Storage Config Advice

🚧Setup❓Question

Hey, i've just setup Immich on a Kubernetes Cluster using the official Helm Chart. I think i have a non-standard storage setup and i'm not able to configure Immich the way i like.
- I have a 1TB directory full of photos with various sub directories with no proper structure on a HDD.
- I want to store immich uploads on the HDD with a storage template so that the files can still be explored by a human on filesystem level.
- I want to store anything but the photos on an SSD.

I think the external library feature is what i want for #1, right? And my plan was to set

UPLOAD_LOCATION

UPLOAD_LOCATION

to something like

/mnt/hdd/immich

/mnt/hdd/immich

and have

/data

/data

in the container mounted to

/mnt/ssd/immich

/mnt/ssd/immich

for stuff like thumbs and profiles. But that does not seem to be working. When i shell into the container, i can see that the env var has the correct value but when i upload files, they are still in /data:

root@immich-server-78c6b64f-jzm5v:/usr/src/app# env | grep UPLOAD_
UPLOAD_LOCATION=/nas-uploads

root@immich-server-78c6b64f-jzm5v:/usr/src/app# env | grep UPLOAD_
UPLOAD_LOCATION=/nas-uploads

> tree .
.
├──backups
├──encoded-video
├──library
│   └──admin
│       └──2025_12_04
│           └──test.png
├──profile
├──thumbs
│   └──c955b77a-3edf-4bf1-9908-7bf040766cb1
│       └──d1
│           └──05
│               ├──d1058939-2927-4265-ac62-22cc9bb03ddf-preview.jpeg
│               └──d1058939-2927-4265-ac62-22cc9bb03ddf-thumbnail.webp
└──upload
    └──c955b77a-3edf-4bf1-9908-7bf040766cb1
        └──cc
            └──12

> tree .
.
├──backups
├──encoded-video
├──library
│   └──admin
│       └──2025_12_04
│           └──test.png
├──profile
├──thumbs
│   └──c955b77a-3edf-4bf1-9908-7bf040766cb1
│       └──d1
│           └──05
│               ├──d1058939-2927-4265-ac62-22cc9bb03ddf-preview.jpeg
│               └──d1058939-2927-4265-ac62-22cc9bb03ddf-thumbnail.webp
└──upload
    └──c955b77a-3edf-4bf1-9908-7bf040766cb1
        └──cc
            └──12

Storage Config Advice

🚧Setup❓Question

UPLOAD_LOCATION

UPLOAD_LOCATION

to something like

/mnt/hdd/immich

/mnt/hdd/immich

and have

/data

/data

in the container mounted to

/mnt/ssd/immich

/mnt/ssd/immich

root@immich-server-78c6b64f-jzm5v:/usr/src/app# env | grep UPLOAD_
UPLOAD_LOCATION=/nas-uploads

root@immich-server-78c6b64f-jzm5v:/usr/src/app# env | grep UPLOAD_
UPLOAD_LOCATION=/nas-uploads

> tree .
.
├──backups
├──encoded-video
├──library
│   └──admin
│       └──2025_12_04
│           └──test.png
├──profile
├──thumbs
│   └──c955b77a-3edf-4bf1-9908-7bf040766cb1
│       └──d1
│           └──05
│               ├──d1058939-2927-4265-ac62-22cc9bb03ddf-preview.jpeg
│               └──d1058939-2927-4265-ac62-22cc9bb03ddf-thumbnail.webp
└──upload
    └──c955b77a-3edf-4bf1-9908-7bf040766cb1
        └──cc
            └──12

> tree .
.
├──backups
├──encoded-video
├──library
│   └──admin
│       └──2025_12_04
│           └──test.png
├──profile
├──thumbs
│   └──c955b77a-3edf-4bf1-9908-7bf040766cb1
│       └──d1
│           └──05
│               ├──d1058939-2927-4265-ac62-22cc9bb03ddf-preview.jpeg
│               └──d1058939-2927-4265-ac62-22cc9bb03ddf-thumbnail.webp
└──upload
    └──c955b77a-3edf-4bf1-9908-7bf040766cb1
        └──cc
            └──12

Storage Config Advice

Similar Threads

Storage Config Advice

Similar Threads

Similar Threads

Similar Threads