immich-quadlet/docs/docs/administration/backup-and-restore.md

Backup and Restore

Database

:::info Refer to the official postgres documentation for details about backing up and restoring a postgres database. :::

The recommended way to backup and restore the Immich database is to use the pg_dumpall command.

docker exec -t immich_postgres pg_dumpall -c -U postgres | gzip > "/path/to/backup/dump.sql.gz"

gunzip < /path/to/backup/dump.sql.gz | docker exec -i immich_postgres psql -U postgres -d immich

The database dumps can also be automated (using this image) by editing the docker compose file to match the following:

services:
  ...
  backup:
    container_name: immich_db_dumper
    image: prodrigestivill/postgres-backup-local
    env_file:
      - .env
    environment:
      POSTGRES_HOST: database
      POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_DATABASE_NAME}
      POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USERNAME}
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      SCHEDULE: "@daily"
      BACKUP_NUM_KEEP: 7
      BACKUP_DIR: /db_dumps
    volumes:
      - ./db_dumps:/db_dumps
    depends_on:
      - database

Then you can restore with the same command but pointed at the latest dump.

gunzip < db_dumps/last/immich-latest.sql.gz | docker exec -i immich_postgres psql -U postgres -d immich

Filesystem

Immich stores two types of content in the filesystem: (1) original, unmodified content, and (2) generated content. Only the original content needs to be backed-up, which includes the following folders:

1. UPLOAD_LOCATION/library
2. UPLOAD_LOCATION/upload
3. UPLOAD_LOCATION/profile