into an empty database i would be "ok" - the only thing missing here would be the ML data I guess, but that would be good enough or 99,9% of ppl

[blublub]

I'd also add the following thought: given that Immich is in rapid development stage and everything might change rapidly, I think that for now it's acceptable to have backups that might not be backward-compatible (e.g a backup done with Immich 1.1 can't be restored on Immich 1.2). Actually restoring them this way would be just deploying the older Immich version, restoring on it, then upgrading. This sounds like way less effort to set it up in order to have a proper backup solution compared to inventing something on your own.

Also this might be really important to have right now exactly because I saw a bunch of people on Reddit who are afraid to switch to Immich because it's in rapid development stage and everything might break, and setting up a backup solution being a lot of effort might really turn them off.

Having a built-in backup/restore solution (or maybe at least a backup solution and a script that does the restore which is not a part of Immich GUI, if a restore can take a lot of time to implement?) would show these users that their data is safe and even if Immich does some update that destroys users data in some way (or rather, seeing it happening way more often, them upgrading in a wrong way somehow causing this), they can easily get their data back.

One downside I see here is that the backup solution done this way should be tested extra carefully so it may never fail, because if people are trusting Immich claiming they have a backup system, and later something happens and the restore wouldn't work, causing them to lose their data, this would be a disaster for a project's reputation, compared to users done their backups wrong somehow and losing their data (because then it's their responsibility, not Immich one).

What do you think of that?

The problem here is that for the devs a backup solution now mean they have to fix it all the time if it breaks - it is not only about backward compatibility, it about the feasibility to keep the feature running

Most post I have seen on redit are'nt about backup but about installin immich that keeps ppl from using it - installing still is something for "power users" who know IT - Immich will never get a real adoption besides "nerds" if that will not be adressed - I have also written that in another post, the most easiest way is probably to provide a linux VM, native installers would be even better though

[freak12techno]

they have to fix it all the time if it breaks
Agree, that's also part of what I meant by making sure it always works 100% correctly, and for sure it's difficult.

installing still is something for "power users" who know IT
Also agree with that, but that goes out of the scope of this discussion and should be resolved separately. One thing I'd say is IMO it's not only about the actually installing Immich, but also about maintaining it, and not having an out-of-the-box backup solution and having to do it your own way is also part of it being difficult (I'd even say more difficult than actually deploying, check out my comment on that above). There are likely people who'd like to install Immich to test it out and who have the knowledge on deploying it, but who are scared to switch to it permanently as a main photos solution due to the lack of a built-in backup solution that just works.