immich IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION issue

[Jmanko16]

Script works fine and I can access the web gui, but as soon as I go in and change IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION it won't load. My proxmox just shows significant use of cpu and gpu and seems like it is in a loop.

I have NFS share in fstab to my pve, and then bind mount with conf /mnt/photos to /mnt/photos in the lxc. I can access the folder via console in the lxc. But when I add this location to IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION it won't work.

[MickLesk]

@vhsdream

[vhsdream]

@Jmanko16 any particular reason you're using fstab and not adding the NFS share to your Proxmox Host via the Storage UI?

Is the LXC privileged or unprivileged?

Is the immich user in the LXC the owner of the upload location? Does it have read/write permissions?

What do the logs say? They are at /var/log/immich.

The script only installs and/or updates immich, the configuration (and the often tricky permissions) is left up to you to figure out, which I know can be quite a trial and error process.

[Jmanko16]

first off, linux noob and I don't know much, so sorry for the questions as most are probably dumb and basic lack of knowledge on my end.

-When I first setup proxmox most of the tutorials I found (to allow me to use my synology as NFS to my minipc) used fstab to mount the NFS, and then bind mount to lxc's. (Is there any benefit to one vs the other? This has been working well with fstab for the past year).

• the LXC is the default one made from the script

-no idea about permissions at all

(of note, I have been able to bind mount the nfs store and then can dad this to external libraries in immich so I can import all of my files which works well, its just the uploaded files that go to the local storage which is my issue as I want those also copied to NFS)

I am not exactly sure how to look at the logs to upload other than nano in. I see ml.log web.log in the folder.
I do get an error that says "Failed to read /mnt/photos/encoded-video/.immich: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/mnt/photos/encoded-video/.imo/.immich
icroservices worker error: Error: Failed to read "<UPLOAD_LOCATION>/encoded-video/.immich - Please see https://immich.app/doc>
at StorageService.verifyReadAccess (/opt/immich/app/dist/services/storage.service.js:84:19)
at async /opt/immich/app/dist/services/storage.service.js:38:21
at async /opt/immich/app/dist/repositories/database.repository.js:377:27
at async /opt/immich/app/node_modules/kysely/dist/cjs/kysely.js:535:20
at async DefaultConnectionProvider.provideConnection (/opt/immich/app/node_modules/kysely/dist/cjs/driver/default-connecti>
at async /opt/immich/app/dist/repositories/database.repository.js:374:13
microservices worker exited with code 1
Killing api process

[vhsdream]

@Jmanko16 no worries! Most of us start as Linux noobs since we live in a world of Windows for the most part!

However, given your lack of experience with Linux, you've certainly got your work cut out for you by choosing to run Immich this way! Some points:

1. Since you've mentioned existing photos, the easiest way to add an existing photo library to immich is via the External Library feature, which you said works for you. So I suggest you do that, and return the IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION value to the default for now. By default if you haven't figured out permissions then you won't likely be able to modify or delete images in the external library from Immich.

2. Immich has its own way of storing data and IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION is for photos uploaded to Immich via the web interface or the mobile app. It should not be the same path as your existing photos. So in your case I suggest you create a new folder/share on your NAS for Immich.

3. If the immich user in the LXC can't write to the bind mount location then none of this will work. You can test this by trying to create a file in the upload location.

cd /mnt/photos
sudo -u immich touch test

It's pretty likely you'll get a 'permission denied' error, which means you'll need to figure out how to get write permissions to the folder for the immich user. Since you used the default settings when running the script, the LXC is unprivileged, which makes this part difficult.

If you're not comfortable reading up on uid and gid mappings in an LXC, and don't want to edit the LXC config file much, then I suggest deleting this LXC and running the install script again, choosing Advanced settings this time, and making the LXC privileged. Then you can make the IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION point to your immich folder on your NAS, and from the LXC do a chown -R immich:immich <path to your upload folder> and restart the LXC.

[Jmanko16]

@vhsdream

1. This works fine, and I am able to modify and delete images in the external library.
2. I mounted a second distinct share (which I can access and modify files in the console just fine), but still have same error.
3. I don't think it's a permission error. I get no permission errors at all when I use the sudo -u immich touch test. The folder mounts fine and I have been able to add and delete files from the mounted folder within the console. Making for example a text document and modifying it was ok.

