This is a python script designed to automatically create albums in Immich from a folder structure mounted into the Immich container. This is useful for automatically creating and populating albums for external libraries. Using the provided docker image, the script can simply be added to the Immich compose stack and run along the rest of Immich's containers.
Current compatibility: Immich v1.106.1 - v1.123.x
This script is mostly based on the following original script: REDVM/immich_auto_album.py
- Usage (Bare Python Script)
- Usage (Docker)
- Choosing the correct
root_path
- How It Works (with Examples)
- Filtering
- Automatic Album Sharing
- Cleaning Up Albums
- Assets in Multiple Albums
- Setting Album Thumbnails
- Setting Album-Fine Properties
- Automatic Archiving
- Dealing with External Library Changes
- Download the script and its requirements
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator/main/immich_auto_album.py -o immich_auto_album.py curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator/main/requirements.txt -o requirements.txt
- Install requirements
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
- Run the script
usage: immich_auto_album.py [-h] [-t {literal,file}] [-r ROOT_PATH] [-u] [-a ALBUM_LEVELS] [-s ALBUM_SEPARATOR] [-c CHUNK_SIZE] [-C FETCH_CHUNK_SIZE] [-l {CRITICAL,ERROR,WARNING,INFO,DEBUG}] [-k] [-i IGNORE] [-m {CREATE,CLEANUP,DELETE_ALL}] [-d] [-x SHARE_WITH] [-o {viewer,editor}] [-S {0,1,2}] [-O {False,asc,desc}] [-A] [-f PATH_FILTER] [--set-album-thumbnail {first,last,random,random-all,random-filtered}] [-v] [--find-archived-assets] root_path api_url api_key Create Immich Albums from an external library path based on the top level folders positional arguments: root_path The external library's root path in Immich api_url The root API URL of immich, e.g. https://immich.mydomain.com/api/ api_key The Immich API Key to use. Set --api-key-type to 'file' if a file path is provided. options: -h, --help show this help message and exit -t {literal,file}, --api-key-type {literal,file} The type of the Immich API Key (default: literal) -r ROOT_PATH, --root-path ROOT_PATH Additional external library root path in Immich; May be specified multiple times for multiple import paths or external libraries. (default: None) -u, --unattended Do not ask for user confirmation after identifying albums. Set this flag to run script as a cronjob. (default: False) -a ALBUM_LEVELS, --album-levels ALBUM_LEVELS Number of sub-folders or range of sub-folder levels below the root path used for album name creation. Positive numbers start from top of the folder structure, negative numbers from the bottom. Cannot be 0. If a range should be set, the start level and end level must be separated by a comma like '<startLevel>,<endLevel>'. If negative levels are used in a range, <startLevel> must be less than or equal to <endLevel>. (default: 1) -s ALBUM_SEPARATOR, --album-separator ALBUM_SEPARATOR Separator string to use for compound album names created from nested folders. Only effective if -a is set to a value > 1 (default: ) -c CHUNK_SIZE, --chunk-size CHUNK_SIZE Maximum number of assets to add to an album with a single API call (default: 2000) -C FETCH_CHUNK_SIZE, --fetch-chunk-size FETCH_CHUNK_SIZE Maximum number of assets to fetch with a single API call (default: 5000) -l {CRITICAL,ERROR,WARNING,INFO,DEBUG}, --log-level {CRITICAL,ERROR,WARNING,INFO,DEBUG} Log level to use (default: INFO) -k, --insecure Pass to ignore SSL verification (default: False) -i IGNORE, --ignore IGNORE Use either literals or glob-like patterns to ignore assets for album name creation. This filter is evaluated after any values passed with --path-filter. May be specified multiple times. (default: None) -m {CREATE,CLEANUP,DELETE_ALL}, --mode {CREATE,CLEANUP,DELETE_ALL} Mode for the script to run with. CREATE = Create albums based on folder names and provided arguments; CLEANUP = Create album nmaes based on current images and script arguments, but delete albums if they exist; DELETE_ALL = Delete all albums. If the mode is anything but CREATE, --unattended does not have any effect. Only performs deletion if -d/--delete-confirm option is set, otherwise only performs a dry-run. (default: CREATE) -d, --delete-confirm Confirm deletion of albums when running in mode CLEANUP or DELETE_ALL. If this flag is not set, these modes will perform a dry run only. Has no effect in mode CREATE (default: False) -x SHARE_WITH, --share-with