migrate everything to a new immich instance, possible?

[tough star]

So, awhile ago, I had forgotten to update immich in a long time, and when i did, I had a lot of errors that I could not fix. See my post from back then: https://ptb.discord.com/channels/979116623879368755/1164746268568977528 At this point, so many breaking changes have happened, I think I should reinstall. Is there a way to do that and keep my assets and database so that my albums and face-name assignments stay the same? I'm pretty lost on this, as no one else had the problems I did. Any help or guidance would be appreciated. I would just hate to lose my albums etc.

[solar kraken]

:wave: Hey @tough star,

Thanks for reaching out to us. Please follow the recommended actions below; this will help us be more effective in our support effort and leave more time for building Immich .

References

• Container Logs: docker compose logs docs
• Container Status: docker compose ps docs
• Reverse Proxy: https://immich.app/docs/administration/reverse-proxy
• Typesense: You can't fix this. Just wait until we get rid of it. Sorry.

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[lean bronze]

Just keep the database volume (or take a backup of it then restore that to a new instance)

[tough star]

Ok, so I should do the database backup as described here: https://immich.app/docs/administration/backup-and-restore#database then create a new docker compose yml but point the paths to the old one as cescribed here: https://immich.app/docs/administration/backup-and-restore#filesystem then do the restore process before starting it ever?

I'm just trying to wrap my head around it lol

Another thing: I used portainer to install it, so the docker compose yml etc are within portainer somewhere. All the immich stuff is stored in /home/appuser/immich/. can I just point my new docker compose to that, or should I copy only the necessary directories (library, upload, and profile) to a new folder for the install?

[empty cloud]

The database has been evolved, I think with the breaking changes you see in the logs, it might cause an issue. I would advises to reupload your assets in the library folder to the new instance using the CLI

[tough star]

Ok…. Will the database backup still work properly? I’m just trying to hurry and do it before this NEXT breaking change release comes out

Unless the new database image won’t affect how quickly I do this lol

[tough star]

Looking to do this tonight…. What does the UPLOAD_LOCATION/upload directory hold? There’s a few files but I don’t understand what the significance of them is

[empty cloud]

The file first arrives at that location before getting moved to the correct location in library. If there are files in there, it is either having issue with the moves or the files are interrupted during the upload process

[tough star]

Ok, that makes sense.

So, if I have to manually upload the whole library again with the cli, is there a way to preserve my albums? Restoring the database makes it sound like I have to do it before starting the docker containers. Not sure if it’ll error out if I restore the database before the images get in the library.

[tough star]

I don’t like pinging people but I genuinely don’t know (:

[lean bronze]

If you have the albums as folders you can use the --album flag

[tough star]

I don't outside of immich, but from the old messed up instance I am downloading the albums as zip files in hopes in uploading them via cli later and having it detect duplicates and not reupload, but add them to the album.

[empty cloud]

To add them album, the assets must be in the directory already since the album is based on the directory structure when you are uploading with the CLI

[tough star]

So I should upload the images that are in albums first, and then the whole library? I just want to make sure the images in albums are not duplicated. I have too many to manually sort them into a new folder structure

[tough star]

Ok, I did a brand new fresh installation. We'll see how this goes I guess

[tough star]

As i'm uploading the photos I want in albums (which I downloaded to my desktop computer), I realized I should have asked. @empty cloud Will I be able to properly install immich CLI on my proxmox LXC (turnkey core) and upload directly from the old directory to the new instance? Or should I somehow copy everything to my desktop

[empty cloud]

yes you should be fine doing it that way

[tough star]

Since it’s the same LXC, should I use the 192.168.1.X:2283 address or some sort of local address?

Or the domain name through cloudflare, that’s another option

[empty cloud]

I think using http://localhost:2283/api will work

[tough star]

As a update thread….. messed with it last night awhile, going to have to install npm and nodejs a different way, as the one in the apt repo for my turnkey core LXC was node 12.22.x and I didn’t catch it until immich cli just wouldn’t work lol