External Library

This guide walks you through adding an External Library. This guide assumes you are running Immich in Docker and that the files you wish to access are stored in a directory on the same machine.

Mount the directory into the containers.

Edit docker-compose.yml to add one or more new mount points in the section immich-server: under volumes:. If you want Immich to be able to delete the images in the external library or add metadata (XMP sidecars), remove :ro from the end of the mount point.

diff

immich-server:
    volumes:
        - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/data
+       - /home/user/photos1:/home/user/photos1:ro
+       - /mnt/photos2:/mnt/photos2:ro # you can delete this line if you only have one mount point, or you can add more lines if you have more than two

Restart Immich by running docker compose up -d.

Create the library

:::info External library management requires administrator access and the steps below assume you are using an admin account. :::

In the Immich web UI:

click the Administration link in the upper right corner.
Select the External Libraries tab and click the Create Library button
In the dialog, select which user should own the new library
You are now entering the library management page.
Click Add in the Folder section to specify a path for scanning and enter /home/user/photos1 as the path and click Add
Click the three-dots menu and select Scan New Library Files

Confirm stuff is happening

Click Administration
Select the Jobs tab
You should see non-zero Active jobs for Library, Generate Thumbnails, and Extract Metadata.