Error backing up with iOS mobile app | Immich | Page 1

boreal haven Feb 10, 2026, 12:03 PM

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Hi everyone,
I'm not sure if I should post it on GitHub, as I've seen this error before and many people haven't fixed it.
I have Immich installed on three iOS devices: an iPhone 13 Pro, an iPhone 12 and an iPhone 11. I don't know why, but on both the iPhone 12 and iPhone 11, the app cannot back up pictures using the new timeline.
The only solution I've found is to switch to the old timeline, but then I get a message saying it's deprecated, so I'd like to fix the problem with the new one.
Attached are the logs from the mobile app.

📎 Error_updateAlbumUsersV1_-_user.txt

brave larkBOT Feb 10, 2026, 12:03 PM

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:wave: Hey @boreal haven,

Thanks for reaching out to us. Please carefully read this message and follow the recommended actions. This will help us be more effective in our support effort and leave more time for building Immich immich .

References

Container Logs: docker compose logs docs
Container Status: docker ps -a docs
Reverse Proxy: https://immich.app/docs/administration/reverse-proxy
Code Formatting https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/210298617-Markdown-Text-101-Chat-Formatting-Bold-Italic-Underline#h_01GY0DAKGXDEHE263BCAYEGFJA

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Checklist

I have...

:ballot_box_with_check: verified I'm on the latest release(note that mobile app releases may take some time).
:ballot_box_with_check: read applicable release notes.
:ballot_box_with_check: reviewed the FAQs for known issues.
:ballot_box_with_check: reviewed Github for known issues.
:ballot_box_with_check: tried accessing Immich via local ip (without a custom reverse proxy).
:ballot_box_with_check: uploaded the relevant information (see below).
:ballot_box_with_check: tried an incognito window, disabled extensions, cleared mobile app cache, logged out and back in, different browsers, etc. as applicable

(an item can be marked as "complete" by reacting with the appropriate number)

Information

In order to be able to effectively help you, we need you to provide clear information to show what the problem is. The exact details needed vary per case, but here is a list of things to consider:

Your docker-compose.yml and .env files.
Logs from all the containers and their status (see above).
All the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far.
Any recent changes you've made to Immich or your system.
Details about your system (both software/OS and hardware).
Details about your storage (filesystems, type of disks, output of commands like fdisk -l and df -h).
The version of the Immich server, mobile app, and other relevant pieces.
Any other information that you think might be relevant.

Please paste files and logs with proper code formatting, and especially avoid blurry screenshots.
Without the right information we can't work out what the problem is. Help us help you ;)

If this ticket can be closed you can use the /close command, and re-open it later if needed.

brave larkBOT Feb 10, 2026, 12:04 PM

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brave lark ## Checklist I have... 1. :ballot_box_with_check: verified I'm on the latest rel...

Successfully submitted, a tag has been added to inform contributors. :white_check_mark:

gloomy forge Feb 10, 2026, 1:40 PM

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Can you please use the new timeline, logout then log back in and see if that help fixes the issue?

boreal haven Feb 10, 2026, 2:12 PM

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I've already tried it, I've already tried to clear the db SQLite and I've tried reinstalling the app

gloomy forge Feb 10, 2026, 3:17 PM

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Can you help go on the web and go to the following url for album?

http://your-ip:2283/albums/a423c731-73e3-43e9-b6c1-675bdb677ef7

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see how many shared users are in that album

boreal haven Feb 10, 2026, 7:58 PM

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I get this:


Not found or no album.read access (HTTP 400)


Not found or no album.read access - 400
Error: Error: 400
    at Object.Pe [as ok] (https://nas.my_domain.it/_app/immutable/chunks/C78-MhtN.js:1:2749)
    at async fa (https://nas.my_domain.it/_app/immutable/nodes/14.CqXK5Vic.js:1:2746)
    at async De (https://nas.my_domain.it/_app/immutable/chunks/CFdN69or.js:1:13899)

gloomy forge Feb 10, 2026, 8:02 PM

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so this one is from another user 🤔

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how many users do you have on this instance?

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did you use any script to upload/modify data previously or just simply using the mobile app?

boreal haven Feb 10, 2026, 8:07 PM

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Let me explain.
I think the problem probably comes from a shared album with the ID 34b1a739-bcbe-4da7-8309-7ee5aedf178a, which, as you can see, is different from the one in the logs.

Three users are using Immich (the three iPhones), and each of us has a shared iCloud album. Since I thought it might be the cause of the problem, I'm not uploading this shared album from the other two users who aren't the owners of it.

However, I still get an error on an album that doesn't exist.

I've only used the mobile app (with different timelines, but only the mobile app).

