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Files Custom Locations

This guide explains storing generated and raw files with docker's volume mount in different locations.

Backup

It is important to remember to update the backup settings after following the guide to back up the new backup paths if using automatic backup tools.

In our .env file, we will define variables that will help us in the future when we want to move to a more advanced server in the future

.env
# You can find documentation for all the supported env variables at https://immich.app/docs/install/environment-variables

# Custom location where your uploaded, thumbnails, and transcoded video files are stored
- {UPLOAD_LOCATION}=./library
+ {UPLOAD_LOCATION}=/custom/location/on/your/system/
+ {THUMB_LOCATION}=/custom/location/on/your/system/
+ {ENCODED_VIDEO_LOCATION}=/custom/location/on/your/system/
...

After defining the locations for these files, we will edit the docker-compose.yml file accordingly and add the new variables to the immich-server and immich-microservices containers.

docker-compose.yml
services:
  immich-server:
      volumes:
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
+     - ${THUMB_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload/thumbs
+     - ${ENCODED_VIDEO_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload/encoded-video
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro

...

  immich-microservices:
      volumes:
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
+     - ${THUMB_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload/thumbs
+     - ${ENCODED_VIDEO_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload/encoded-video
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro

Restart Immich to register the changes.

docker compose down
docker compose up -d

Thanks to Jrasm91 for writing the guide.