© 2026 Hedgehog Software, LLC

TwitterGitHubDiscord
More
CommunitiesDocsAboutTermsPrivacy
Search
Star
Setup for Free
ImmichI
Immich•2y ago•
38 replies
brain

How Do I use a USB External Hard Drive for UPLOAD_LOCATION

I want to use my external hard drive connected via USB as the
UPLOAD-LOCATION
UPLOAD-LOCATION
for my immich app. I'm using the latest release of immich on docker desktop for Windows 10. I've purged the project several time, making sure to delete everything related to the project.

Most recent attempt I've kept everything as defaults excpet changing the
UPLOAD_LOCATION
UPLOAD_LOCATION
in the
.env
.env
file:
# .env
# You can find documentation for all the supported env variables at https://immich.app/docs/install/environment-variables

# The location where your uploaded files are stored
UPLOAD_LOCATION="D:\immich\library"
# The location where your database files are stored
DB_DATA_LOCATION=./postgres

# To set a timezone, uncomment the next line and change Etc/UTC to a TZ identifier from this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones#List
# TZ=Etc/UTC

# The Immich version to use. You can pin this to a specific version like "v1.71.0"
IMMICH_VERSION=release

# Connection secret for postgres. You should change it to a random password
DB_PASSWORD=postgres

# The values below this line do not need to be changed
###################################################################################
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_DATABASE_NAME=immich
# .env
# You can find documentation for all the supported env variables at https://immich.app/docs/install/environment-variables

# The location where your uploaded files are stored
UPLOAD_LOCATION="D:\immich\library"
# The location where your database files are stored
DB_DATA_LOCATION=./postgres

# To set a timezone, uncomment the next line and change Etc/UTC to a TZ identifier from this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones#List
# TZ=Etc/UTC

# The Immich version to use. You can pin this to a specific version like "v1.71.0"
IMMICH_VERSION=release

# Connection secret for postgres. You should change it to a random password
DB_PASSWORD=postgres

# The values below this line do not need to be changed
###################################################################################
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_DATABASE_NAME=immich

I know that the docker knows where the D: drive is now because I added D:\immich\library without creating the library directory before launch and docker created that directory for me. When uploading via the webapp, the image was not put into that directory and it still sits empty.

I'm using an 8TB usb hard drive and the immich web app says the storage is only 1,006.9GiB

I have no idea where this photo gets uploaded to my computer because even searching for it returns no results. The only place I can see data for that image is on Docker Desktop app in the immich_server files under `src/app/upload/upload/81c3d...e78/96/6f/imagefile.png
ImmichJoin
A place to hang out, get support, discuss Immich, get announcements about releases and anything else going on.
36,590Members
Resources

Similar Threads

Was this page helpful?
Recent Announcements

Similar Threads

Moving thumbnail & upload location to external drive
ImmichIImmich / help-desk-support
9mo ago
Cant setup external upload location
ImmichIImmich / help-desk-support
9mo ago
Use an USB Drive as UPLOAD_DESTINATION and already having files
ImmichIImmich / help-desk-support
3y ago
Upload location for data
ImmichIImmich / help-desk-support
10mo ago