SHARE_WITH A user name (or email address of an existing user) to share newly created albums with. Sharing only happens if the album was actually created, not if new assets were added to an existing album. If the the share role should be specified by user, the format <userName>=<shareRole> must be used, where <shareRole> must be one of 'viewer' or 'editor'. May be specified multiple times to share albums with more than one user. (default: None) -o {viewer,editor}, --share-role {viewer,editor} The default share role for users newly created albums are shared with. Only effective if --share-with is specified at least once and the share role is not specified within --share-with. (default: viewer) -S {0,1,2}, --sync-mode {0,1,2} Synchronization mode to use. Synchronization mode helps synchronizing changes in external libraries structures to Immich after albums have already been created. Possible Modes: 0 = do nothing; 1 = Delete any empty albums; 2 = Delete offline assets AND any empty albums (default: 0) -O {False,asc,desc}, --album-order {False,asc,desc} Set sorting order for newly created albums to newest or oldest file first, Immich defaults to newest file first (default: False) -A, --find-assets-in-albums By default, the script only finds assets that are not assigned to any album yet. Set this option to make the script discover assets that are already part of an album and handle them as usual. If --find-archived-assets is set as well, both options apply. (default: False) -f PATH_FILTER, --path-filter PATH_FILTER Use either literals or glob-like patterns to filter assets before album name creation. This filter is evaluated before any values passed with --ignore. May be specified multiple times. (default: None) --set-album-thumbnail {first,last,random,random-all,random-filtered} Set first/last/random image as thumbnail for newly created albums or albums assets have been added to. If set to random-filtered, thumbnails are shuffled for all albums whose assets would not be filtered out or ignored by the ignore or path-filter options, even if no assets were added during the run. If set to random-all, the thumbnails for ALL albums will be shuffled on every run. (default: None) -v, --archive Set this option to automatically archive all assets that were newly added to albums. If this option is set in combination with --mode = CLEANUP or DELETE_ALL, archived images of deleted albums will be unarchived. Archiving hides the assets from Immich's timeline. (default: False) --find-archived-assets By default, the script only finds assets that are not archived in Immich. Set this option to make the script discover assets that are already archived. If -A/--find-assets-in-albums is set as well, both options apply. (default: False) --read-album-properties If set, the script tries to access all passed root paths and recursively search for .albumprops files in all contained folders. These properties will be used to set custom options on an per-album level. Check the readme for a complete documentation. (default: False) --api-timeout API_TIMEOUT Timeout when requesting Immich API in seconds (default: 20) --comments-and-likes-enabled Pass this argument to enable comment and like functionality in all albums this script adds assets to. Cannot be used together with --comments-and-likes-disabled (default: False) --comments-and-likes-disabled Pass this argument to disable comment and like functionality in all albums this script adds assets to. Cannot be used together with --comments-and-likes-enabled (default: False)
Plain example without optional arguments:
python3 ./immich_auto_album.py \
/path/to/external/lib \
https://immich.mydomain.com/api \
thisIsMyApiKeyCopiedFromImmichWebGui
Important
You must pass one root path as the first positional argument to the script. You cannot use --root-path
alone if you only have a single root path!
Pass --root-path
additionally for each additional root path you want to use.
Example:
python3 ./immich_auto_album.py \
--root-path /my/second/root_path \
--root-path /my/third/root_path
/my/first/root_path \
https://immich.mydomain.com/api \
thisIsMyApiKeyCopiedFromImmichWebGui
A Docker image is provided to be used as a runtime environment. It can be used to either run the script manually, or via cronjob by providing a crontab expression to the container. The container can then be added to the Immich compose stack directly.
The environment variables are analoguous to the script's command line arguments.