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I get a bunch of other errors btw

gloomy forge Feb 10, 2026, 8:11 PM

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can you try track down that shared album 34b1a739-bcbe-4da7-8309-7ee5aedf178a and remove it from the web?

boreal haven Feb 10, 2026, 8:11 PM

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Yes, I'll try

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It's the shared icloud album

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Should I stop sharing it?

gloomy forge Feb 10, 2026, 8:15 PM

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boreal haven Should I stop sharing it?

yeah, probably a good idea to exclude it from getting uploaded as well

boreal haven Feb 10, 2026, 8:16 PM

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Ok, I've stopped the sharing from immich and now I'm logging back in

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I still get this error and the album with ID a423c.... doesn't exist

📎 Error_updateAlbumUsersV1_-_user.txt

gloomy forge Feb 10, 2026, 8:26 PM

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a423c731-73e3-43e9-b6c1-675bdb677ef7 doesn't exist anywhere?

boreal haven Feb 10, 2026, 8:27 PM

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Nope

boreal haven Feb 10, 2026, 9:07 PM

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Should I post it as an error on Github?

gloomy forge Feb 10, 2026, 9:24 PM

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Let’s investigate some more

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@naive bloom fyi

boreal haven Feb 10, 2026, 9:32 PM

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okkkk

naive bloom Feb 11, 2026, 12:25 PM

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@boreal haven Can you run the following query in the server DB and share the results here?
select "id", "ownerId", "albumName" from album;
https://docs.immich.app/guides/database-queries/

boreal haven Feb 11, 2026, 12:43 PM

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Here's the result. There's no a423c731-73e3-43e9-b6c1-675bdb677ef7 album

📎 query.txt

naive bloom Feb 11, 2026, 12:57 PM

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Can you try the following query:

select * from album_user where "albumId" = 'a423c731-73e3-43e9-b6c1-675bdb677ef7';

boreal haven Feb 11, 2026, 1:04 PM

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📎 query.txt

naive bloom Feb 11, 2026, 2:08 PM

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Okay so these rows shouldn't exist on this server and should've been removed when the said album was deleted.

boreal haven Feb 11, 2026, 2:14 PM

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What should I do then?

naive bloom Feb 11, 2026, 2:34 PM

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Have you ever did a database restore recently?

boreal haven Feb 11, 2026, 3:00 PM

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Yes, I've switched immich to a new machine and I had to restore the db using the CLI

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Here the issue https://discord.com/channels/979116623879368755/1468650741404008609

naive bloom Feb 11, 2026, 6:22 PM

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Make a backup of your database and execute the following query to remove the dangling rows
https://docs.immich.app/administration/backup-and-restore/

delete from album_user where "albumId" = 'a423c731-73e3-43e9-b6c1-675bdb677ef7';

Once the sync issue is resolved, we can look into your database and make sure the schema is consistent so this does not happen again

boreal haven Feb 11, 2026, 6:44 PM

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Now i get the problem with another album

SqliteException(787): while executing statement, FOREIGN KEY constraint failed, constraint failed (code 787)
  Causing statement: INSERT INTO "remote_album_user_entity" ("album_id", "user_id", "role") VALUES (?, ?, ?) ON CONFLICT("album_id", "user_id") DO UPDATE SET "role" = ?, parameters: 836149be-3a23-47a2-ab84-6b4aafca1657, a5684707-1433-4bf1-ab5b-0842385cb9bf, 0, 0

WhatsApp_Image_2026-02-11_at_19.42.19.jpeg

naive bloom Feb 11, 2026, 6:53 PM

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Can you find the album in the previous album query? If not? we can remove this as well using the same steps by replacing the ID with the new one. Make sure you get your backups right before doing anything critical like deletes

boreal haven Feb 11, 2026, 7:37 PM

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Ok, I'll try

boreal haven Feb 12, 2026, 1:34 PM

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I've tried doing so but I get an error on the only device that didn't had any error so I've restored the previuous database version

SqliteException(787): while executing statement, FOREIGN KEY constraint failed, constraint failed (code 787)
  Causing statement: INSERT INTO "remote_album_asset_entity" ("asset_id", "album_id") VALUES (?, ?) ON CONFLICT("asset_id", "album_id") DO NOTHING, parameters: 3978788e-6a7b-4c41-b037-dc20bac48131, 34b1a739-bcbe-4da7-8309-7ee5aedf178a

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I've tried to delete the album in the error but I still have problems on the other albums

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I've looked up this error and they sugget to run the migration job so I'm doing it. When it's finish I'll try again ut I don't think it will change something

boreal haven Feb 12, 2026, 3:27 PM

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I’ve ran migration job and it didn’t fixed anything. I still get this error

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SqliteException(787): while executing statement, FOREIGN KEY constraint failed, constraint failed (code 787)
  Causing statement: INSERT INTO "remote_album_asset_entity" ("asset_id", "album_id") VALUES (?, ?) ON CONFLICT("asset_id", "album_id") DO NOTHING, parameters: fcd9b943-aa47-4e76-b2ba-39d6952aa694, ba4ce2a2-b660-40cf-97ac-78da022df859

naive bloom Feb 13, 2026, 2:18 AM

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What migration job did you run exactly? Can you link it here?

boreal haven Feb 13, 2026, 5:48 AM

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These two

boreal haven Feb 15, 2026, 10:45 AM

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What should I do?

naive bloom Feb 15, 2026, 4:44 PM

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Can you connect to the postgres console and share the output of the following two commands?

