Immich-Go: Upload Your Photos to Your Immich Server

Immich-Go is an open-source tool designed to streamline uploading large photo collections to your self-hosted Immich server.

Key Features:

• Effortlessly Upload Large Google Photos Takeouts: Immich-Go excels at handling the massive archives you download from Google Photos using Google Takeout. It efficiently processes these archives while preserving valuable metadata like GPS location, date taken, and album information.
• Flexible Uploads: Immich-Go isn't limited to Google Photos. You can upload photos directly from your computer folders, folders tree and ZIP archives.
• Simple Installation: Immich-Go doesn't require NodeJS or Docker for installation. This makes it easy to get started, even for those less familiar with technical environments.
• Prioritize Quality: Immich-Go discards any lower-resolution versions that might be included in Google Photos Takeout, ensuring you have the best possible copies on your Immich server.
• Stack burst and raw/jpg photos: Group together related photos in Immich.

Google Photos Best Practices:

• Taking Out Your Photos:

  • Choose the ZIP format when creating your takeout for easier import.
  • Select the largest file size available (50GB) to minimize the number of archive parts.
  • Download all parts on your computer

• Importing Your Photos:

  • If your takeout is in ZIP format, you can import it directly without needing to unzip the files first.
  • It's important to import all the parts of the takeout together, since some data might be spread across multiple files.
    Use /path/to/you/files/takeout-*.zip as file name.
  • For .tgz files (compressed tar archives), you'll need to decompress all the files into a single folder before importing. When using the import tool, don't forget the -google-photos option.
  • You can remove any unwanted files or folders from your takeout before importing. Immich-go might warn you about missing JSON files, but it should still import your photos successfully.
  • Restarting an interrupted import won't cause any problems and it will resume the work where it was left.

For insights into the reasoning behind this alternative to immich-cli, please read the motivation here.

Star History

⚠️ This an early version, not yet extensively tested
⚠️ Keep a backup copy of your files for safety

Executing immich-go

The immich-go is a command line tool that must be run from a terminal window.
The immich-go program uses the Immich API. Hence it need the server address and a valid API key.

immich-go -server URL -key KEY -general_options COMMAND -command_options... {files}

Boolean options have a default value indicated below. Mentioning any option on the common line changes the option to TRUE. To force an option to FALSE, use the following syntax: -option=FALSE.

Example: Immich-go check the server's SSL certificate. you can disable this behavior by turning on the skip-verify-ssl option. Just add -skip-verify-ssl. -skip-verify-ssl is equivalent to -skip-verify-ssl=TRUE. To turn off the feature (which is the default behavior), use -skip-verify-ssl=FALSE

Parameter	Description	Default value
-use-configuration=path/to/config/file	Specifies the configuration file to use. Server URL and the API key are stored into the immich-go configuration file. They can be omitted for the next runs.	Linux $HOME/.config/immich-go/immich-go.json Windows %AppData%\immich-go\immich-go.json Apple $HOME/Library/Application Support/immich-go/immich-go.json
-server=URL	URL of the Immich service, example http://:2283 or https://your-domain
-api=URL	URL of the Immich api endpoint (http://container_ip:3301)
-device-uuid=VALUE	Force the device identification	$HOSTNAME
-skip-verify-ssl	Skip SSL verification for use with self-signed certificates	false
-key=KEY	A key generated by the user. Uploaded photos will belong to the key's owner.
-no-colors-log	Remove color codes from logs.	TRUE on Windows, FALSE otherwise
-log-level=LEVEL	Adjust the log verbosity as follows: - ERROR: Display only errors - WARNING: Same as previous one plus non blocking error - INFO: Information messages	INFO
-log-file=/path/to/log/file	Write all messages to a file	Linux $HOME/.cache/immich-go/immich-go_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MI-SS.log Windows %LocalAppData%\immich-go\immich-go_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MI-SS.log Apple $HOME/Library/Caches/immich-go/immich-go_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MI-SS.log
-time-zone=time_zone_name	Set the time zone for dates without time zone information	the system's time zone
-no-ui	Disable the user interface	'false'

Command upload

Use this command for uploading photos and videos from a local directory, a zipped folder or all zip files that google photo takeout procedure has generated.

Switches and options:

Parameter	Description	Default value
-album="ALBUM NAME"	Import assets into the Immich album ALBUM NAME.
-dry-run	Preview all actions as they would be done.	FALSE
-create-album-folder	Generate immich albums after folder names.	FALSE
-force-sidecar	Force sending a .xmp sidecar file beside images. With Google photos date and GPS coordinates are taken from metadata.json files to creates an XMP file and.	FALSE
-create-stacks	Stack jpg/raw or bursts.	TRUE
-stack-jpg-raw	Control the stacking of jpg/raw photos.	TRUE
-stack-burst	Control the stacking bursts.	TRUE
-select-types=".ext,.ext,.ext..."	List of accepted extensions.
-exclude-types=".ext,.ext,.ext..."	List of excluded extensions.
-when-no-date=FILE|NOW	When the date of take can't be determined, use the FILE's date or the current time NOW.	FILE

Date selection:

Fine-tune import based on specific dates:

Parameter	Description
-date=YYYY-MM-DD	import photos taken on a particular day.
-date=YYYY-MM	select photos taken during a particular month.
-date=YYYY	select photos taken during a particular year.