Environment varible | Mandatory? | Description |
---|---|---|
ROOT_PATH | yes | A single or a comma separated list of import paths for external libraries in Immich. Refer to Choosing the correct root_path . |
API_URL | yes | The root API URL of immich, e.g. https://immich.mydomain.com/api/ |
API_KEY | no | The Immich API Key to use. Either API_KEY or API_KEY_FILE must be specified. The API_KEY variable takes precedence for ease of manual execution, but it is recommended to use API_KEY_FILE . |
API_KEY_FILE | no | An absolute path (from the root of the container) to a file containing the Immich API Key. The file might be mounted into the container using a volume (e.g. -v /path/to/api_key.secret:/immich_api_key.secret:ro ). The file must contain only the value. |
CRON_EXPRESSION | yes | A crontab-style expression (e.g. 0 * * * * ) to perform album creation on a schedule (e.g. every hour). |
ALBUM_LEVELS | no | Number of sub-folders or range of sub-folder levels below the root path used for album name creation. Positive numbers start from top of the folder structure, negative numbers from the bottom. Cannot be 0 . If a range should be set, the start level and end level must be separated by a comma. Refer to How it works for a detailed explanation and examples. |
ALBUM_SEPARATOR | no | Separator string to use for compound album names created from nested folders. Only effective if -a is set to a value > 1 (default: " ") |
CHUNK_SIZE | no | Maximum number of assets to add to an album with a single API call (default: 2000 ) |
FETCH_CHUNK_SIZE | no | Maximum number of assets to fetch with a single API call (default: 5000 ) |
LOG_LEVEL | no | Log level to use (default: INFO), allowed values: CRITICAL ,ERROR ,WARNING ,INFO ,DEBUG |
INSECURE | no | Set to true to disable SSL verification for the Immich API server, useful for self-signed certificates (default: false ), allowed values: true , false |
IGNORE | no | A colon : separated list of literals or glob-style patterns that will cause an image to be ignored if found in its path. |
MODE | no | Mode for the script to run with. CREATE = Create albums based on folder names and provided argumentsCLEANUP = Create album nmaes based on current images and script arguments, but delete albums if they exist DELETE_ALL = Delete all albums. If the mode is anything but CREATE , --unattended does not have any effect. (default: CREATE ). Refer to Cleaning Up Albums. |
DELETE_CONFIRM | no | Confirm deletion of albums when running in mode CLEANUP or DELETE_ALL . If this flag is not set, these modes will perform a dry run only. Has no effect in mode CREATE (default: False ). Refer to Cleaning Up Albums. |
SHARE_WITH | no | A single or a colon (: ) separated list of existing user names (or email addresses of existing users) to share newly created albums with. If the the share role should be specified by user, the format = must be used, where must be one of viewer or editor . May be specified multiple times to share albums with more than one user. (default: None) Sharing only happens if an album is actually created, not if new assets are added to it. Refer to Automatic Album Sharing. |
SHARE_ROLE | no | The role for users newly created albums are shared with. Only effective if SHARE_WITH is not empty and no explicit share role was specified for at least one user. (default: viewer), allowed values: viewer , editor |
SYNC_MODE | no | Synchronization mode to use. Synchronization mode helps synchronizing changes in external libraries structures to Immich after albums have already been created. Possible Modes: 0 = do nothing1 = Delete any empty albums2 = Delete offline assets AND any empty albums(default: 0 )Refer to Dealing with External Library Changes. |
ALBUM_ORDER | no | Set sorting order for newly created albums to newest (desc ) or oldest (asc ) file first, Immich defaults to newest file first, allowed values: asc , desc |
FIND_ASSETS_IN_ALBUMS | no | By default, the script only finds assets that are not assigned to any album yet. Set this option to make the script discover assets that are already part of an album and handle them as usual. If --find-archived-assets is set as well, both options apply. (default: False )Refer to Assets in Multiple Albums. |
PATH_FILTER | no | A colon : separated list of literals or glob-style patterns to filter assets before album name creation. (default: ``)Refer to Filtering. |
SET_ALBUM_THUMBNAIL | no | Set first/last/random image as thumbnail (based on image creation timestamp) for newly created albums or albums assets have been added to. Allowed values: first ,last ,random ,random-filtered ,random-all If set to random-filtered , thumbnails are shuffled for all albums whose assets would not be filtered out or ignored by the IGNORE or PATH_FILTER options, even if no assets were added during the run. If set to random-all, the thumbnails for ALL albums will be shuffled on every run. (default: None )Refer to Setting Album Thumbnails. |
