Noob here - install immich on an old mac
i have an old mac where i store all my photos. i cannot get docker compose to install as a result. is there anything else i can do to get this running for me?
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:wave: Hey @LouCapo,
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docs
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docs
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If this ticket can be closed you can use the /close
command, and re-open it later if needed.I don't believe so
would it be a terrible experience to run this over a network? like run immich on a diff machine that connects to a shared drive on the older mac?
i assume it would be bad
Having the database on a network mount is like very bad
Assets should be fine most of the time
it would be just the assets
Server can be a separate machine, you can upload your old files to the instance/server
i have my assets mounted on a different device to my server
just remember that Immich does generate thumbnails and transcoded videos, these should if possible be stored on the server
just getting back to this old question. how do i set the storage to be a diff local machine?
That's a docker/linux question and unrelated to Immich. Depending on what protocol you want to use/how things are set up, I'd just google "docker mount <protocol|description>"
but like immich is looking for a path when i add an external library. it wont take smb paths though. FWIW i am doing this in macos.
Mount the SMB share using Cmd+K, it will get an entry in /Volumes
Bind mount that into Immich
would i then add it as /Volumes/directory? bc it tells me thats an invalid path, tho thats what i see in terminal
Are you actually passing that path to the container?
the docker container? no bc i needed to run the non-docker version of the immich app from https://github.com/4v3ngR/immich-native-macos
I think youβre on your own with that tbh. But broad story is if you want a docker container to backup a path, it needs access to that path
Yeah that kind of stuff is not supported by us
It's likely you'll run into weird issues tbh
i think i read that running immich in docker is incredibly slow on macos. am i wrong about that?
Yes
the file system adapter isn't the best
with a house full of macs, would you then suggest i dont bother trying to use immich at all?
Your house really has no bearing on it. Immich is a web app
Immich runs best on a Linux server. It works on other platforms, using docker
We donβt recommend the non docker installations. They are a lot harder to setup and maintain
to be fair it is not incredibly slow, might be a bit slow on the initial ingestion. day-to-day usage, you don't see any noticeable differences
but, how old is the Mac will be a big factor π
i was hoping to run it on a 2018 macbookpro π
ok i removed it all and am trying docker now. when i run , it seems to start everything. should i be able to hit things after this at http://localhost:2283?
nvm it is
so now tht i have it running, how do i set my photos to be stored on a network path? i've CMD-K thing and mapped the drive. how do i tell docker/immich to use that?
Like it works perfectly fine on my 16 inch mbp2019
Now you need to set it as a docker bind mount
https://immich.app/docs/guides/external-library/
Same instructions, just use the /Volumes path of your photo directory as the photo location
after following that, i get this but then i cant connect to my server.

i was able to figure out why its not starting but not sure how to fix
any ideas?
i should mention i DO see the .immich files in my new upload_location
bumping this bc i'm still stuck
can you go into
encoded-video
and run ls -la
?i just blacked out my username