Google photos options:

Specialized options for Google Photos management:

Parameter	Description	Default value
-google-photos	import from a Google Photos structured archive, recreating corresponding albums.
-from-album="GP Album"	Create the album in immich and import album's assets.
-create-albums	Controls creation of Google Photos albums in Immich.	TRUE
-keep-untitled-albums	Untitled albums are imported into immich with the name of the folder as title.	FALSE
-use-album-folder-as-name	Use the folder's name instead of the album title.	FALSE
-keep-partner	Specifies inclusion or exclusion of partner-taken photos.	TRUE
-partner-album="partner's album"	import assets from partner into given album.
-discard-archived	don't import archived assets.	FALSE

Read here to understand how Google Photos takeout isn't easy to handle.

Burst detection

Currently the bursts following this schema are detected:

• xxxxx_BURSTnnn.*
• xxxxx_BURSTnnn_COVER.*
• xxxxx.RAW-01.COVER.jpg and xxxxx.RAW-02.ORIGINAL.dng
• xxxxx.RAW-01.MP.COVER.jpg and xxxxx.RAW-02.ORIGINAL.dng
• xxxxxIMG_xxxxx_BURSTyyyymmddhhmmss.jpg and xxxxxIMG_xxxxx_BURSTyyyymmddhhmmss_COVER.jpg (Huawei Nexus 6P)
• yyyymmdd_hhmmss_xxx.jpg (Samsung)

All images must be taken during the same minute. The COVER image will be the parent image of the stack

Couple jpg/raw detection

Both images should been taken in the same minute. The JPG image will be the cover.

Please open an issue to cover more possibilities.

Example Usage: uploading a Google photos takeout archive

To illustrate, here's a command importing photos from a Google Photos takeout archive captured between June 1st and June 30th, 2019, while auto-generating albums:

./immich-go -server=http://mynas:2283 -key=zzV6k65KGLNB9mpGeri9n8Jk1VaNGHSCdoH1dY8jQ upload
-create-albums -google-photos -date=2019-06 ~/Download/takeout-*.zip             

Command duplicate

Use this command for analyzing the content of your immich server to find any files that share the same file name, the date of capture, but having different size. Before deleting the inferior copies, the system get all albums they belong to, and add the superior copy to them.

Switches and options:

Parameter	Description	Default value
-yes	Assume Yes to all questions	FALSE
-date	Check only assets have a date of capture in the given range	1850-01-04,2030-01-01
-ignore-tz-errors	Ignore timezone difference when searching for duplicates	FALSE
-ignore-extension	Ignore filetype extensions when searching for duplicates	FALSE

Example Usage: clean the immich server after having merged a google photo archive and original files

This command examine the immich server content, remove less quality images, and preserve albums.

./immich-go -server=http://mynas:2283 -key=zzV6k65KGLNB9mpGeri9n8Jk1VaNGHSCdoH1dY8jQ duplicate -yes

Command stack

The possibility to stack images has been introduced with immich version 1.83. Let use it to group burst and jpg/raw images together.

Switches and options:

Parameter	Description	Default value
-yes	Assume Yes to all questions	FALSE
-date=date_range	Check only assets have a date of capture in the given range	1850-01-04,2030-01-01

Command tool

This command introduce command line tools to manipulate your immich server

Sub command album delete [regexp]

This command deletes albums that match with the given pattern

Switches

-yes Assume Yes to all questions (default: FALSE).

Example

./immich-go -server=http://mynas:2283 -key=zzV6k65KGLNB9mpGeri9n8Jk1VaNGHSCdoH1dY8jQ tool album delete \d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}

This command deletes all albums created with de pattern YYYY-MM-DD

Installation

Installation from the github release:

Installing immich-go is a straightforward process. Visit the latest release page and select the binary file compatible with your system:

• Darwin arm-64, x86-64
• Linux arm-64, armv6-64, x86-64
• Windows arm-64, x86-64
• Freebsd arm-64, x86-64

Download the archive corresponding to your OS/Architecture on your machine, and decompress it.

Open a command windows, go to the directory where immich-go resides, and type the command immich-go with mandatory parameters and command.

⚠️ Please note that the linux x86-64 version is the only one tested.

Installation from sources

For a source-based installation, ensure you have the necessary Go language development tools (https://go.dev/doc/install) in place. Download the source files or clone the repository.

go build -ldflags "-X 'main.version=$(git describe --tag)' -X 'main.date=$(date)'"

Installation with Nix

immich-go is packaged with nix and distributed via nixpkgs. You can try immich-go without installing it with:

nix-shell -I "nixpkgs=https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/nixos-unstable-small.tar.gz" -p immich-go
# Or with flakes enabled
nix run "github:nixos/nixpkgs?ref=nixos-unstable-small#immich-go" -- -help

Or you can add immich-go to your configuration.nix in the environment.systemPackages section.

Acknowledgments

Kudos to the Immich team for they stunning project!🤩

This program use following 3rd party libraries:

• github.com/rwcarlsen/goexif to get date of capture from JPEG files
• github.com/ttacon/chalk for having logs nicely colored
• github.com/thlib/go-timezone-local for its windows timezone management

A big thank you to the project contributors:

• rodneyosodo gitub CI, go linter, and advices
• sigmahour SSL management
• mrwulf Partner sharing album