ARCHIVE | no | Set this option to automatically archive all assets that were newly added to albums. If this option is set in combination with MODE = CLEANUP or DELETE_ALL , archived images of deleted albums will be unarchived.Archiving hides the assets from Immich's timeline. (default: False )Refer to Automatic Archiving. |
FIND_ARCHIVED_ASSETS | no | By default, the script only finds assets that are not archived in Immich. Set this option make the script discover assets that are already archived. If -A/--find-assets-in-albums is set as well, both options apply. (default: False )Refer to Automatic Archiving. |
READ_ALBUM_PROPERTIES | no | Set to True to enable discovery of .albumprops files in root paths, allowing to set different album properties for differnt albums. (default: False )Refer to Setting Album-Fine Properties. |
API_TIMEOUT | no | Timeout when requesting Immich API in seconds (default: 20 ) |
COMMENTS_AND_LIKES | no | Set to 1 to explicitly enable Comments & Likes functionality for all albums this script adds assets to, set to 0 to disable. If not set, this setting is left alone by the script. |
To perform a manually triggered dry run (only list albums that would be created), use the following command:
docker run \
-e API_URL="https://immich.mydomain.com/api/" \
-e API_KEY="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
-e ROOT_PATH="/external_libs/photos" \
salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest \
/script/immich_auto_album.sh
To actually create albums after performing a dry run, use the following command (setting the UNATTENDED
environment variable):
docker run \
-e UNATTENDED="1" \
-e API_URL="https://immich.mydomain.com/api/" \
-e API_KEY="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
-e ROOT_PATH="/external_libs/photos" \
salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest \
/script/immich_auto_album.sh
To set up the container to periodically run the script, give it a name, pass the TZ variable and a valid crontab expression as environment variable. This example runs the script every hour:
docker run \
--name immich-folder-album-creator \
-e TZ="Europe/Berlin" \
-e CRON_EXPRESSION="0 * * * *" \
-e API_URL="https://immich.mydomain.com/api/" \
-e API_KEY="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
-e ROOT_PATH="/external_libs/photos" \
salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest
If your external library uses multiple import paths or you have set up multiple external libraries, you can pass multiple paths in ROOT_PATH
by setting it to a comma separated list of paths:
docker run \
--name immich-folder-album-creator \
-e TZ="Europe/Berlin" \
-e CRON_EXPRESSION="0 * * * *" \
-e API_URL="https://immich.mydomain.com/api/" \
-e API_KEY="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
-e ROOT_PATH="/external_libs/photos,/external_libs/more_photos" \
salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest
Adding the container to Immich's docker-compose.yml
file:
#
# 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
volumes:
- /path/to/my/photos:/external_libs/photos
- /path/to/secret/file:/immich_api_key.secret:ro
...
immich-folder-album-creator:
container_name: immich_folder_album_creator
image: salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
API_URL: http://immich_server:2283/api
API_KEY_FILE: /immich_api_key.secret
ROOT_PATH: /external_libs/photos
CRON_EXPRESSION: "0 * * * *"
TZ: Europe/Berlin
The root path /path/to/external/lib/
is the path you have mounted your external library into the Immich container.
If you are following Immich's External library Documentation, you are using an environment variable called ${EXTERNAL_PATH}
which is mounted to /usr/src/app/external
in the Immich container. Your root_path
to pass to the script is /usr/src/app/external
.
The script utilizies Immich's REST API to query all images indexed by Immich, extract the folder for all images that are in the top level of any provided root_path
, then creates albums with the names of these folders (if not yet exists) and adds the images to the correct albums.
The following arguments influence what albums are created:
root_path
, --album-levels
and --album-separator
root_path
is the base path where images are looked for. Multiple root paths can be specified by adding the-r
argument as many times as necessary. Only images within that base path will be considered for album creation.--album-levels
controls how many levels of nested folders are considered when creating albums. The default is1
. For examples see below.--album-separator
sets the separator used for concatenating nested folder names to create an album name. It is a blank by default.
Examples:
Suppose you provide an external library to Immich under the path /external_libs/photos
.