[vhsdream]

In that case, then you might just need to manually create the .immich files in each upload path; so from the LXC console do sudo -u immich touch .immich for each folder in the upload dir - ie 'encoded-video', 'thumbs', 'profile', 'upload' etc.

[Jmanko16]

In that case, then you might just need to manually create the .immich files in each upload path; so from the LXC console do sudo -u immich touch .immich for each folder in the upload dir - ie 'encoded-video', 'thumbs', 'profile', 'upload' etc.

Well you sent me on the right path. It looks like immich wants these files in the path, but since it loaded and made them initially in the original upload folder, I added file browser to the lxc and then just copied the whole "upload" file to my synology NAS location that I wanted as upload and rebooted the lxc and all works fine.

I do think having the separate paths as well probably helped sort this out, but all seems to be working.

[vhsdream]

Hey that's awesome news! I'm glad you figured your way out of it 👍🏼

[Jmanko16]

Hey that's awesome news! I'm glad you figured your way out of it 👍🏼

Thanks again!

[oerix]

Hi, I have a similar issue, but creating the files manually did nothing for me. All permissions are correct and user immich is assigned. However, it still saves under /opt/immich/upload/upload. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Here's my setup:

root@immich:~# df -h /mnt/photos
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb1       687G  1.2G  651G   1% /mnt/photos

.env:

UPLOAD_LOCATION=/mnt/photos/upload

LXC .conf file:

mp0: /mnt/pve/storage/photos,mp=/mnt/photos

File Structure:

/mnt/photos/upload
/mnt/photos/upload/backups
/mnt/photos/upload/encoded-video
/mnt/photos/upload/library
/mnt/photos/upload/profile
/mnt/photos/upload/thumbs
/mnt/photos/upload/upload 

[vhsdream]

@oerix Your .env file should have IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION=/mnt/photos/upload.

UPLOAD_LOCATION won't work anymore; if your .env has that, you can remove it.

[Jmanko16]

@oerix I was not able to get it to work by creating the files, I actually copied the default location and pasted into new location. I found running the file browser script in the console gave me access via a gui, and then just moved the folder.

Then I changed the media location to match new and it worked.

That being said, I do not think immich is ready for prime time yet. Still early, and I don't trust my photos to it. Sticking with synology photos for now as it just works.

Also, I have proxmox on a n100 minipc and find immich crashes often, likely as it needs more resources.

[vhsdream]

@oerix Glad it worked out!

Are you using OpenVINO for machine-learning? If so, I've found that Immich is more stable with 6GB of RAM rather than 4GB.

Yes, I've heard that sentiment about Immich not being quite ready yet, but the devs say this themselves and that we use it at our own risk. But they are pushing to get to Stable this year and that will be a great day when it happens.

[oerix]

@oerix Your .env file should have IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION=/mnt/photos/upload.

UPLOAD_LOCATION won't work anymore; if your .env has that, you can remove it.

Yeah sorry, I have IMMICH_UPLOAD_LOCATION already I pasted it wrong above.

@oerix I was not able to get it to work by creating the files, I actually copied the default location and pasted into new location. I found running the file browser script in the console gave me access via a gui, and then just moved the folder.

Then I changed the media location to match new and it worked.

Could you share your mount points path please? I've just done the same now, but the GUI is still not loading even after reboot. Mind you (not sure if it makes any difference), but I did change from Unprivileged to Privilege, to make things easier.

That being said, I do not think immich is ready for prime time yet. Still early, and I don't trust my photos to it. Sticking with synology photos for now as it just works.

I agree, it shouldn't be this complicated just to change storage location. @vhsdream hopefully, they improve this for the stable build, otherwise I'd be looking elsewhere unfortunately.

[vhsdream]

@oerix I'm afraid the Immich devs have nothing to do with your woes regarding storage, and having a stable release will not fix that for you. If you're using Proxmox LXCs, then you need to learn how to do things differently. Running Immich like this gives you more options at the cost of more complexity.