\d album_user
\d album_asset

boreal haven Feb 16, 2026, 12:55 PM

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immich=# \d album_user
                                 Table "public.album_user"
  Column   |           Type           | Collation | Nullable |           Default
-----------+--------------------------+-----------+----------+-----------------------------
 albumId   | uuid                     |           | not null |
 userId    | uuid                     |           | not null |
 role      | character varying        |           | not null | 'editor'::character varying
 updateId  | uuid                     |           | not null | immich_uuid_v7()
 updatedAt | timestamp with time zone |           | not null | now()
 createId  | uuid                     |           | not null | immich_uuid_v7()
 createdAt | timestamp with time zone |           | not null | now()
Indexes:
    "album_user_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree ("albumId", "userId")
    "album_user_albumId_idx" btree ("albumId")
    "album_user_createId_idx" btree ("createId")
    "album_user_updateId_idx" btree ("updateId")
    "album_user_userId_idx" btree ("userId")

immich=# \d album_asset
                           Table "public.album_asset"
  Column   |           Type           | Collation | Nullable |     Default
-----------+--------------------------+-----------+----------+------------------
 albumId   | uuid                     |           | not null |
 assetId   | uuid                     |           | not null |
 createdAt | timestamp with time zone |           | not null | now()
 updatedAt | timestamp with time zone |           | not null | now()
 updateId  | uuid                     |           | not null | immich_uuid_v7()
Indexes:
    "album_asset_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree ("albumId", "assetId")
    "album_asset_albumId_idx" btree ("albumId")
    "album_asset_assetId_idx" btree ("assetId")
    "album_asset_updateId_idx" btree ("updateId")

immich=#

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Here it's

boreal haven Feb 18, 2026, 6:54 PM

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What should I do now??

boreal haven Feb 19, 2026, 10:13 AM

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Please help me, I can't use immich anymore now... I just can watch the pictures but I can't upload anything....

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Should I revert to the backups that were working at least for one of the 3 iphone users?

gloomy forge Feb 19, 2026, 2:39 PM

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I think the previous restoration you did is somehow bork a lot of things in the database. It might be faster to create a new instance and pull all the current files in the library to a new instance

boreal haven Feb 19, 2026, 2:51 PM

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Ok, I can do it by creating a new instance and upload all the existing pictures by using the external library feature but I’m scared that by doing so I’ll lose every picture property (for example if a picture was taken on the 01-02-2026 but uploaded on the 03-02-2026 I’ll look like it was created on the 03-02 and not on the 01-02

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I’m also scared that I’ll lose some pictures because in the upload directory many pictures are missing…. For example I have some pictures from the 12-12-2026 but if I go in the upload directory I don’t find anything on that day….

gloomy forge Feb 19, 2026, 3:19 PM

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When you creating new instance, you should first drag all the photos from the preivous instance over, they should be either in the library or upload folder

boreal haven Feb 19, 2026, 3:30 PM

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By using this upload button right?

gloomy forge Feb 19, 2026, 3:38 PM

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yes, from the web. YOu can also drag and drop the folder into the web

boreal haven Feb 19, 2026, 4:36 PM

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Ok but look at this. I have a picture take on the 24 November 2025 and Immich tells me it’s in the following directory but when I go there it doesn’t exist

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That’s why I’m scared to create a new instance….

gloomy forge Feb 19, 2026, 4:49 PM

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is that iCloud?

boreal haven Feb 19, 2026, 7:16 PM

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The first picture with IMG_0452 is Immich (the details of a random picture) and the other picture is the nas file system

gloomy forge Feb 19, 2026, 7:29 PM

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there is no folder with 20 in your screenshot though

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you are looking at the wrong folder

boreal haven Feb 19, 2026, 7:37 PM

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As you can see it’s the right folder

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There’s only the 20 folder

gloomy forge Feb 19, 2026, 7:43 PM

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Can you download that image?

boreal haven Feb 19, 2026, 8:07 PM

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I can download it but then I get “Unable to open the image”

gloomy forge Feb 19, 2026, 8:08 PM

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Do you have a pc you can try to download it from the web?

boreal haven Feb 19, 2026, 8:10 PM

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I was downloading it from the web but from my phone

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I’ll try tomorrow from the pc

gloomy forge Feb 19, 2026, 8:18 PM

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sounds good

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if you can also monitor the server logs to see if it spit out anything, it'd be good

boreal haven Feb 19, 2026, 8:29 PM

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Perfect

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Thanks for the help

boreal haven Feb 20, 2026, 12:39 PM

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In attachment same pictures that describe the problem.