The folder structure of photos
might look like this:
/external_libs/photos/
├── 2020/
│ ├── 02 Feb/
│ │ └── Vacation/
│ ├── 08 Aug/
│ │ └── Vacation/
├── Birthdays/
│ ├── John/
│ └── Jane/
└── Skiing 2023/
Albums created for root_path = /external_libs/photos
(--album-levels
is implicitly set to 1
):
2020
(containing all images from2020
and all sub-folders)Birthdays
(containing all images from Birthdays itself as well asJohn
andJane
)Skiing 2023
Albums created for root_path = /external_libs/photos
(--album-levels
is implicitly set to 1
) and --ignore "Vacation"
:
2020
(containing all images from2020
,2020/02 Feb
and2020/08 Aug
, but NOT2020/02 Feb/Vacation
or2020/08 Aug/Vacation
)Birthdays
(containing all images from Birthdays itself as well asJohn
andJane
)Skiing 2023
Albums created for root_path = /external_libs/photos/Birthdays
:
John
Jane
Albums created for root_path = /external_libs/photos
and --album-levels = 2
:
2020
(containing all images from2020
itself, if any)2020 02 Feb
(containing all images from2020/02 Feb
itself,2020/02 Feb/Vacation
and2020/02 Aug/Vacation
)Birthdays John
(containing all imags fromBirthdays/John
)Birthdays Jane
(containing all imags fromBirthdays/John
)Skiing 2023
Albums created for root_path = /external_libs/photos
, --album-levels = 3
and --album-separator " - "
:
2020
(containing all images from2020
itself, if any)2020 - 02 Feb
(containing all images from02 Feb
itself, if any)2020 - 02 Feb - Vacation
(containing all imags from2020/02 Feb/Vacation
)2020 - 08 Aug - Vacation
(containing all imags from2020/02 Aug/Vacation
)Birthdays - John
Birthdays - Jane
Skiing 2023
Albums created for root_path = /external_libs/photos
, --album-levels = -1
and --album-separator " - "
:
2020
(containing all images from2020
itself, if any)02 Feb
(containing all images from2020/02 Feb
itself, if any)Vacation
(containing all images from2020/02 Feb/Vacation
AND2020/08 Aug/Vacation
)John
(containing all imags fromBirthdays/John
)Jane
(containing all imags fromBirthdays/Jane
)Skiing 2023
It is possible to specify not just a number for --album-levels
, but a range from level x to level y in the folder structure that should make up an album's name:
--album-levels="2,3"
The range is applied to the folder structure beneath root_path
from the top for positive levels and from the bottom for negative levels.
Suppose the following folder structure for an external library with the script's root_path
set to /external_libs/photos
:
/external_libs/photos/2020/2020 02 Feb/Vacation
/external_libs/photos/2020/2020 08 Aug/Vacation
--album-levels="2,3"
will create albums (for this folder structure, this is equal to--album-levels="-2"
)2020 02 Feb Facation
2020 08 Aug Vacation
--album-levels="2,2"
will create albums (for this folder structure, this is equal to--album-levels="-2,-2"
)2020 02 Feb
2020 08 Aug
Important
When passing negative ranges as album levels, you must pass the argument in the form --album-levels="-2,-2"
. Emphasis is on the equals sign =
separating the option from the value. Otherwise, you might get an error argument -a/--album-levels: expected one argument
!
Warning
Note that with negative album-levels
or album level ranges, images from different parent folders will be mixed in the same album if they reside in sub-folders with the same name (see Vacation
in example above).
Since Immich does not support real nested albums (yet?), neither does this script.
It is possible filter images by either specifying keywords or path patterns to either specifically filter for or ignore assets based on their path. Two options control this behavior.
Internally, the script converts literals to glob-patterns that will match a path if the specified literal occurs anywhere in it. Example: --ignore Feb
is equal to --ignore **/*Feb*/**
.
The following wild-cards are supported:
Pattern | Meaning |
---|---|
* |
Matches everything (even nothing) within one folder level |
? |
Matches any single character |
[] |
Matches one character in the brackets, e.g. [a] literally matches a |
[!] |
Matches one character not in the brackets, e.h. [!a] matches any character but a |
The option -i / --ignore
can be specified multiple times for each literal or glob-style path pattern.
When using Docker, the environment variable IGNORE
accepts a semicolon-separated :
list of literals or glob-style patterns. If an image's path below the root path matches the pattern, it will be ignored.
The option -f / ---path-filter
can be specified multiple times for each literal or glob-style path pattern.
When using Docker, the environment variable PATH_FILTER
accepts a semicolon-separated :
of literals or glob-style patterns. If an image's path below the root path does NOT match the pattern, it will be ignored.
