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This exact issue was the final straw for me ditching google photos! I had previously been using syncthing to sync & backup the photos, same as other files on my

This exact issue was the final straw for me ditching google photos! I had previously been using syncthing to sync & backup the photos, same as other files on my phone and laptop. I now use Immich [1] (mentioned elsewhere in this thread but without the proper link), having purchased a single-payment lifetime family licence. There is, as I understand it, no benefit to me to purchase it. After a month of use it was clear this was going to stay in use for quite a while, and the author(s) have done a fantastic job. So feel free to give it a shot, alongside google photos app on your phone, and see how you feel. It's not for everyone though, as I have an old computer at home running as a 'server' that can host immich. There's a certain nerd level requirement (that this forum should be full of) to get it set up. For users though? It's so far seamless -- my partner uses the app on her phone and likes it just fine. The backup works for her and there's a single button to click to clear space on her phone that just deletes things immich knows are on our home server already. Very useful. I still open google photos app to edit videos occasionally -- it's better at that, and I do still use the google built in 'camera' app, so I'm kind of using google photos while I take pictures if that makes sense. [1] https://immich.app/ https://immich.app/

therein 2mo ago
You know what I wish I could ditch but cannot due to their firm grip on it, Google Wallet. Every other time I open it, it shows a pop-up asking "Can we use your payment data to show you more relevant ads?" which is annoying but what's more aggravating is the choices: "Yes", "Remind me Later".
- andrepd 2mo ago
  I mean, is it that much of a hassle to carry a debit card with you?
  - x______________ 2mo ago
    > I mean, is it that much of a hassle to carry a debit card with you? In order to be exposed to targeted advertising? That seems excessive for the end goals (not mentioning the fact that you cannot opt out).
  - StrangeSound 2mo ago
    No, but it's incredibly convenient? Same way I don't carry a camera because my phone has one
    - 47282847 2mo ago
      You can put the card in the phone case and use it almost as if it’s Wallet.
    - theodric 2mo ago
      If I leave the house, I need my ID, which is in my wallet, which also contains my debit cards. Perhaps your workflow is different, but I would gain nothing from using a wallet app, so I don't.
      - piva00 2mo ago
        Not the original parent comment but for my life I don't need to carry a wallet most times, my ID is also digital, I leave the house with only my phone the vast majority of times. I only carry my wallet with my physical ID card when I know it will be needed: doctors' appointments, traveling to other countries inside Schengen, etc.
      - fg137 2mo ago
        I used to be in the camp, until I discovered how fast it is to tap my phone at transit vs taking out wallet, taking my card out of it, tapping and putting the card back and then the wallet back, especially if the phone is already in my hand.
      - Y_Y 2mo ago
        I find it a bit dystopian to imagine that everyone has to carry ID all the time. I know lots of countries do it, but I've never had to and I'd like to keep it that way. (I'm aware that some places I've been to require foreigners to carry passports at all times but luckily it's never been an issue.)
        theodric 2mo ago
  - cryo32 2mo ago
    Yeah do that. I’ve just started doing this again. I have an iPhone but Apple Pay crapped put and I couldn’t remember my debit card pin. This was on holiday in Germany so I was up shit creek. Turns out wallet apps help make you stupid. Gone back to physical cards.
- pndy 2mo ago
  This should be deemed as illegal - this isn't a consent choice but coercion resulting from the tiredness of being constantly harassed
a10c 2mo ago
I moved my 565GB photo library to immich about a year ago and haven't looked back. Unfortunately, convincing my wife has been a bit harder, as she has real network effects of many shared albums across a large family (30+) that all aren't going to switch the immich app so they can join her album and sync the photos. Nonetheless, a positive move in the right direction!
- ozyschmozy 2mo ago
  What's your setup like? Do you host it on your own hardware or the cloud? Is it exposed to the internet? I have a homelab setup with my media server stuff and frigate (for security cameras), and they're only accessible via tailscale if I'm not at home. It would theoretically be easy enough to throw immich in there as well but I don't know how the app will behave when it can't reach the server half the time
  - a10c 2mo ago
    I run a 5 node kubernetes cluster as my homelab. It has both public and private DNS for local upload (faster) and for remote access and sharing (via a Cloudflare tunnel).
  - close04 2mo ago
    > I don't know how the app will behave when it can't reach the server half the time Immich has automatic URL switching, so it detects which network it's on and select between the internal and external URLs. When I'm not on my home WiFi it switches to the Tailscale URL. Tailscale must be connected for this to work obviously.
    - barrkel 2mo ago
      If you run DNS at home (even just dnsmasq) and you bridge your home 192.whatever to tailscale, you can make the same domain name resolve both at home and via tailscale.
- coldpie 2mo ago
  > my 565GB photo library I always wonder what people do with these photos. For me photos are utilitarian. I take a photo and immediately send it to my wife or friend, or upload it to my website for an article, or post it on Instagram or whatever, and then I no longer have any use for the photo on my devices. Once a year or so whenever my storage gets full, I just bulk-delete anything older than 6 months and if it hasn't been saved elsewhere for a specific purpose, then it's just gone forever. I don't miss it, because I already did what I wanted with it, so there's no need for me to keep it around. What do you actually do with half a terabyte of photos?
