diff --git a/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
index 4e4285f131..c8a491b4d3 100644
--- a/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
+++ b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
   "userEnvProbe": "loginInteractiveShell",
   "remoteEnv": {
     // The location where your uploaded files are stored
-    "UPLOAD_LOCATION": "${localEnv:UPLOAD_LOCATION:./Library}",
+    "UPLOAD_LOCATION": "${localEnv:UPLOAD_LOCATION:upload-devcontainer-volume}",
     //  Connection secret for postgres. You should change it to a random password
     //  Please use only the characters `A-Za-z0-9`, without special characters or spaces
     "DB_PASSWORD": "${localEnv:DB_PASSWORD:postgres}",
diff --git a/.devcontainer/server/container-common.sh b/.devcontainer/server/container-common.sh
index 95f4e222a1..8fc0038d49 100755
--- a/.devcontainer/server/container-common.sh
+++ b/.devcontainer/server/container-common.sh
@@ -7,12 +7,34 @@ export DEV_PORT="${DEV_PORT:-3000}"
 # Devcontainer: Clone [repository|pull request] in container volumne
 WORKSPACES_DIR="/workspaces"
 IMMICH_DIR="$WORKSPACES_DIR/immich"
+IMMICH_DEVCONTAINER_LOG="$HOME/immich-devcontainer.log"
+
+log() {
+    # Display command on console, log with timestamp to file
+    echo "$*"
+    echo "[$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')] $*" >>"$IMMICH_DEVCONTAINER_LOG"
+}
+
+run_cmd() {
+    # Ensure log directory exists
+    mkdir -p "$(dirname "$IMMICH_DEVCONTAINER_LOG")"
+
+    log "$@"
+
+    # Execute command: display normally on console, log with timestamps to file
+    "$@" 2>&1 | tee >(while IFS= read -r line; do
+        echo "[$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')] $line" >>"$IMMICH_DEVCONTAINER_LOG"
+    done)
+
+    # Preserve exit status
+    return "${PIPESTATUS[0]}"
+}
 
 # Find directories excluding /workspaces/immich
 mapfile -t other_dirs < <(find "$WORKSPACES_DIR" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d ! -path "$IMMICH_DIR" ! -name ".*")
 
 if [ ${#other_dirs[@]} -gt 1 ]; then
-    echo "Error: More than one directory found in $WORKSPACES_DIR other than $IMMICH_DIR."
+    log "Error: More than one directory found in $WORKSPACES_DIR other than $IMMICH_DIR."
     exit 1
 elif [ ${#other_dirs[@]} -eq 1 ]; then
     export IMMICH_WORKSPACE="${other_dirs[0]}"
@@ -20,16 +42,12 @@ else
     export IMMICH_WORKSPACE="$IMMICH_DIR"
 fi
 
-echo "Found immich workspace in $IMMICH_WORKSPACE"
-
-run_cmd() {
-    echo "$@"
-    "$@"
-}
+log "Found immich workspace in $IMMICH_WORKSPACE"
+log ""
 
 fix_permissions() {
 
-    echo "Fixing permissions for ${IMMICH_WORKSPACE}"
+    log "Fixing permissions for ${IMMICH_WORKSPACE}"
 
     run_cmd sudo find "${IMMICH_WORKSPACE}/server/upload" -not -path "${IMMICH_WORKSPACE}/server/upload/postgres/*" -not -path "${IMMICH_WORKSPACE}/server/upload/postgres" -exec chown node {} +
 