Tip
When working with path filters, consider setting the -A / --find-assets-in-albums
option or Docker environment variable FIND_ASSETS_IN_ALBUMS
for the script to discover assets that are already part of an album. That way, assets can be added to multiple albums by the script. Refer to the Assets in Multiple Albums section for more information.
Consider the following folder structure:
/external_libs/photos/
├── 2020/
│ ├── 02 Feb/
│ │ └── Vacation/
│ ├── 08 Aug/
│ │ └── Vacation/
├── Birthdays/
│ ├── John/
│ └── Jane/
└── Skiing 2023/
- To only create a
Birthdays
album with all images directly inBirthdays
or in any subfolder on any level, run the script with the following options:root_path=/external_libs/photos
--album-level=1
--path-filter Birthdays/**
- To only create albums for the 2020s (all 202x years), but with the album names like
2020 02 Feb
, run the script with the following options:root_path=/external_libs/photos
--album-level=2
--path-filter=202?/**
- To only create albums for 2020s (all 202x years) with the album names like
2020 02 Feb
, but only with images in folders one level below2020
and not any of theVacation
images, run the script with the following options:root_path=/external_libs/photos
--album-level=2
--path-filter=202?/*/*
- To create a
Vacation
album with all vacation images, run the script with the following options:root_path=/external_libs/photos
--album-level=-1
--path-filter=**/Vacation/*
The scripts support sharing newly created albums with a list of existing users. The sharing role (viewer
or editor
) can be specified for all users at once or individually per user.
Two arguments control this feature:
-o / --share-role
: The default role for users an album is shared with. Allowed values areviewer
oreditor
. This argument is optional and defaults toviewer
.-x / --share-with
: Specify once per user to share with. The value should be either the user name or the user's email address as specified in Immich. If the user name is used and it contains blanks"
. To override the default share role and specify a role explicitly for this user, the format<userName>=<shareRole>
must be used (refer to examples below).
To share new albums with users User A
and User B
as viewer
, use the following call:
python3 ./immich_auto_album.py --share-with "User A" --share-with "User B" /path/to/external/lib https://immich.mydomain.com/api thisIsMyApiKeyCopiedFromImmichWebGui
To share new albums with users User A
and User B
as editor
, use the following call:
python3 ./immich_auto_album.py --share-with "User A" --share-with "User B" --share-role "editor" /path/to/external/lib https://immich.mydomain.com/api thisIsMyApiKeyCopiedFromImmichWebGui
To share new albums with users User A
and a user with mail address [email protected]
, but User A
should be an editor, use the following call:
python3 ./immich_auto_album.py --share-with "User A=editor" --share-with "[email protected]" /path/to/external/lib https://immich.mydomain.com/api thisIs
Two environment variables control this feature:
SHARE_ROLE
: The default role for users an album is shared with. Allowed values areviewer
oreditor
. This argument is optional and defaults toviewer
.SHARE_WITH
: A colon:
separated list of either names or email addresses (or a mix) of existing users. To override the default share role and specify a role explicitly for each user, the format<userName>=<shareRole>
must be used (refer to examples below).
To share new albums with users User A
and User B
as viewer
, use the following call:
docker run -e SHARE_WITH="User A:User B" -e UNATTENDED="1" -e API_URL="https://immich.mydomain.com/api/" -e API_KEY="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" -e ROOT_PATH="/external_libs/photos" salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest /script/immich_auto_album.sh
To share new albums with users User A
and User B
as editor
, use the following call:
docker run -e SHARE_WITH="User A:User B" -e SHARE_ROLE="editor" -e UNATTENDED="1" -e API_URL="https://immich.mydomain.com/api/" -e API_KEY="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" -e ROOT_PATH="/external_libs/photos" salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest /script/immich_auto_album.sh
To share new albums with users User A
and a user with mail address [email protected]
, but User A
should be an editor, use the following call:
docker run -e SHARE_WITH="User A=editor:[email protected]" -e UNATTENDED="1" -e API_URL="https://immich.mydomain.com/api/" -e API_KEY="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" -e ROOT_PATH="/external_libs/photos" salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest /script/immich_auto_album.sh
The script supports differnt run modes (option -m
/--mode
or env variable MODE
for Docker). The default mode is CREATE
, which is used to create albums.