For immich the image exisist in a specific folder but when I look manually in that folder it doesn't exist and the pic can't be downloaded

These are the logs from immich-server container

[Nest] 50  - 02/20/2026, 1:37:16 PM   ERROR [Api:GlobalExceptionFilter~enoef0ac] Unknown error: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, access '/data/library/marco/2025/11-November/24/IMG_0443.jpg'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, access '/data/library/marco/2025/11-November/24/IMG_0443.jpg'
    at async access (node:internal/fs/promises:609:10)
    at async sendFile (/usr/src/app/server/dist/utils/file.js:49:9)
    at async AssetMediaController.downloadAsset (/usr/src/app/server/dist/controllers/asset-media.controller.js:48:9)

This is the folder where the picture should be located

/srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-fa12ab9b-97a8-49ba-8be8-76508b93a8aa/IMMICH/library/marco/2025/11-November# ls -a
.  ..  20

This is my env

UPLOAD_LOCATION=/srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-fa12ab9b-97a8-49ba-8be8-76508b93a8aa/IMMICH
THUMB_LOCATION=/srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-71bc1e88-4d05-4460-ba20-f6e3841e31b1/thumbs

DB_DATA_LOCATION=./postgres

TZ=Europe/Rome

DB_PASSWORD=my_secret
DB_USERNAME=marco
DB_DATABASE_NAME=immich

IMMICH_ALLOW_SETUP=true

IMMICH_VERSION=v2.5.6

And this is part of my docker-compose

name: immicg

services:
  immich-server:
    container_name: immich_server
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    # extends:
    #   file: hwaccel.transcoding.yml
    #   service: cpu # set to one of [nvenc, quicksync, rkmpp, vaapi, vaapi-wsl] for accelerated transcoding
    volumes:
      # Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the media storage location on your system, edit the value of UPLOAD_LOCATIO>
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/data
      - ${THUMB_LOCATION}:/data/thumbs
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro

And yes, i know that the name of the stack is wrong

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boreal haven Feb 20, 2026, 1:04 PM

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In addition to that if I try to search the Image manually in the IMMICH repo nothing shows up...

/srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-fa12ab9b-97a8-49ba-8be8-76508b93a8aa/IMMICH# find . -iname "img_0443.jpg"

gloomy forge Feb 20, 2026, 2:55 PM

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With this symptom, it looks like your mount point was unmounted during operation at some point, so the file is written to the location where the mount point should be. So if you unmount the network drives and navigate to that mount location, you will see the files

boreal haven Feb 20, 2026, 5:21 PM

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Thanks for the info but the drive mentioned in the previous messages is not a network drive but a physical drive in the machine. I'm running openmediavault as OS and I deployed immich using the cli.... So what should I do to fix the problem? Turn off the machine and turn it back on? turn off immich and turn it back on?

gloomy forge Feb 20, 2026, 5:44 PM

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I am not using openmediavault so I am not sure

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I think it adds another layer of abstraction for the storage mechanism so I don't have a full understand how to properly fix your situation yet, you might have to do some research

boreal haven Feb 20, 2026, 9:13 PM

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It’s based on Debian Linux

boreal haven Feb 21, 2026, 4:35 PM

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Can you please tell me what is the default way to unmount the drive?

gloomy forge Feb 21, 2026, 4:59 PM

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I don’t know how you would do it from OMV

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From the command line you can use the umount command

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Google is your best friend here for those type of learning

boreal haven Feb 21, 2026, 7:47 PM

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Thanks

boreal haven Feb 22, 2026, 4:24 PM

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Hey, I've tried unmounting the file system from OpenMediaVault interface and mount it again but I still can't find my pictures.... What should I do?

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Note that is a physical disk and not a network drive

gloomy forge Feb 22, 2026, 5:14 PM

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boreal haven Hey, I've tried unmounting the file system from OpenMediaVault interface and mou...

when you unmount the disk, you would navigate to the same path, then you should find the photos there

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not unmount then remount

boreal haven Feb 22, 2026, 5:59 PM

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Ok, so I should just unmount it and check in the path? I’m not sure if it works cause if I unmount a drive how can I navigate it?

gloomy forge Feb 22, 2026, 6:02 PM

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boreal haven Ok, so I should just unmount it and check in the path? I’m not sure if it works ...

when you mount something on linux, you specified a path such as /mnt/media, the /mnt/media is the local path

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when the drive is mounted, you can think of another layer is set on top of that path

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so when the drive is unmounted, that path would be a normal path on your host os

boreal haven Feb 22, 2026, 6:04 PM

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gloomy forge when you mount something on linux, you specified a path such as /mnt/media, the ...