tehlike 2mo ago
I use immich too, on my home cluster. I did it as a "backup" to google, in case my account gets flagged by an AI with no immediate recourse. PS: I used to be an employee, and there was a time i needed an account help for an old account who was clearly definitely mine, and they were of no help. Good for security, terrible if you get flagged.
franciscop 2mo ago
> "and I do still use the google built in 'camera' app, so I'm kind of using google photos while I take pictures if that makes sense." I found it quite inconvenient; you'd try to open the photos app from the photos button on the camera but it didn't work for me. Did you find a way to make the integration decent?
- theodric 2mo ago
  The "solution" is to run a patched version of GCam that allows you to select a different gallery app, e.g. https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-bsg/ https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev...
  - dugite-code 2mo ago
    Or if you are using an alternative os you can use a fake google photos app. It used to use your default gallery app, I see it as another anti-competitive choice on googles part
MattPalmer1086 2mo ago
I just installed Immich this weekend to try it out - it is pretty good! Face grouping, semantic search all seem to work well. I find it better than google photos already in some ways. For example, to add photos to an album google forces you to scroll slowly through all of them so the thumbnails load, before you can multi select them all. Immich just let me select the top picture, go straight to the bottom and select all of them. Makes a difference when adding over a thousand photos!
Hard_Space 2mo ago
This is exactly what I did this year, moving photo backup to Syncthing and using Immich. So far it has been a very rewarding trip, even if the home server it runs on is not the fastest.
360MustangScope 2mo ago
While this is a great idea to tell people to self host and I self host myself. I think it needs to also be mentioned how laborious backups are. Photos aren’t something that is only inconvenient like movies to lose WHEN your drives die. They can be devastating because you will likely not get them back. Backups are a lot of work to maintain, it’s not just simply copying the data to another array but also testing the backup regularly and making sure that they work and continue working. Backups are almost like a secondary job and many that self host are probably not interested in how much thought goes into it. Sure the web applications like Google Photos are annoying but they take away all of this that most people don’t think about. The vast majority of people that read this will set up a server and have no backup. Many of them will eventually lose their data if they didn’t also keep a cloud service.
- zbentley 2mo ago
  All very true! Immich, unlike a lot of apps, does have a pretty friendly UI for managing/restoring backups, though: https://docs.immich.app/administration/backup-and-restore/ https://docs.immich.app/administration/backup-and-restore/ It's definitely still a lot more than the zero work required for Google Photos, but I feel like even even a semi-technical user can test an Immich backup without a ton of hassle. Start a new/empty immich instance in an empty directory, and follow the wizard for restoring a backup (and copy of your photos folder) taken from the non-empty instance.
- hunter2_ 2mo ago
  > the web applications like Google Photos are annoying but they take away all of this They minimize it but don't take it away. A content creator must personally place their creation into multiple storage solutions, regardless of whether those solutions are cloud apps or local disks or anything else. In a world where disk failure is the only failure mode, sure, you can outsource the work of disk redundancy to a company, but it's not. The person you outsource to could decide to deny you access! Losing your cloud account (credential theft, alleged ToS violation, bankruptcy, etc.) is also a very real failure mode, albeit far less frequent than disk issues I suppose. The creator must be the fork in the road.
wang_li 2mo ago
The thing that is needed is a cloud storage API that is mandatory by law and is required to be honored by the OS. The OS vendors create a virtual cloud storage layer which has a backend that can be implemented by any cloud storage provider and then all the apps use these abstractions when loading, saving, and so on their data to the "cloud." Which can be anything from a third-party online service to a self-hosted solution. It should be implemented in all apps that support cloud-based content, music, books, movies, home environmental data, medical data, exercise history and the like. Silicon Valley has developed an arrogance, and they need to be reminded that they are subject to laws and regulations like all of us and that it could be much worse for them if they continue to be wankers.
- vrighter 2mo ago
  there are already protocols for exchanging files between computers. The cloud is just someone else's pc.... administered by mostly incompetent buffoons (or forced to act like incompetent buffoons by their higher ups). A "cloud" protocol doesn't make sense. Since a "cloud" could be any of a ton of wildly unrelated things, there is only one sane standard protocol that could be shared. It's called IPv4 (or v6)
  - wang_li 2mo ago
    Not just some cloud protocol, but an abstraction layer at the OS for the apps to talk to so that the cloud storage back-end can be replaced with no knowledge, participation, or consideration from the applications that a user uses. I take my shiny new phone, go to settings, then cloud provider where I specify Acme Cloud Bit and Bobs Inc. And now everything just works with Acme Cloud. I switch it to Globodisk Corporation and everything just continues working. Maybe the OS does a nice one and asks if I want to migrate all my storage from Acme Cloud to Globodisk and performs said migration. And the apps never know or care. But it would need to be mandated by some large political entity as no tech company would do this and give up the lock in that they desperately want.
    - vrighter 2mo ago
      ah.... so ftp or sftp

