User Configuration
- User-1
- User-2
- Family >> This is also the Immich admin account, created first (do not modify email and name afterwards to switch with User-x, as this causes issues)
- Set the upload name in user accounts to the actual name (instead of UUID) for readable folder structures
- User-x should not define Family as partner, and vice versa
- User-x shares (specific) albums with Family
- Album content is only visible to Family through albums
- Album content does not appear in Family’s timeline (great!)
- Album content is not visible via Immich folders/directory option
Immich iPhone App Usage
- Login/use as Family
- You’ll see the Family timeline
- Through Albums, you can view your own Albums and photos
- Through Albums, you can view albums shared by User-x
Directory Structure
/mnt/Immich-Library/ # Mount point for USB-SSD
├── internal/ # For Immich uploads (not used, except guest uploads)
├── external/ # For external libraries
└── api_keys/ # For IMMICH_API_KEYS user files
# Internal is fully managed by Immich
# External is fully managed by admin via:
# - File Browser (web access)
# - Terminal/SSH
# - Phone uploads via webdav (PhotoSync)
/mnt/Immich-Library/external/
├── User-1/
├── User-2/
└── Family/
iPhone Apple Photos Structure (per user)
- User-specific event albums: “2024-12-05 Test”, “Sport”, “DEV-2025”, “Work”
- Family event albums: “2024 Vacation”, “Wedding”, “2024-01-01 Birthday User-x” (ensure all users use exactly the same album names!)
- Miscellaneous photos (not event-related, or place in “general” album)
PhotoSync Generated Structure
/mnt/Immich-Library/external/
├── User-1/
│ ├── 2024/
│ │ ├── 2024-01/
│ │ ├── 2024-02/
│ │ ├── 2024-12-05 Test/
│ │ └── Sport/
│ └── 2025/
│ ├── 2025-01/
│ ├── DEV-2025/
│ ├── Sport/
│ └── Work/
└── Family/
└── 2024/
├── 2024-01/
├── 2024-02/
├── 2024 Vacation/
├── Wedding/
└── 2024-01-01 Birthday User-x/
Resulting Album Structure
User-1 Albums
(All albums shared with Family for access when logged in as Family)
├── 2024/ # Contains all photos from monthly folders
│ # (yearly albums instead of monthly)
├── 2024-12-05 Test/
├── Sport/ # Contains photos from all Sport folders
│ # (both 2024 and 2025)
└── Work/
# (upload script to User-1 selected)
Family Albums
├── 2024/ # Contains all photos from monthly folders
├── 2024 Vacation/
├── Wedding/
└── 2024-01-01 Birthday User-x/ # Contains photos from all User-x iPhones
# (upload script to Family selected)
Testing Required
- Will this create duplicate 2024, 2025 albums?
- If yes, workaround is to differentiate via Owner/Shared Album in Immich web GUI/app
Notes
- Neither Immich nor Apple Photos support nested albums yet
- Initial goal was to allow users to create topic main folders with year subfolders, but this wasn’t achievable in the album generation script’s filtering and scan-level section
Desired but currently unsupported structure (ths folder structure can be made of course, but I was not able to use the Albem Generating script with use of filtering and scan levels in such a way it gave me the desired Albums.
/User-1/
├── 2024/
│ ├── 2024-01/
│ └── 2024-12-05 Test/
└── Sport/
├── 2024/
└── 2024-01-01 Sport event/
└── 2025/