Ah ok, my drive is under /srv/ not /mnt/media.
Should I try and navigate the /mnt/ folder?

gloomy forge Feb 22, 2026, 6:05 PM

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no I was just giving the path as an example

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wherever you choose to mount, navigate there

boreal haven Feb 22, 2026, 6:06 PM

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Ok, I’ll try some thing

boreal haven Feb 22, 2026, 6:22 PM

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I've tried unmounting the drive an navigate and this is what i get:

root@NAS-SCAPOLO:/srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-fa12ab9b-97a8-49ba-8be8-76508b93a8aa/IMMICH# ls
thumbs

The drive appears to be empty even if I know inside there must be pictures....

boreal haven Feb 28, 2026, 9:26 AM

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Hey, sorry for not updating you but I had been very busy this week. Now I’m back and I’ll try to unlink the drive

boreal haven Mar 11, 2026, 10:55 PM

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Hi @gloomy forge and @naive bloom . Firstly thanks again for helping me.

I just wanted to say that I’ve tried literally everything to fix this problem but I didn’t manage to do it. I’ve unmounted the disk, physically removed it and thousands of other things all for nothing.

I want to ask you again for your help and if you can’t give it to me please tell me who should I ask to and what is the best solution to fix this problem. I’m really scared cause that’s the only copy of the pictures I have…. I’ve backed up I’m 3 ways but all from the library folder (so the things that are not there are not backed up….)

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Please help me, I’m kinda of desperate

gloomy forge Mar 11, 2026, 10:59 PM

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When you unmount the disk, and navigate to such location, you don’t see the files?

boreal haven Mar 12, 2026, 7:31 AM

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Exactly. Even though I unmounted the disk I don’t find the missing folder… I’ve also tried restoring the disk with ddrescue but it tells me there’s not bad sector or nothing else

boreal haven Mar 12, 2026, 10:19 AM

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I unmounted the disk and checked the /srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-... directory on the OS drive. The folders (FOTO, IMMICH, etc.) are present, but they are completely empty. There are no hidden files written to the root filesystem

gloomy forge Mar 12, 2026, 1:13 PM

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I am then not sure what could have happened unless the file has been removed from disk at some points

boreal haven Mar 12, 2026, 1:37 PM

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How??? That’s crazy cause I never deleted anything I’ve done a backup every night….

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Ok, but is there a way now to know how many photos have suffered the same fate?

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I can manually screenshot them so I don’t lose them…

gloomy forge Mar 12, 2026, 2:47 PM

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boreal haven How??? That’s crazy cause I never deleted anything I’ve done a backup every nigh...

If you've done backup everynight you can possibly roll back a snapshot to the date closer to when the photo taken to find it?

boreal haven Mar 12, 2026, 4:00 PM

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The problem is that if I look at the the backups there’s not the missing folder. The process backs up only the things on the disk (and that folder was apparently never there)

gloomy forge Mar 12, 2026, 5:54 PM

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boreal haven The problem is that if I look at the the backups there’s not the missing folder....

Do you know how OMV handle disk configuration? Especially for your system?

boreal haven Mar 12, 2026, 6:21 PM

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Yes, I roughly know how it works. I know that modern OMV manages mounts via its internal database and SaltStack, creating systemd mount units under /srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-<UUID>.

I believe what happened is that the physical disk dropped or was unmounted, but the mount point directory remained on the root filesystem. Since Immich (via Docker) is configured with absolute paths pointing inside that specific UUID path, when the container started without the disk being mounted, Docker simply recreated the empty folder structure (FOTO, IMMICH, etc.) directly on the root drive at that location."

boreal haven Mar 12, 2026, 6:57 PM

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And then when I mounted back the disk everything was overwritten

thorn nacelle Mar 12, 2026, 7:17 PM

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You can unmount the drive and everything will appear again 👀

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then it'd be a matter of moving the files out of the way and merging the directories

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But restoring from an older backup and resyncing is the most foolproof

boreal haven Mar 12, 2026, 10:02 PM

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Hi @thorn nacelle I've already try unmounting the disk but nothign appeared

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I can't go that back in time..... I'll lose the new pictures

thorn nacelle Mar 13, 2026, 7:54 AM

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Are they not found anywhere else?

boreal haven Mar 13, 2026, 6:25 PM

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No. I've tried scanning everywhere....

boreal haven Mar 14, 2026, 8:01 AM

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So again my question is: how can I know what pictures were lost?

thorn nacelle Mar 14, 2026, 8:19 AM

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This should do the trick: https://github.com/skatsubo/immich-library-check

boreal haven Mar 14, 2026, 9:10 AM

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/DATA/AppData/immich# ./check.sh
Files written:
library.tsv
library.mismatch.tsv
Total assets/files:
27559
Inconsistencies found:
19885

I think I'm screwed.... right @thorn nacelle ?

boreal haven Mar 14, 2026, 9:25 AM

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Honestly, I'm close to tears.

I set up this system for my whole family, and when I saw that it was working properly, I stopped backing up the pictures in Amazon Photos.

The fact that the life of all my pictures depends on whether the Docker container is actually working is killing me.