therein 2mo ago

You know what I wish I could ditch but cannot due to their firm grip on it, Google Wallet. Every other time I open it, it shows a pop-up asking "Can we use your payment data to show you more relevant ads?" which is annoying but what's more aggravating is the choices: "Yes", "Remind me Later".

andrepd 2mo ago
I mean, is it that much of a hassle to carry a debit card with you?
- x______________ 2mo ago
  > I mean, is it that much of a hassle to carry a debit card with you? In order to be exposed to targeted advertising? That seems excessive for the end goals (not mentioning the fact that you cannot opt out).
- StrangeSound 2mo ago
  No, but it's incredibly convenient? Same way I don't carry a camera because my phone has one
  - 47282847 2mo ago
    You can put the card in the phone case and use it almost as if it’s Wallet.
  - theodric 2mo ago
    If I leave the house, I need my ID, which is in my wallet, which also contains my debit cards. Perhaps your workflow is different, but I would gain nothing from using a wallet app, so I don't.
    - piva00 2mo ago
      Not the original parent comment but for my life I don't need to carry a wallet most times, my ID is also digital, I leave the house with only my phone the vast majority of times. I only carry my wallet with my physical ID card when I know it will be needed: doctors' appointments, traveling to other countries inside Schengen, etc.
    - fg137 2mo ago
      I used to be in the camp, until I discovered how fast it is to tap my phone at transit vs taking out wallet, taking my card out of it, tapping and putting the card back and then the wallet back, especially if the phone is already in my hand.
    - Y_Y 2mo ago
      I find it a bit dystopian to imagine that everyone has to carry ID all the time. I know lots of countries do it, but I've never had to and I'd like to keep it that way. (I'm aware that some places I've been to require foreigners to carry passports at all times but luckily it's never been an issue.)
      - theodric 2mo ago
- cryo32 2mo ago
  Yeah do that. I’ve just started doing this again. I have an iPhone but Apple Pay crapped put and I couldn’t remember my debit card pin. This was on holiday in Germany so I was up shit creek. Turns out wallet apps help make you stupid. Gone back to physical cards.
pndy 2mo ago
This should be deemed as illegal - this isn't a consent choice but coercion resulting from the tiredness of being constantly harassed

a10c 2mo ago

I moved my 565GB photo library to immich about a year ago and haven't looked back. Unfortunately, convincing my wife has been a bit harder, as she has real network effects of many shared albums across a large family (30+) that all aren't going to switch the immich app so they can join her album and sync the photos. Nonetheless, a positive move in the right direction!

ozyschmozy 2mo ago
What's your setup like? Do you host it on your own hardware or the cloud? Is it exposed to the internet? I have a homelab setup with my media server stuff and frigate (for security cameras), and they're only accessible via tailscale if I'm not at home. It would theoretically be easy enough to throw immich in there as well but I don't know how the app will behave when it can't reach the server half the time
- a10c 2mo ago
  I run a 5 node kubernetes cluster as my homelab. It has both public and private DNS for local upload (faster) and for remote access and sharing (via a Cloudflare tunnel).
- close04 2mo ago
  > I don't know how the app will behave when it can't reach the server half the time Immich has automatic URL switching, so it detects which network it's on and select between the internal and external URLs. When I'm not on my home WiFi it switches to the Tailscale URL. Tailscale must be connected for this to work obviously.
  - barrkel 2mo ago
    If you run DNS at home (even just dnsmasq) and you bridge your home 192.whatever to tailscale, you can make the same domain name resolve both at home and via tailscale.
coldpie 2mo ago
> my 565GB photo library I always wonder what people do with these photos. For me photos are utilitarian. I take a photo and immediately send it to my wife or friend, or upload it to my website for an article, or post it on Instagram or whatever, and then I no longer have any use for the photo on my devices. Once a year or so whenever my storage gets full, I just bulk-delete anything older than 6 months and if it hasn't been saved elsewhere for a specific purpose, then it's just gone forever. I don't miss it, because I already did what I wanted with it, so there's no need for me to keep it around. What do you actually do with half a terabyte of photos?