The other two modes are CLEANUP
and DELETE_ALL
.
Caution
Regardless of the mode you are using, deleting albums cannot be undone! The only option is to let the script run again and create new albums base on the passed arguments and current assets in Immich.
To prevent accidental deletions, setting the mode to CLEANUP
or DELETE_ALL
alone will not actually delete any albums, but only perform a dry run. The dry run prints a list of albums that the script would delete.
To actually delete albums, the option -d/--delete-confirm
(or env variable DELETE_CONFIRM
for Docker) must be set.
The script will generate album names using the script's arguments and the assets found in Immich, but instead of creating the albums, it will delete them (if they exist). This is useful if a large number of albums was created with no/the wrong --album-separator
or --album-levels
settings.
Caution
As the name suggests, this mode blindly deletes ALL albums from Immich. Use with caution!
By default, the script only fetches assets from Immich that are not assigned to any album yet. This makes querying assets in large libraries very fast. However, if assets should be part of either manually created albums as well as albums based on the folder structure, or if multiple script passes with different album level settings should create differently named albums with overlapping contents, the option --find-assets-in-albums
(bare Python) or environment variable FIND_ASSETS_IN_ALBUMS
(Docker) may be set.
In that case, the script will request all assets from Immich and add them to their corresponding folders, even if the also are part of other albums.
Tip
This option can be especially useful when Filtering for Assets.
The script supports automatically setting album thumbnails by specifying the --set-album-thumbnail
option (bare Python) or SET_ALBUM_THUMBNAIL
environment variable (Docker). There are several options to choose from for thumbnail selection:
first
: Sets the first image as thumbnail based on image creation timestampslast
: Sets the last image as thumbnail based on image creation timestampsrandom
: Sets the thumbnail to a random image
When using one of the values above, the thumbnail of an album will be updated whenever assets are added.
Furthermore, the script supports two additional modes that are applied even if no assets were added to the album:
random-all
: In this mode the thumbnail for all albums will be shuffled every time the script runs, ignoring anyroot_path
,--ignore
or--path-filter
values.random-filtered
: Using this mode, the thumbnail for an albums will be shuffled every run if the album is not ignored byroot_path
or due to usage of the--ignore
or--path-filter
options.
Caution
Updating album thumbnails cannot be reverted!
This script supports defining album properties on a per-folder basis. For example, it is possible to share albums with different users using different roles or disable comments and likes for different albums. For a full list of options see the example below.
This is achieved by placing .albumprops
files in each folder these properties should apply to later. The script will scan for all .albumprops
files and apply the settings when creating albums or adding assets to existing albums.
This function requires that all root_paths
passed to the script are also accessible to it on a file-system level.
- Docker: All root paths must be mounted under the same path to the
immich-folder-album-creator
container as they are mounted to the Immich container - Bare Python Script: The script must have access to all root paths under the same path as they are mounted into the Immich container Either mount the folders into Immich under the same path as they are on the Immich host, or create symlinks for the script to access
A file named .albumprops
may be placed into any folder of an external library.
The file itself is a YAML formatted text file with the following properties:
# Album Name overriding the album name generated from folder names
override_name: "Your images are in another album"
description: "This is a very informative text describing the album"
share_with:
# either provide user name
- user: "user1"
role: "editor"
# or provide user mail address
- user: "[email protected]"
role: "viewer"
# Set album thumbnail, valid values: first, last, random or fully qualified path of an asset that is (or will be) assigned to the album
thumbnail_setting: "first"
# Sort order in album, valid values: asc, desc
sort_oder: "desc"
# Flag indicating whether to archive images added to this album, valid values: true, false
archive: true
# Flag indicating whether assets in this albums can be commented on and liked
comments_and_likes_enabled: false
All properties are optional.
Important
The override_name
property makes it possible assign assets to an album that does not have anything to do with their folder name. That way, it is also possible to merge assets from different folders (even under different root_paths
) into the same album.
If the script finds multiple .albumprops
files using the same override_name
property, it enforced that all properties that exist in at least one of the .albumprops
files are identical in all files that use the same override_name
. If this is not the case, the script will exit with an error.
Tip
Note the possibilty to set thumbnail_setting
to an absolute asset path. This asset must be part of the album once the script has run for Immich to accept it as album thumbnail / cover. This is only possible in .albumprops
files, as such a setting would not make much sense as a global option.
