My local-first photo workflow (Immich + Syncthing + rclone)
After 4 years on Google Photos, I migrated everything to a self-hosted setup that gives me similar features with full data ownership. Here's the stack after 18 months of iteration. The constraints I started with 50,000+ photos and videos (currently 280GB, growing ~30GB/year) Family of 4 sharing the same library Want to view/edit/share from any device (iOS, Android, web, laptop) Don't want to pay…
This reporter undertook a comprehensive migration from Google Photos to a self-hosted photo workflow using Immich, Syncthing, and rclone. After four years with Google Photos, the reporter was motivated to maintain full data ownership and avoid paying $100+/year for cloud storage. The reporter's family of four shared the same library, with photos and videos totaling 280GB and growing at a rate of ~30GB/year.
To achieve this, the reporter set up a Synology DS220+ NAS with 8TB of storage (RAID 1) and a total cost of $5/month for Backblaze B2 offsite backup.
The reporter's chosen setup includes Immich as the photos backend, which provides fast face recognition, clean mobile apps, and a range of search and album features. The NAS serves as the external library, where the original photos are stored without modification. Syncthing is used for phone uploads, ensuring reliable background uploads on both iOS and Android devices.
The reporter runs a weekly cron job to sync the NAS with Backblaze B2 for offsite backup, using encrypted client-side storage to maintain privacy. Overall, this solution provides a cost-effective and private alternative to Google Photos for photo management.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
