Hitting the 20GB limit that Google provides for all your email and photos was inevitable. When that time came, I started digging around and found two potential solutions:
I tried both, and honestly, they work really well. However, I decided to go with Immich since so many users were raving about how awesome it is.
I won’t go into detail about how to set everything up because that’s already covered in the Immich installation guide. Instead, I’ll share my thoughts on using it so far. Right now, I will admit. It’s not as smooth sailing as I’d like. But I see a lot of potential, so I’m sticking with it and working on overcoming the obstacles.
After configuring my Docker files and confirming all the containers were running, I could log into the main interface. I had used a folder from my Google Takeout and began uploading all these photos into immich:
immich upload --album --recursive directory/
Next, I’ll probably use immich-go to import directly from Google Photos.
After running my Docker containers, my Rpi4 would consistently hang or freeze after 3–4 hours. While I could still ping the device, SSH would stop working. Initially, I suspected an insufficient power supply, so I bought a brand-new Rpi4 power adapter. This seemed to resolve the issue temporarily, but after a fresh reboot and another 5–6 hours, the freezing resumed. I connected a monitor and keyboard to the Pi and found the command line blinking mockingly, with no response to my input—as if it were laughing at me after winning a long, heated battle. I came across a Reddit post suggesting that the issue could stem from a poor storage drive. However, I’m not entirely convinced, as I’m using a brand-new 512GB SanDisk purchased during a Black Friday sale. While I doubt it’s the culprit, I’m not ruling it out entirely. My real hunch is that the CPU or memory is being throttled due to overuse. When checking Docker stats, I noticed my container was hitting 200% CPU usage, which essentially means two of the four CPU cores were maxed out.
One additional factor to consider: I removed the fan from the Rpi4 because it was too loud. However, I don’t think the fan was making much of a difference in cooling.
0 0 * * * dmesg > /var/log/dmesg-$(date +\%Y-\%m-\%d).log