@@ -41,17 +59,19 @@ fix_permissions() {
         "${IMMICH_WORKSPACE}/server/dist" \
         "${IMMICH_WORKSPACE}/web/node_modules" \
         "${IMMICH_WORKSPACE}/web/dist"
+
+    log ""
 }
 
 install_dependencies() {
 
-    echo "Installing dependencies"
-
+    log "Installing dependencies"
     (
         cd "${IMMICH_WORKSPACE}" || exit 1
         run_cmd make install-server
-        run_cmd make install-open-api
-        run_cmd make build-open-api
+        run_cmd make install-sdk
+        run_cmd make build-sdk
         run_cmd make install-web
     )
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+    log ""
+}
diff --git a/.devcontainer/server/container-compose-overrides.yml b/.devcontainer/server/container-compose-overrides.yml
index 94fbbab8cd..eb36a062a5 100644
--- a/.devcontainer/server/container-compose-overrides.yml
+++ b/.devcontainer/server/container-compose-overrides.yml
@@ -42,3 +42,4 @@ volumes:
   open_api_node_modules:
   server_node_modules:
   web_node_modules:
+  upload-devcontainer-volume:
diff --git a/.devcontainer/server/container-start-backend.sh b/.devcontainer/server/container-start-backend.sh
index 230a1378a2..aeb70df72d 100755
--- a/.devcontainer/server/container-start-backend.sh
+++ b/.devcontainer/server/container-start-backend.sh
@@ -3,15 +3,15 @@
 # shellcheck disable=SC1091
 source /immich-devcontainer/container-common.sh
 
-echo "Starting Nest API Server"
-
+log "Starting Nest API Server"
+log ""
 cd "${IMMICH_WORKSPACE}/server" || (
-    echo workspace not found
+    log "Immich workspace not found"
     exit 1
 )
 
 while true; do
-    node ./node_modules/.bin/nest start --debug "0.0.0.0:9230" --watch
-    echo " Nest API Server crashed with exit code $?.  Respawning in 3s ..."
+    run_cmd node ./node_modules/.bin/nest start --debug "0.0.0.0:9230" --watch
+    log "Nest API Server crashed with exit code $?.  Respawning in 3s ..."
     sleep 3
 done
diff --git a/.devcontainer/server/container-start-frontend.sh b/.devcontainer/server/container-start-frontend.sh
index 43bde2a344..633dcc3a93 100755
--- a/.devcontainer/server/container-start-frontend.sh
+++ b/.devcontainer/server/container-start-frontend.sh
@@ -3,20 +3,20 @@
 # shellcheck disable=SC1091
 source /immich-devcontainer/container-common.sh
 
-echo "Starting Immich Web Frontend"
-
+log "Starting Immich Web Frontend"
+log ""
 cd "${IMMICH_WORKSPACE}/web" || (
-    echo Workspace not found
+    log "Immich Workspace not found"
     exit 1
 )
 
 until curl --output /dev/null --silent --head --fail "http://127.0.0.1:${IMMICH_PORT}/api/server/config"; do
-    echo 'waiting for api server...'
+    log "Waiting for api server..."
     sleep 1
 done
 
 while true; do
-    node ./node_modules/.bin/vite dev --host 0.0.0.0 --port "${DEV_PORT}"
-    echo "Web crashed with exit code $?.  Respawning in 3s ..."
+    run_cmd node ./node_modules/.bin/vite dev --host 0.0.0.0 --port "${DEV_PORT}"
+    log "Web crashed with exit code $?.  Respawning in 3s ..."
     sleep 3
 done
diff --git a/.devcontainer/server/container-start.sh b/.devcontainer/server/container-start.sh
index ef22db5d72..860b2826b0 100755
--- a/.devcontainer/server/container-start.sh
+++ b/.devcontainer/server/container-start.sh
@@ -3,5 +3,18 @@
 # shellcheck disable=SC1091
 source /immich-devcontainer/container-common.sh
 
+log "Setting up Immich dev container..."
 fix_permissions
+
+log "Installing npm dependencies (node_modules)..."
 install_dependencies
+
+log "Setup complete, please wait while backend and frontend services automatically start"
+log
+log "If necessary, the services may be manually started using"
+log
+log "$ /immich-devcontainer/container-start-backend.sh"
+log "$ /immich-devcontainer/container-start-frontend.sh"
+log
+log "From different terminal windows, as these scripts automatically restart the server"
+log "on error, and will continuously run in a loop"