Should I go to a hardware store or data recovery centre to have my data recovered?

thorn nacelle Mar 14, 2026, 10:30 AM

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First off, you should always have a second backup somewhere, I know this sounds mean at this time but we highly recommend that exactly for these types of scenarios

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second, try this:
sudo du -hcd1 /var/lib/docker to see whether there's anything saved in the docker directory

boreal haven Mar 14, 2026, 11:14 AM

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thorn nacelle First off, you should always have a second backup somewhere, I know this sounds...

I know, but that’s why I was backing up the IMMICH folder but I didn’t thought I should back up the original pictures

boreal haven Mar 14, 2026, 11:25 AM

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thorn nacelle second, try this: `sudo du -hcd1 /var/lib/docker` to see whether there's anythi...

root@NAS-SCAPOLO:~# sudo du -hcd1 /var/lib/docker
8.0K /var/lib/docker/plugins
36K /var/lib/docker/image
312K /var/lib/docker/network
4.0K /var/lib/docker/runtimes
860M /var/lib/docker/volumes
8.0K /var/lib/docker/tmp
84K /var/lib/docker/buildkit
4.0K /var/lib/docker/swarm
33G /var/lib/docker/rootfs
1.2G /var/lib/docker/containers
35G /var/lib/docker
35G total
root@NAS-SCAPOLO:~#

Looks like there's something there

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in rootfs

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root@NAS-SCAPOLO:/var/lib/docker/rootfs/overlayfs# ls
337da9dd760ade1b7e0f2472cff5ebd15e393a5be251928f2b16fa26d5887910 b78a146e91bd2fdfe92401d4b6e654cef68861bbe66d5927a4847c17cacb94de
370807bcb885356951481cdcd3b23a631b4a3aa3278c5c4fda9b178384bfd2d9 bfff130defb02399b204d594f3787d7910def825f211a2d7cbbb5638c44fc53e
6b56a7faf1e1a23902819462a3e0cf1e48e68181b913d352cb34eaf6d7ac156f d2af6680f9a302c03d6ac896437133f1a8ad8767e91afbf7120614eed8fdd5db
9b5cba473086f7630f4bde33d6edf50bc1089eeb46c57af6b46b95f5f25e42cd de5805572e4b35495f36c2dc3aaa878f8530a5acd64affe43e76049d10d4fcd8
a4618b989748272fd23735cef8eb49cadd71cd1eccec203b625d138fe0a37f36 e9d1bd02559af5e2bf39b5884eba370cd1bae08b5964c33b08b01af110317e8f
root@NAS-SCAPOLO:/var/lib/docker/rootfs/overlayfs#

thorn nacelle Mar 14, 2026, 11:26 AM

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you can dig deeper with sudo du -hcd1 /var/lib/docker/rootfs

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personally I use ncdu which allows for navigation but you'd probably have to install that first

boreal haven Mar 14, 2026, 11:27 AM

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Ok, so I should install it and then do what?

thorn nacelle Mar 14, 2026, 11:28 AM

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sudo ncdu -x /var/lib/docker/rootfs

boreal haven Mar 14, 2026, 11:30 AM

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root@NAS-SCAPOLO:/var/lib/docker/rootfs/overlayfs# ls
337da9dd760ade1b7e0f2472cff5ebd15e393a5be251928f2b16fa26d5887910 b78a146e91bd2fdfe92401d4b6e654cef68861bbe66d5927a4847c17cacb94de
370807bcb885356951481cdcd3b23a631b4a3aa3278c5c4fda9b178384bfd2d9 bfff130defb02399b204d594f3787d7910def825f211a2d7cbbb5638c44fc53e
6b56a7faf1e1a23902819462a3e0cf1e48e68181b913d352cb34eaf6d7ac156f d2af6680f9a302c03d6ac896437133f1a8ad8767e91afbf7120614eed8fdd5db
9b5cba473086f7630f4bde33d6edf50bc1089eeb46c57af6b46b95f5f25e42cd de5805572e4b35495f36c2dc3aaa878f8530a5acd64affe43e76049d10d4fcd8
a4618b989748272fd23735cef8eb49cadd71cd1eccec203b625d138fe0a37f36 e9d1bd02559af5e2bf39b5884eba370cd1bae08b5964c33b08b01af110317e8f

thorn nacelle Mar 14, 2026, 11:30 AM

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mmm did you do sudo ncdu -x /var/lib/docker/rootfs or did you do sudo ncdu -x /var/lib/docker/rootfs/overlayfs ?

boreal haven Mar 14, 2026, 11:53 AM

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Both

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Even if I do the first one it shows I have only 4KB....

