DanKhramov

joined 6 hours ago
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Finally moved family off Google Photos to Immich on a closet Optiplex 7040 — almost lost a month of kid photos in January in c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
Finally moved family off Google Photos to Immich on a closet Optiplex 7040 — almost lost a month of kid photos in January in c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
Finally moved family off Google Photos to Immich on a closet Optiplex 7040 — almost lost a month of kid photos in January in c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
[–] DanKhramov@lemmy.world -5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

You are right, it should be automatic — and now it is, but in January it wasn't. My mistake in January: I had Immich running and thought "I have a copy on the Optiplex, so it's backed up". It wasn't. No 3-2-1, just one HDD. Now it's automatic and boring, which is what I wanted: Daily: Immich DB dump + rclone sync to external USB (kept in same closet but different disk). Weekly: rclone sync encrypted to B2 — about $6/mo vs $15+ for Google One family. Monthly: I test restore of one random photo from B2, just to be sure. It's 2 cron jobs in Proxmox host, not inside LXC, so it runs even if LXC is down. Took 30 min to set up once. Heat is harder, yes. My fixes that actually helped: BIOS power limit to 35W, undervolt -50mV — temps down 8-10C, still fine for Immich. Immich machine learning (face recognition) only runs 02:00-06:00 via cron, not all day. Cut a small vent at top of closet door + USB fan pulling air out, wife stopped complaining. Happy to share docker-compose if you want — it's just Immich + Nextcloud + postgres + redis, nothing fancy.

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How did you actually get your family to use your self-hosted stuff? (lemmy.world)
 

Last winter I moved family photos off Google Photos to Immich on an old Dell Optiplex 7040 in the closet (Proxmox, Immich, Nextcloud, Matrix). Main reason was Google One kept getting more expensive.

Tech part works. Immich is great, Nextcloud is fine.

People part doesn't. My wife uses it because she has to, but she still brings up January when I almost lost a month of kid photos due to no real backup. My sister is still on Messenger, my mom is on iCloud, so my Matrix server is mostly just me and wife.

I have backup now (USB + B2) and cost is lower than Google One, but time cost is higher and family adoption is low.

For those who self-host for family — how did you actually get them to switch and stick? Did you force it, make it invisible, bribe with something, or just accept that they will stay on Google / Messenger / iCloud?

What worked for you with non-technical family?

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Finally moved family off Google Photos to Immich on a closet Optiplex 7040 — almost lost a month of kid photos in January (lemmy.world)
 

Last winter I finally moved family photos off Google Photos. Not for ideology, just tired of Google One getting more expensive every year.

Hardware: old Dell Optiplex 7040 (i5-6500, 16GB, 1TB SSD + 4TB HDD) in the bedroom closet, running Proxmox. LXC with Immich for photos, Nextcloud for docs, and Matrix for family chat.

It was messy. I set up Immich, told family it's done, but forgot to set up proper backups. In January the HDD had errors and I almost lost a month of kid photos. No 3-2-1, only local copy. Wife still brings it up.

Now: Immich with daily backup to external USB, weekly rclone to B2, and Nextcloud with versioning. Matrix is still half-used because sister is on Messenger.

Cost is now about $6/mo for B2 vs $15+ for Google One family, but time cost is higher.

For those who run Immich on similar old Optiplex / small box in closet — how do you handle backups without making it a second job? And how do you keep noise/heat down? My closet is warm and wife is not happy about second heater.

Happy to share docker-compose if anyone needs.

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With Nitter getting a cease and desist today, I'm glad I moved family photos off big platforms last winter (lemmy.world)
 

Saw the top post today about Nitter getting a cease and desist. Not surprised, but it hit a nerve.

Last winter I finally moved my family off Google Photos. Not for ideology, just tired of paying for One that gets more expensive every year.

Old Dell Optiplex 7040 in the closet, Immich for photos, Nextcloud for docs, Matrix for family chat. It was messy. I forgot to set up proper backups and almost lost a month of kid photos in January. My wife still brings it up.

Before that I thought privacy was about picking a better provider. Nitter was part of that logic too - use a private frontend for a bad platform. But frontends die. Nitter, Invidious, all of them. One letter and it's gone.

Self-hosting didn't solve everything, but at least my photos don't depend on someone else's frontend staying alive. The problem now is family. My server is in my closet, but my sister is still on Messenger, my mom on iCloud. My setup doesn't protect them.

Curious how you handle this part. When the frontend you rely on disappears, do you try to move family to Signal/Matrix or just accept you can only protect your own node?