Immich struggles to act as a true unifying solution for users with large, existing archival collections (DSLRs, scanned film, etc.).
Since those „Archival Assets“ are often decades old, already organized into complex, user-defined file structures (e.g., 1998/DATE_PLACE_PROJECT/PLACE_PROJECT_DATE.jpg), and frequently contain incomplete or inconsistent metadata (missing dates, no GPS, different file formats).
Immich's current integration solutions (like "External Libraries") treat the archive as a read-only view, which leads to a fragmented user experience:
- Changes, facial recognition, or tagging remain only within Immich’s database, failing to write metadata back to the archival files in their original directory structure (last time I checked, might be better now.
- My established, meaningful directory structure is ignored or flattened in the Immich view, forcing the user to rely entirely on Immich’s internal date/AI-based organization.
My goal (am I the only one?) of having one app view all photos while maintaining the integrity and organizational schema of the archival files on disk is not yet fully met.
Immich needs a robust, bi-directional import/sync layer that respects and enhances existing directory structures, rather than just importing files into its own schema.
This is my main issue with Immich. I had 300gb of local photos organized into folders from digital cameras. Then I wanted to move google photos into it. Ran the scripts only to discover that the imported images were in a rats nest of folders in the immich internal library. I loathed this fragmentation keep hoping for a solution. It looks like I could maybe use PhotoSync to dump everything to folders and just keep everything as an 'External library' in immich, but this is not ideal,
This is where I'm at, really. I have my own filing hierarchy and storage templates can't really deal with it (and I don't get why they would be needed when all I want is for it to handle an "uploads" directory and re-scan the file tree after I file things)
Immich's current integration solutions (like "External Libraries") treat the archive as a read-only view, which leads to a fragmented user experience:
- Changes, facial recognition, or tagging remain only within Immich’s database, failing to write metadata back to the archival files in their original directory structure (last time I checked, might be better now.
- My established, meaningful directory structure is ignored or flattened in the Immich view, forcing the user to rely entirely on Immich’s internal date/AI-based organization.
My goal (am I the only one?) of having one app view all photos while maintaining the integrity and organizational schema of the archival files on disk is not yet fully met.
Immich needs a robust, bi-directional import/sync layer that respects and enhances existing directory structures, rather than just importing files into its own schema.