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thorn nacelle Mar 14, 2026, 12:04 PM

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I guess they are all mounted on a different FS then, repeat without the -x

boreal haven Mar 14, 2026, 12:19 PM

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Okkk

boreal haven Mar 15, 2026, 9:50 AM

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I’ve tried and there’s nothing

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If you have any other suggestions on how to recover the pictures please tell me. The thing I’m wondering is. How does the immich still shows me a picture even if it doesn’t exist on the fs? I don’t think they’re just the thumbs cause it’s too good quality. And by the way maybe it would be nice to save the thumbs and upload them in the new instance in order to not lose the pictures

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Could it be possible without doing it manually and while still keeping the exact date and time where the pic was taken?

wind lodge Mar 15, 2026, 10:16 AM

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Immich has not just thumbs but also higher resolution previews that it generates

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What are you seeing in the web UI right now? If you hit "download original" on a file, does that work or do you get an error in the server logs?

boreal haven Mar 15, 2026, 10:24 AM

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I get this error

[Nest] 51  - 03/15/2026, 11:23:16 AM   ERROR [Api:GlobalExceptionFilter~sn3c625s] Unknown error: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, access '/data/library/marco/2025/11-November/24/IMG_0443.jpg'
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, access '/data/library/marco/2025/11-November/24/IMG_0443.jpg'
    at async access (node:internal/fs/promises:609:10)
    at async sendFile (/usr/src/app/server/dist/utils/file.js:49:9)
    at async AssetMediaController.downloadAsset (/usr/src/app/server/dist/controllers/asset-media.controller.js:48:9)

wind lodge Mar 15, 2026, 10:27 AM

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Yeah, so it's just showing you the preview, not the original

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How many assets are on your server? https://my.immich.app/admin/server-status

boreal haven Mar 15, 2026, 10:29 AM

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58112 pictures and 5654 videos but 40000 are from external libraries

wind lodge Mar 15, 2026, 10:29 AM

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Do you mean those 40k are still intact?

boreal haven Mar 15, 2026, 10:30 AM

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Yes, cause thet're saved in external HDD (they were the pictures I've saved on the nas before having immich

wind lodge Mar 15, 2026, 10:30 AM

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Alright

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Do you have another computer that has enough room to store those ~23000 temporarily?

boreal haven Mar 15, 2026, 10:31 AM

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wind lodge Do you have another computer that has enough room to store those ~23000 tempora...

No but I can save them in my external drive that is 5TB

wind lodge Mar 15, 2026, 10:33 AM

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So here's what I'm thinking: I can make a script that downloads the generated previews from Immich and gets the metadata from the API to add to those files, then saves them somewhere, that's at least something. Then my recommendation after that would be for you to shut everything down and take the drive that the originals were on at some point to a data recovery business, if you want to try to get the originals back

boreal haven Mar 15, 2026, 10:38 AM

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That would be perfect. Can you do it? thank you so much.

I would also ask you: what do you suggest after shutting everything?

Should I

freshly reinstall immich on the same OS (openmediavault) ?
freschly reinstall immich on the same OS after a complete reinstall of the OS?
install immich on a new OS (truenas, ubuntu server, ecc...)

wind lodge Mar 15, 2026, 10:39 AM

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My suggestion after shutting everything down is to take the disk to a data recovery business

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without touching it any other way

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If you're giving up on the files then you can do whatever

boreal haven Mar 15, 2026, 10:39 AM

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wind lodge My suggestion after shutting everything down is to take the disk to a data recov...

I will, I meant after it

wind lodge Mar 15, 2026, 10:40 AM

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idk, that probably depends on their results as well

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Do you have multiple users in Immich or just one?

boreal haven Mar 15, 2026, 10:40 AM

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We're 5 users

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I could also give you access to my pc using anydesk if it helps... Maybe you can check better than me....

wind lodge Mar 15, 2026, 10:46 AM

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I don't want remote access to your systems and that's not something you should be giving out either

boreal haven Mar 15, 2026, 10:51 AM

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I would give you access to an isolated computer... but ok

wind lodge Mar 15, 2026, 12:24 PM

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@boreal haven do you want to give https://github.com/bo0tzz/thumbdump a go?

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I would say start small with just one user

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And ideally, run this on a completely separate machine

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(the goal behind that is to try to write nothing at all to the affected disk, as that gives better chances for data recovery)

boreal haven Mar 15, 2026, 12:27 PM

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wind lodge And ideally, run this on a completely separate machine

I can't really run it on a separate machine but I can write on my external disk, is it ok?

wind lodge Mar 15, 2026, 12:28 PM

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If that's the best you got then yes

boreal haven Mar 15, 2026, 12:30 PM

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Perfect, thanks

wind lodge Mar 16, 2026, 6:22 PM

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How did you get on?

boreal haven Mar 16, 2026, 6:23 PM

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Hey, thanks for the script. I'm downloading all the assets doing one user at the time. Thanks

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I'll update you when I have more news.

