Immich: Self-Hosted Photos with Local AI

Immich is a self-hosted alternative to Google Photos that can recognise faces and search your photos by description, all processed locally on your own hardware rather than in the cloud. It is a strong privacy-focused choice for a homelab, but it needs the same access precautions as any other self-hosted AI tool.

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CE: Secure Configuration⏱ 5 min read

Photos displayed on a smartphone touchscreen

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Why Immich is worth knowing about

If you want Google Photos-style features (automatic face grouping, searching photos by what is in them) without your photos or facial recognition data going to a cloud company, Immich is one of the most complete self-hosted options available. People sometimes assume "self-hosted" automatically means "private and secure" without further thought. Immich processes genuinely sensitive data, your photos and facial recognition information, so it deserves the same access controls as anything else in this hub.

What Immich’s AI features actually do

Face recognition groups photos of the same person together automatically, using a machine learning model that runs on your own server, not a cloud API
Smart search lets you find photos by describing what is in them, also processed locally
None of this requires an internet connection to function once set up, unlike cloud photo services

3 steps

Before you deploy it

Requires a reasonably capable server: a multi-core processor and at least 4GB of RAM, more for better performance
Follow Immich’s own official installation guide, since it changes as the project updates, rather than an outdated third-party guide, including this one
Once running, apply the same access rules as the rest of this hub: do not expose it to the internet without authentication, keep it on your own network or behind a properly secured login

3 steps

Add a Login Screen to Ollama

Ongoing habits

Back up your photo library and the Immich database, not just the photos themselves, so metadata and face groupings survive a failure
Keep Immich updated: as with any self-hosted service, updates often include security fixes
Review who has access if you share your Immich instance with family members

3 steps

Frequently asked questions

Does Immich send my photos or face data anywhere?

No, by default all processing happens on your own server. Nothing is sent to a third party for the AI features to work.

Can I use Immich without the AI features?

Yes, face recognition and smart search can be turned off if you only want basic photo backup and browsing.

Is Immich free?

Yes, Immich is open-source and free to self-host, though you provide and pay for the server it runs on.

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