My photos were the first step.

I had to start somewhere

Immich was the first service I installed. Photos were a natural starting point: I use them every day and they hold memories I want to find years from now. I wanted to depend less on Google Photos and choose where to keep my library, rather than always letting the most convenient service make that decision for me.

This is where the subscription question becomes very practical. A library grows and storage becomes something to pay for over time. I wanted to try building an alternative while keeping an experience I would actually want to use. Putting everything in a folder would only have answered part of that need.

When the server becomes part of everyday life

I use it every day on my iPhone. In my setup, daily uploads work well both at home and away, and opening the app to find my photos makes the work on the server worthwhile. It is a simple satisfaction: something I configured becomes part of my day without asking for attention every time.

I can choose which albums to upload. On iOS, background work also depends on the operating system, so I do not expect every photo to arrive immediately. I want to describe this experience as I use it, with its conveniences and its timing.

The conveniences I care about

I like scrolling through the timeline, organising albums and finding a photo through search. Memories, facial recognition, sharing and Live Photos are conveniences that make a library enjoyable to use. Immich interests me because it brings many of those possibilities to a machine I manage myself.

I am very happy with its speed in everyday use. Large videos, especially away from home, sometimes take longer: connection quality and machine load come into play. This is also how I am learning what it takes to build the efficiency I used to get ready-made.

The choice that suits me today

I completely understand the convenience of Google Photos and iCloud. Today I prefer spending time on Immich, because control and the chance to learn matter enough to justify that work. PhotoPrism is another project I keep among alternatives to explore; I do not have a full comparison of my own to share.

Taking care of what I put there

I update Immich manually, reading its documentation and release notes. I automate more with other services; here I want to pause before changing anything. Photos are why I installed the app, and they deserve that care.

I am still working on protecting the library. Uploading from my iPhone and backing up the server are separate things: I need to think about both files and the database, and how to recover them if the machine fails. More storage and fuller backups are next steps. Keeping data at home gives me control and asks me to care for it.