tehlike 2mo ago

I use immich too, on my home cluster. I did it as a "backup" to google, in case my account gets flagged by an AI with no immediate recourse. PS: I used to be an employee, and there was a time i needed an account help for an old account who was clearly definitely mine, and they were of no help. Good for security, terrible if you get flagged.

franciscop 2mo ago

> "and I do still use the google built in 'camera' app, so I'm kind of using google photos while I take pictures if that makes sense." I found it quite inconvenient; you'd try to open the photos app from the photos button on the camera but it didn't work for me. Did you find a way to make the integration decent?

theodric 2mo ago
The "solution" is to run a patched version of GCam that allows you to select a different gallery app, e.g. https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-bsg/ https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev...
- dugite-code 2mo ago
  Or if you are using an alternative os you can use a fake google photos app. It used to use your default gallery app, I see it as another anti-competitive choice on googles part

MattPalmer1086 2mo ago

I just installed Immich this weekend to try it out - it is pretty good! Face grouping, semantic search all seem to work well. I find it better than google photos already in some ways. For example, to add photos to an album google forces you to scroll slowly through all of them so the thumbnails load, before you can multi select them all. Immich just let me select the top picture, go straight to the bottom and select all of them. Makes a difference when adding over a thousand photos!

Hard_Space 2mo ago

This is exactly what I did this year, moving photo backup to Syncthing and using Immich. So far it has been a very rewarding trip, even if the home server it runs on is not the fastest.

360MustangScope 2mo ago

While this is a great idea to tell people to self host and I self host myself. I think it needs to also be mentioned how laborious backups are. Photos aren’t something that is only inconvenient like movies to lose WHEN your drives die. They can be devastating because you will likely not get them back. Backups are a lot of work to maintain, it’s not just simply copying the data to another array but also testing the backup regularly and making sure that they work and continue working. Backups are almost like a secondary job and many that self host are probably not interested in how much thought goes into it. Sure the web applications like Google Photos are annoying but they take away all of this that most people don’t think about. The vast majority of people that read this will set up a server and have no backup. Many of them will eventually lose their data if they didn’t also keep a cloud service.

zbentley 2mo ago
All very true! Immich, unlike a lot of apps, does have a pretty friendly UI for managing/restoring backups, though: https://docs.immich.app/administration/backup-and-restore/ https://docs.immich.app/administration/backup-and-restore/ It's definitely still a lot more than the zero work required for Google Photos, but I feel like even even a semi-technical user can test an Immich backup without a ton of hassle. Start a new/empty immich instance in an empty directory, and follow the wizard for restoring a backup (and copy of your photos folder) taken from the non-empty instance.
hunter2_ 2mo ago
> the web applications like Google Photos are annoying but they take away all of this They minimize it but don't take it away. A content creator must personally place their creation into multiple storage solutions, regardless of whether those solutions are cloud apps or local disks or anything else. In a world where disk failure is the only failure mode, sure, you can outsource the work of disk redundancy to a company, but it's not. The person you outsource to could decide to deny you access! Losing your cloud account (credential theft, alleged ToS violation, bankruptcy, etc.) is also a very real failure mode, albeit far less frequent than disk issues I suppose. The creator must be the fork in the road.

wang_li 2mo ago

The thing that is needed is a cloud storage API that is mandatory by law and is required to be honored by the OS. The OS vendors create a virtual cloud storage layer which has a backend that can be implemented by any cloud storage provider and then all the apps use these abstractions when loading, saving, and so on their data to the "cloud." Which can be anything from a third-party online service to a self-hosted solution. It should be implemented in all apps that support cloud-based content, music, books, movies, home environmental data, medical data, exercise history and the like. Silicon Valley has developed an arrogance, and they need to be reminded that they are subject to laws and regulations like all of us and that it could be much worse for them if they continue to be wankers.

vrighter 2mo ago
there are already protocols for exchanging files between computers. The cloud is just someone else's pc.... administered by mostly incompetent buffoons (or forced to act like incompetent buffoons by their higher ups). A "cloud" protocol doesn't make sense. Since a "cloud" could be any of a ton of wildly unrelated things, there is only one sane standard protocol that could be shared. It's called IPv4 (or v6)
- wang_li 2mo ago
  Not just some cloud protocol, but an abstraction layer at the OS for the apps to talk to so that the cloud storage back-end can be replaced with no knowledge, participation, or consideration from the applications that a user uses. I take my shiny new phone, go to settings, then cloud provider where I specify Acme Cloud Bit and Bobs Inc. And now everything just works with Acme Cloud. I switch it to Globodisk Corporation and everything just continues working. Maybe the OS does a nice one and asks if I want to migrate all my storage from Acme Cloud to Globodisk and performs said migration. And the apps never know or care. But it would need to be mandated by some large political entity as no tech company would do this and give up the lock in that they desperately want.
  - vrighter 2mo ago
    ah.... so ftp or sftp