Immich Add External Library

This will help you add an external library to immich.
A copy of my compose and env is at the bottom of this page!

BACKUP FIRST!!!!!!!!! I DON'T TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY NEGATIVE EFFECTS.

Alternatively use the instructions below:

1. Go to your compose and env file. Add the following to your env file:

EXTERNAL_LOCATION=C:\Users\keith\Pictures\Immich external #Choose a dir on your host.

2. Go to your compose file and add the following under the upload location in both immich server and micro services under the volumes section:

- ${EXTERNAL_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/external

So your volumes section should look like this:

- ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
- ${EXTERNAL_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/external

Again make sure you did that for both immich server section and micro services section in your compose!

Now docker compose up/deploy/what ever you use to start the docker containers and compose file.
Be aware it could take a few minutes for immich to restart everything.

3. Go into your immich server and click on administration. The next to your user click the edit icon. Scroll down until you see external path and enter:

/usr/src/app/external

Click confirm.

4. Top right click your avatar it is a coloured circle with the first letter of your username and click account settings. Scroll down to libraries and click create external library.

5. Click the 3 dot menu next to your new libary and then add path. You will then enter the dir we created above:

/usr/src/app/external

6. Click the 3 dot menu next to your new libary again this time selecting scan new library files.
Immich will then add your external library contents to your server without moving the files.
They should be in date order so if a photo was taken in december 2022 you will need to scroll down to december 2022 to find it.

My compose and env file looks like this:

-----------------------------------------------
version: "3.8"
#
# WARNING: Make sure to use the docker-compose.yml of the current release:
#
# https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml
#
# The compose file on main may not be compatible with the latest release.
#

name: immich
services:
  immich-server:
    container_name: immich_server
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    command:
      - start.sh
      - immich
    volumes:
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
      - ${EXTERNAL_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/external
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    env_file:
      - .env
    ports:
      - 2283:3001
    depends_on:
      - redis
      - database
    restart: always
  immich-microservices:
    container_name: immich_microservices
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    # extends: # uncomment this section for hardware acceleration - see https://immich.app/docs/features/hardware-transcoding
    #   file: hwaccel.transcoding.yml 
    #   service: cpu # set to one of [nvenc, quicksync, rkmpp, vaapi, vaapi-wsl] for accelerated transcoding
    command:
      - start.sh
      - microservices
    volumes:
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
      - ${EXTERNAL_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/external
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    env_file:
      - .env
    depends_on:
      - redis
      - database
    restart: always
  immich-machine-learning:
    container_name: immich_machine_learning
    # For hardware acceleration, add one of -[armnn, cuda, openvino] to the image tag.
    # Example tag: ${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}-cuda
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    # extends: # uncomment this section for hardware acceleration - see https://immich.app/docs/features/ml-hardware-acceleration
    #   file: hwaccel.ml.yml
    #   service: cpu # set to one of [armnn, cuda, openvino, openvino-wsl] for accelerated inference - use the `-wsl` version for WSL2 where applicable
    volumes:
      - model-cache:/cache
    env_file:
      - .env
    restart: always
  redis:
    container_name: immich_redis
    image: redis:6.2-alpine@sha256:afb290a0a0d0b2bd7537b62ebff1eb84d045c757c1c31ca2ca48c79536c0de82
    restart: always
  database:
    container_name: immich_postgres
    image: tensorchord/pgvecto-rs:pg14-v0.1.11@sha256:0335a1a22f8c5dd1b697f14f079934f5152eaaa216c09b61e293be285491f8ee
    env_file:
      - .env
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USERNAME}
      POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_DATABASE_NAME}
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: always
volumes:
  pgdata: null
  model-cache: null
networks: {}


My env file looks like this:

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

# The location where your uploaded files are stored
UPLOAD_LOCATION=C:\Users\keith\Documents\dockerdesktopdata\immch\Uploads

# External, set path in administrative settings under the user first. Then update here to map. Then Go to user settings and setup the path in the external library.
EXTERNAL_LOCATION=C:\Users\keith\Pictures\Immich external

# The Immich version to use. You can pin this to a specific version like "v1.71.0"
IMMICH_VERSION="v1.94.1"

# Connection secret for postgres. You should change it to a random password the below is random and not my password.
DB_PASSWORD=Wfdgsdfgh543fgdfgdfsghsgh5464566ZwouNFZyS7hb%rgeEDo4D2

# The values below this line do not need to be changed
###################################################################################
DB_HOSTNAME=immich_postgres
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_DATABASE_NAME=immich

REDIS_HOSTNAME=immich_redis