To enable Album-Fine Properties, pass the option --read-album-properties
(Bare Python) or set the environment variable READ_ALBUM_PROPERTIES
to 1
(Docker) to enable scanning for .albumprops
files and use the values found there to created the albums.
In case the script is provided with --share-with
, --share-role
, --archive
, --set-album-thumbnail
options (or SHARE_WITH
, SHARE_ROLE
, ARCHIVE
, or SET_ALBUM_THUMBNAIL
environment variables for Docker), properties in .albumprops
always take precedence. Options passed to the script only have effect if no .albumprops
file is found for an album or the specific property is missing.
Example:
share_with:
- user: Dad
role: editor
If the script is called with --share-with "Mom"
and --archive
, the album created from the folder the file above resides in will only be shared with user Dad
using editor
permissions, and assets will be archived. All other albums will be shared with user Mom
(using viewer
permissions, as defined by default) and assets will be archived.
In Immich, 'archiving' an image means to hide it from the main timeline.
This script is capable of automatically archiving images it added to albums during the run to hide them from the timeline. To achieve this, run the script with option --archive
or Docker environment variable ARCHIVE=true
.
Important
Archiving images has the side effect that they are no longer detected by the script with default options. This means that if an album that was created with the --archive
option set is deleted from the Immich user interface, the script will no longer find the images even though they are no longer assigned to an album.
To make the script find also archived images, run the script with the option --find-archived-assets
or Docker environment variable FIND_ARCHIVED_ASSETS=true
.
Warning
If the script is used to delete albums using --mode=CLEANUP
or --mode=DELETE_ALL
with the --archive
option set, the script will automatically unarchive all assets of deleted albums to revert them to their prior state. If you manually archived selected assets in albums, this will be reverted!
Due to their nature, external libraries may be changed by the user without Immich having any say in it.
Two examples of this are the user deleting or renaming folders in their external libraries after the script has created albums, or the user moving single files from one folder to another. The script would create new albums from renamed folders or add images to their new album after they have been moved.
Immich itself deals with this by marking images/videos it no longer sees in their original location as "offline". This can lead to albums being completely populated by "offline" files only (if the folder was renamed or deleted) while they exist normally in a new album or with single images being offline in one album, while existing normally in their new albums.
As of version 1.116.0, Immich no longer shows "offline" assets in the main timeline, but only in the Trash, together with deleted assets. If the trash is emptied, Immich forgets about these "offline" assets. If the asset is available again, it is removed from the trash and shows up as normal in the main timeline.
This script offers two levels of synchronization options to deal with these issues with an option called Sync Mode
. It is an optional argument / environment variable that may have values from 0 to 2.
The following behaviors wil be triggered by the different values:
0
: No syncing (default)1
: Delete all empty albums at the end of a run2
: Delete ("forget") all offline assets, then delete all empty albums
Option 1
leaves it up to the user to clear up "offline" assets by emptying the trash or restoring access to the files. Only if after any of these actions empty albums are left behind, they are automatically removed.
Option 2
will first delete all "offline" assets automatically, then do the same with any empty albums left.
Important
Some version after v1.116.0 changed the API so that offline assets can no longer be discovered. Thus, Sync Mode = 2
is not working at the moment. A Github Issue for Immich has been opened.
Important
If your library is on a network share or external drive that might be prone to not being available all the time, avoid using Sync Mode = 2
.
Caution
It is not possible for the script to distinguish between an album that was left behind empty after Offline Asset Removal and a manually created album with no images added to it! All empty albums of that user will be deleted!
It is up to you whether you want to use the full capabilities Sync Mode offers, parts of it or none.
An example for the Immich docker-compose.yml
stack when using full Sync Mode might look like this:
#
# 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
volumes:
- /path/to/my/photos:/external_libs/photos
- /path/to/secret/file:/immich_api_key.secret:ro
...
immich-folder-album-creator:
container_name: immich_folder_album_creator
image: salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
API_URL: http://immich_server:2283/api
API_KEY_FILE: "/immich_api_key.secret"
ROOT_PATH: /external_libs/photos
CRON_EXPRESSION: "0 * * * *"
TZ: Europe/Berlin
# Remove offline assets and delete empty albums after each run
SYNC_MODE: "2"