Just to ask @wind lodge . Does the script downloads the original image if it exists or just downloads only the thumbnails even if the original exists?

wind lodge Mar 16, 2026, 7:06 PM

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It doesn't do anything with originals

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The reasoning for this script is that the thumbnail/preview files don't have any metadata in them, so this adds that while downloading

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If you still have any originals you can just grab them from the Immich folders

boreal haven Mar 18, 2026, 7:12 AM

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Hey @wind lodge, can I ask you a favor. Can you edit the script or make a new one that tries to download the original file and, if not existing it downloads the preview or the thumbnail? I would be perfect so I can just run it and I'll find everthing in one folder without having to check which picture I have and which I don't. Can you also order the picture and create various folders (like one per year) and then per month? Thank you so much and sorry again to disturb you

boreal haven Mar 19, 2026, 6:03 PM

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Let me know if it's possible

boreal haven Mar 20, 2026, 3:49 PM

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boreal haven Hey <@324007594262003722>, can I ask you a favor. Can you edit the script or mak...

Even skipping the downloading process if the asset is found original would be perfect too

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Let me know

boreal haven Mar 22, 2026, 5:18 PM

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Hi @wind lodge, @thorn nacelle, @gloomy forge
Before we start again from scratch, I would like to ask you one more thing: some pictures have been listed under the wrong date, as you can see below. Would it be possible to add a feature to the script that allows the date and time metadata to be pasted onto the pictures (including the original assets, without deleting the location and other metadata)? Thank you so much!

root@NAS-SCAPOLO:/srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-fa12ab9b-97a8-49ba-8be8-76508b93a8aa/IMMICH/library/marco/2026/01-January/01# ls -la
total 470548
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root     4096 Feb 15 01:00 .
drwxr-xr-x 28 root root     4096 Feb  6 13:14 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 15202548 Jan  1 00:34 16A92907-3AC0-4A01-8657-FE1AC7578FF2.mp4
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   466419 Jan  1 01:09 6AEE5E6D-4084-4673-B5A3-1300F09464D5.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1675047 Jan  1 10:07 FDD1E5D7-8CC0-4981-B587-944327A7584F.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1624296 Jan  1 00:31 FE3AD575-4CED-4E01-B1A5-033512F93516.jpg
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1613862 Jan  2 17:12 FullSizeRender+1.heic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1672735 Jan  1 22:58 FullSizeRender+1.mov
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   405708 Jan  1 00:31 FullSizeRender.heic

boreal haven Mar 26, 2026, 3:51 PM

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Hi everyone! I don’t want to seem ungrateful in any way for everything you’ve done for me so far.
However, I would like to ask if you could help me with the final steps of the recovery and restoration process of my Immich instance. It would be greatly appreciated if you could answer the questions I have asked, as it has been almost two months since I encountered this problem.

thorn nacelle Mar 26, 2026, 4:01 PM

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The thumbdump already tries to recover any metadata it can find @boreal haven

boreal haven Mar 26, 2026, 4:42 PM

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boreal haven Hi <@324007594262003722>, <@145451920557867008>, <@285511635735543828> Before w...

Hi @thorn nacelle, I understand that. What I was trying to ask was whether it's possible to paste the metadata saved by Immich in the original assets (i.e. the ones that weren't lost and are currently on the disk), because some of them have incorrect metadata, as I mentioned in previous messages.

thorn nacelle Mar 26, 2026, 4:42 PM

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Ah not the thumbs 🤔 mmm

boreal haven Mar 26, 2026, 4:42 PM

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Exactly

boreal haven Mar 26, 2026, 4:45 PM

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boreal haven Hey <@324007594262003722>, can I ask you a favor. Can you edit the script or mak...

If possible, it would be great to have a script that saves everything in an output folder, because I think the script is not skipping the saving of thumbnails of original assets that exist on the disk. This would make it easier to find everything in one place and speed up the restoration process. Otherwise, I’m worried I’ll end up with lots of duplicates.

boreal haven Mar 27, 2026, 8:10 PM

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Please let me know, thank you so much

covert goblet Mar 27, 2026, 8:23 PM

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I think that if you need a custom script then you should plan to write it yourself, sorry but keeping to ask for someone to write a script for you is not appropriate

boreal haven Mar 27, 2026, 8:48 PM

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covert goblet I think that if you need a custom script then you should plan to write it yourse...

Ok, thank you so much. I’ll do it

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Thanks

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It’s just harder for me to do it cause I don’t have the knowledge on the matter that you have

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But I will try my best, don’t worry

boreal haven Apr 7, 2026, 2:55 PM

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boreal haven That would be perfect. Can you do it? thank you so much. I would also ask you: ...

hey, i've run the custom script i've created starting from yours and i managed to recover all the pictures.

I don't care about the originals so I won't take the disk to a data recovery business. What do you suggest to do now? Which of the 3 options do you suggest @thorn nacelle @wind lodge?

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Please let me know and thanks again for your help all the way

boreal haven Apr 13, 2026, 7:10 PM

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I've restarted immich and now everything works

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thanks a lot for the help

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i'll close the ticket

#Error backing up with iOS mobile app

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