thats in /Volumes/Pictures/immich-uploads which is what i changed my docker-compose to point to
π¦ π¦ π€£
Hi @LouCapo I got a second live for my very old 2008 Macbook with Ventura as a Immich Server.
Here are my steps
Install Virtual Box 6
Download and install the slim Alpine Linux image
(why the default boot2docker is too old and will bring errors)
Install inside the Linux terminal Docker
create a folder Immich
Follow the steps form the Immich Page how to isntall immich with docker
Map the Virtualbox Ports to be accesibel by your localnetwork, that was the most tricky part for me
PPS: iam a absolut Linux Nop π
Could you post your env and compose file after the changes you've made please?
i am using a mac laptop running sequoia. here is my yaml file
You can't put UPLOAD_LOCATION inside of an external library like this
Especially because you're mounting it read-only
But worse than that, you've completely bungled the mount, you can't change the part to the right of
${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:
It's ALWAYS ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
You can only change the UPLOAD_LOCATION in the .env file, or if you really want, in the .yml itself (but I don't see why)oh! i assumed i needed to point it to where i wanted to store the pics.
You do
But not the right side, that's the path inside the container
doh
apparently i should have read the line right before it π€¦ββοΈ
for the 3rd line, would i just chg it to rw and leave the rest?
do i even need that?
Idk what you're trying to do with that
point a mapped network drive to be added to immich
If
/Volumes/Pictures
is supposed to be an external library, the upload location cannot be inside therehmm maybe it doesnt support what i was trying to do. my problem is the machine i wanted to use this on is so old that i cant run the correct version of docker. someone suggested i could use a networked drive. i assumed it would allow me to show all my existing pics as well as upload direct from the phones.
You can, that's an external library
But you can't put 'upload location' inside of an external library
you can put upload location on the same network drive, but not inside of the library folder
Yes:
-/pictures/upload_location
-/pictures/other_pictures
No:
-/pictures/upload_location
-/pictures
what would the yaml look like for that?
yaml:
.env:
would it literally be or do i change the right side to be like
left side has to be
/Volumes/Pictures/
right side can be whatever you want, it'll be what you enter in the GUI
https://immich.app/docs/guides/external-library/oh!
And to be clear, you CANNOT use
/Volumes/Pictures/
as an external library and put UPLOAD_LOCATION=/Volumes/Pictures/upload
gotcha, let me try
sorry if i'm being dense here. i'm just not connecting the dots in my head. doesnt the .env need to point to a directory thats also mapped (or is it mounted) in the yaml?
What do you think
${UPLOAD_LOCATION}
does?
If you were to skip the env file this would be equivalent to - /Volumes/Upload:/usr/src/app/upload
(If your upload location was mapped to /Volumes/Upload
)sorry i meant for the db one
DB_DATA_LOCATION is preferrably a mapped directory, yes. DO NOT put it on a network drive, but if you really need to you can put it in a volume
Check out https://immich.app/docs/install/requirements/#special-requirements-for-windows-users this explains it
Just be aware that if you EVER
docker compose down -v
it effectively wipes your database
the -v is "remove all volumes"i can see it adding all my pics now!!! thanks!
though i dont see thumbnails yet. maybe it needs to finish scannign everything first?
thumbnails will ge queued, no worries
check the jobs for what work is left
i am seeing many errors, i think for EVERY image
sounds like your hard drive might be broken tbh
nah its a 16 drive raid, that would not be likely
ok so i decided to change my setup. got a new dedicated drive just for immich's photos. i'm not sure how i go about telling immich to, kind of start over. i dont want to physically delete anything from the old setup but immich keeps looking for things that are no longer there when i try to start it up. any suggestions?
You are re-using the database so it will expect things to be in the same place. Either wipe your DB or use a new folder for the new one, i.e. change DB_DATA_LOCATION
so just change it in the .env?
Yep
it will automatically make a new db for me then? π€
That's how the DB_DATA_LOCATION works, yes
unless you reference an existing postgres folder, it will create a new one
ok thx, i'll try
ok that part worked but now i have mount issues. i obv still have that part incorrect.
Well it says right there
You can configure shared paths from Docker -> Preferences... -> Resources -> File Sharing.
can u tell how noob i am? sorry
i added it there in docker, but its gone after a restart
at least i assume this is where

Probably? I don't use MacOS
Or docker desktop :p
π’
We donβt recommend using windows or Mac partly for this reason
it was working fine when i used a network drive though
Yep, that all makes sense. Docker on windows or Mac is a bad experience
now i got it back to this message.
scratch that, got past it but now getting this:
does that mean my db is on a drive too small, potentially?
I think this means there is no space on whatever you've mounted, or it's not allowed to write
how would i confirm which? the drive itself says there are 14GB free. i think i need the db to be on the mounted usb drive. does that seem possible?
This is not the DB, this is in your library
so whatever UPLOAD_LOCATION is set at
thats a 14TB drive π
it seems to happen when i tell it to scan all of my photos after an hour or so
i have > 400k photos
Not sure what to tell you, the hardware is unsupported. If you could use a different (supported) device to run immich and then use the old mac as network storage that might work
well not the hardware, the software