It takes a little persistence and some investigative know-how, as well as some Linux knowledge. If you're not quite there yet, then I suggest you go back to Docker.

If the web GUI is not loading, check the logs at /var/log/immich/ to see what the error is and work from there. Note there is a log file for immich-web and one for immich-ml, check both of them.

Regarding permissions, post the long listing output of your /mnt/photos folder. Try to create a file there, with the immich user - sudo -u immich touch test - to prove that the immich user has the ability to write to the folder.

[vhsdream]

@oerix Wait! There's more!

In addition to the above, you need to recreate the SYMLINKS to the 'upload' folder that are in /opt/immich/app and /opt/immich/app/machine-learning!

rm /opt/immich/app/upload /opt/immich/app/machine-learning/upload
ln -sf /mnt/photos /opt/immich/app/upload
ln -sf /mnt/photos /opt/immich/app/machine-learning/upload
chown -R immich:immich /opt/immich
systemctl restart immich-ml immich-web

Perhaps there is something I can do to make this easier. As long as end-users have permissions correct with regards to bind mounts, there is no reason why I can't create a shell script that guides users through changing their upload directory.

[oerix]

@oerix Just confirming, is /mnt/photos an existing photo library, or is it empty, as in it was created on your NAS specifically for Immich?

If it's the former, it has to be an external library. If it's the latter, delete /mnt/photos/upload, then copy everything from /opt/immich/upload to /mnt/photos, like so:

cp -a /opt/immich/upload/* /mnt/photos

Then change IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION to /mnt/photos and restart Immich services.

systemctl restart immich-ml immich-web && tail -f /var/log/immich/web.log

It's the latter, I copied all the folders from /opt/immich/upload over to /mnt/photos with the correct permissions. IMMICH_MEDIA_LOCATION is already set to /mnt/photos, so the file structure looks like this:

/mnt/photos/upload/
├── upload
├── thumbs
├── profile
├── encoded-video
├── library
└── backups

@oerix Wait! There's more!

In addition to the above, you need to recreate the SYMLINKS to the 'upload' folder that are in /opt/immich/app and /opt/immich/app/machine-learning!

rm /opt/immich/app/upload /opt/immich/app/machine-learning/upload
ln -sf /mnt/photos /opt/immich/app/upload
ln -sf /mnt/photos /opt/immich/app/machine-learning/upload
chown -R immich:immich /opt/immich
systemctl restart immich-ml immich-web

Perhaps there is something I can do to make this easier. As long as end-users have permissions correct with regards to bind mounts, there is no reason why I can't create a shell script that guides users through changing their upload directory.

I've entered this command, but now the UI doesn't boot any longer. I've noticed that you used syslink for 'machine-learning', but far as I'm aware those files are still under '/opt/immich/app, should the be moved as well? Here's the log:

web.log:

Starting api worker
Starting microservices worker
^[[32m[Nest] 1025  - ^[[39m06/09/2025, 4:11:03 PM ^[[32m    LOG^[[39m ^[[33m[Microservices:EventRepository]^[[39m ^[[32mInitialized websocket server^[[39m
^[[32m[Nest] 1025  - ^[[39m06/09/2025, 4:11:03 PM ^[[32m    LOG^[[39m ^[[33m[Microservices:DatabaseRepository]^[[39m ^[[32mtargetLists=1, current=1 for clip_index of 0 rows^[[39m
^[[32m[Nest] 1025  - ^[[39m06/09/2025, 4:11:03 PM ^[[32m    LOG^[[39m ^[[33m[Microservices:DatabaseRepository]^[[39m ^[[32mtargetLists=1, current=1 for face_index of 0 rows^[[39m
^[[32m[Nest] 1025  - ^[[39m06/09/2025, 4:11:03 PM ^[[32m    LOG^[[39m ^[[33m[Microservices:DatabaseRepository]^[[39m ^[[32mRunning migrations, this may take a while^[[39m
^[[32m[Nest] 1025  - ^[[39m06/09/2025, 4:11:03 PM ^[[32m    LOG^[[39m ^[[33m[Microservices:MetadataService]^[[39m ^[[32mBootstrapping metadata service^[[39m
^[[32m[Nest] 1025  - ^[[39m06/09/2025, 4:11:03 PM ^[[32m    LOG^[[39m ^[[33m[Microservices:MetadataService]^[[39m ^[[32mInitializing metadata service^[[39m
^[[32m[Nest] 1025  - ^[[39m06/09/2025, 4:11:04 PM ^[[32m    LOG^[[39m ^[[33m[Microservices:MapRepository]^[[39m ^[[32mInitializing metadata repository^[[39m
^[[32m[Nest] 1025  - ^[[39m06/09/2025, 4:11:04 PM ^[[32m    LOG^[[39m ^[[33m[Microservices:MetadataService]^[[39m ^[[32mInitialized local reverse geocoder^[[39m
^[[32m[Nest] 1025  - ^[[39m06/09/2025, 4:11:04 PM ^[[32m    LOG^[[39m ^[[33m[Microservices:ServerService]^[[39m ^[[32mFeature Flags: {
  "smartSearch": true,
  "facialRecognition": true,
  "duplicateDetection": true,
  "map": true,
  "reverseGeocoding": true,
  "importFaces": false,
  "sidecar": true,
  "search": true,
  "trash": true,
  "oauth": false,
  "oauthAutoLaunch": false,
  "passwordLogin": true,
  "configFile": false,
  "email": false
}^[[39m
^[[32m[Nest] 1025  - ^[[39m06/09/2025, 4:11:04 PM ^[[32m    LOG^[[39m ^[[33m[Microservices:StorageService]^[[39m ^[[32mVerifying system mount folder checks, current state: {"mountChecks":{"thumbs":true,"upload":true,">
^[[31m[Nest] 1025  - ^[[39m06/09/2025, 4:11:04 PM ^[[31m  ERROR^[[39m ^[[33m[Microservices:StorageService]^[[39m ^[[31mFailed to read upload/encoded-video/.immich: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'uploa>
microservices worker error: Error: Failed to read "<UPLOAD_LOCATION>/encoded-video/.immich - Please see https://immich.app/docs/administration/system-integrity#folder-checks for more information.", stack: Error: Faile>
    at StorageService.verifyReadAccess (/opt/immich/app/dist/services/storage.service.js:84:19)
    at async /opt/immich/app/dist/services/storage.service.js:38:21
    at async /opt/immich/app/dist/repositories/database.repository.js:377:27
    at async /opt/immich/app/node_modules/kysely/dist/cjs/kysely.js:535:20
    at async DefaultConnectionProvider.provideConnection (/opt/immich/app/node_modules/kysely/dist/cjs/driver/default-connection-provider.js:12:20)
    at async /opt/immich/app/dist/repositories/database.repository.js:374:13
microservices worker exited with code 1
Killing api process

[vhsdream]

@oerix Move the folders from /mnt/photos/upload into /mnt/photos. You have an extra upload folder. You want the end result to be:

/mnt/photos/
├── upload
├── thumbs
├── profile
├── encoded-video
├── library
└── backups

And make sure every folder in /mnt/photos has an .immich file.

Symlinks in both the app and machine-learning dirs are crucial:

root@immich-dev:~# tree -L 1 /opt/immich/app/
/opt/immich/app/
├── bin
├── dist
├── geodata -> /opt/immich/geodata
├── LICENSE
├── machine-learning
├── node_modules
├── package.json
├── package-lock.json
├── resources
├── start.sh
├── upload -> /mnt/photos
└── www

root@immich-dev:~# tree -L 1 /opt/immich/app/machine-learning/
/opt/immich/app/machine-learning/
├── ann
├── immich_ml
├── ml_start.sh
├── ml-venv
└── upload -> /mnt/photos

[oerix]

It's finally working! I think it would ideal to mention Symlinks somewhere in the docs, I wasn't aware about this step.

@vhsdream Thank you so much for your persistence and help, much appreciated! 😀

[vhsdream]

It's finally working! I think it would ideal to mention Symlinks somewhere in the docs, I wasn't aware about this step.

@vhsdream Thank you so much for your persistence and help, much appreciated! 😀

Glad we got this sorted! And yes you are darn right, it's not mentioned! This was my oversight, and I apologise for the headache.