Storage How To
This page explains how to create different types of mounts to relocate or add library storage locations for Immich Distribution.
Danger
Incorrectly configuring mounts can potentially break your Immich installation or even your server. Please proceed with caution. Basic Linux administrative knowledge is assumed.
Locations that Immich can access and are suitable for storing images include /var/snap/immich-distribution/common and /root/snap/immich-distribution/common. The first location is already used by Immich Distribution, but you can create a subfolder there if desired.
Future name collision
Choosing a folder under /root/snap/immich-distribution/common is recommended to reduce the risk of future name collisions with files created by the Snap package itself. If you prefer to use /var/snap/immich-distribution/common, ensure you pick a unique subfolder name.
Examples
Store all images and video on a large external drive
Assume you have a large, separate drive (e.g., /dev/sda2) attached to your system. It's formatted but not yet mounted. Follow these steps to move the /var/snap/immich-distribution/common/upload directory to this drive.
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /tmp
sudo mv /var/snap/immich-distribution/common/upload/* /tmp
sudo umount /tmp
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /var/snap/immich-distribution/common/upload
Please note
The mount command in the example above is temporary and will not persist across reboots. To make the mount permanent, you need to configure it in /etc/fstab, create a systemd .mount unit file, or use another method appropriate for your system.
Store all images and video on a network attached NAS
This is also a common scenario. Follow the external drive guide above, but instead of mounting /dev/sda2, mount your NAS share.
Note that network-attached storage (NAS) is typically slower than local drives. To potentially improve performance, consider moving only the /var/snap/immich-distribution/common/upload/library directory (which contains large original files) to the NAS, while keeping smaller, frequently accessed assets like thumbnails and encoded videos on a local drive.
How to access external libraries
If possible, mount the external library to a subfolder within the accessible locations, such as /var/snap/immich-distribution/common/lunar-holiday or /root/snap/immich-distribution/common/lunar-holiday.
sudo mkdir /root/snap/immich-distribution/common/lunar-holiday
sudo mount /dev/sdb6 /root/snap/immich-distribution/common/lunar-holiday
Alternatively, you might want to add a specific existing folder as an external library. For instance, assume your holiday pictures are stored in /data/lunar-holiday. Immich cannot access this path directly due to the Snap sandbox. To resolve this, you need to bind mount /data/lunar-holiday to an accessible location, such as /root/snap/immich-distribution/common/lunar-holiday.
sudo mkdir /root/snap/immich-distribution/common/lunar-holiday
sudo mount --bind /data/lunar-holiday /root/snap/immich-distribution/common/lunar-holiday
Once bind-mounted, you can add the path /root/snap/immich-distribution/common/lunar-holiday to Immich as an external library via the web interface.
Please note
The mount commands in these examples are temporary and will not persist across reboots. You need to configure the mount in /etc/fstab, a systemd .mount unit file, or use another method appropriate for your system.
Systemd bind mount example
Suppose you want to move /var/snap/immich-distribution/common/upload/library to another location, for example, to /data/library on a larger drive mounted at /data. This can be achieved with a bind mount. This example uses systemd mount units for persistence.
Create the following systemd mount unit file. Note that the filename is derived from the Where path; if you change this path, the filename must be updated accordingly.
[Unit]
Description=Bind Mount Immich Library
[Mount]
What=/data/library
Where=/var/snap/immich-distribution/common/upload/library
Type=none
Options=bind
TimeoutSec=5
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Warning
Note that the hyphen (-) in the path needs to be escaped as \x2d in the systemd unit filename. When typing the filename in a shell, you might need to escape the backslash itself (e.g., \\x2d) or use single quotes. One of the following will work:
Figure out a correct filename
There is a built in command called systemd-escape that you can use to generate a correctly escaped string.
systemctl status var-snap-immich\\x2ddistribution-common-upload-library.mount
If there are no error messages, proceed by stopping the Immich services.
sudo mv /var/snap/immich-distribution/common/upload/library/* /data/library
sudo systemctl enable --now var-snap-immich\\x2ddistribution-common-upload-library.mount
After the mount is active, both the original path and the new path should show the same content:
All done! You can now start Immich again.