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Photoprism

Last updated on 27 September 2022

I've switched from managed photo providers (such as Apple or Google photos) to a self-hosted Photoprism [1] instance. This note documents my setup.

1

I use Linode for this, and you can get a free $100 credit using this referral link [2].

2

Server setup

Provision a new server or instance (at least 4GB memory and 2 CPU cores), and create and attach a big (I use 1TB) volume.

Encrypt the attached volume using LUKS [3], create a filesystem, mount points (`fstab`, etc.) and mount it (e.g. to `/data`).

3

Alternatively use fscrypt [4] to encrypt a directory.

4

This note [5] should help with the encryption process.

5

Install Docker and Docker Compose.

Running Photoprism

Create a `docker-compose.yml`:

version: '3.5'

services:
  photoprism:
    image: photoprism/photoprism:latest
    depends_on:
      - mariadb
    restart: unless-stopped
    security_opt:
      - seccomp:unconfined
      - apparmor:unconfined
    ports:
      - "80:2342"
    environment:
      PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_PASSWORD: "CHANGEME"
      PHOTOPRISM_AUTH_MODE: "password"
      PHOTOPRISM_SITE_URL: "http://CHANGEME"
      PHOTOPRISM_ORIGINALS_LIMIT: 5000
      PHOTOPRISM_HTTP_COMPRESSION: "gzip"
      PHOTOPRISM_LOG_LEVEL: "info"
      PHOTOPRISM_READONLY: "false"
      PHOTOPRISM_EXPERIMENTAL: "false"
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_CHOWN: "false"
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_WEBDAV: "false"
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_SETTINGS: "false"
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_TENSORFLOW: "false"
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_FACES: "false"
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_CLASSIFICATION: "false"
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_RAW: "false"
      PHOTOPRISM_RAW_PRESETS: "false"
      PHOTOPRISM_JPEG_QUALITY: 85
      PHOTOPRISM_DETECT_NSFW: "false"
      PHOTOPRISM_UPLOAD_NSFW: "true"
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_DRIVER: "mysql"
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_SERVER: "mariadb:3306"
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_NAME: "photoprism"
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_USER: "photoprism"
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_PASSWORD: "CHANGEME"
      PHOTOPRISM_SITE_CAPTION: "AI-Powered Photos App"
      PHOTOPRISM_SITE_DESCRIPTION: ""
      PHOTOPRISM_SITE_AUTHOR: ""
    working_dir: "/photoprism"
    volumes:
      - "/data/originals:/photoprism/originals"
      - "./import:/photoprism/import"
      - "/data/storage:/photoprism/storage"

  mariadb:
    restart: unless-stopped
    image: mariadb:10.8
    security_opt:
      - seccomp:unconfined
      - apparmor:unconfined
    command: mysqld --innodb-buffer-pool-size=512M --transaction-isolation=READ-COMMITTED --character-set-server=utf8mb4 --collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci --max-connections=512 --innodb-rollback-on-timeout=OFF --innodb-lock-wait-timeout=120
    volumes:
      - "/data/database:/var/lib/mysql"
    environment:
      MARIADB_AUTO_UPGRADE: "1"
      MARIADB_INITDB_SKIP_TZINFO: "1"
      MARIADB_DATABASE: "photoprism"
      MARIADB_USER: "photoprism"
      MARIADB_PASSWORD: "CHANGEME"
      MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: "CHANGEME"

Bring up the instance using `docker-compose up -d`. I personally host this in a private Tailscale [6] network so I don't bother with TLS certificates, but you may want to stick Photoprism behind a reverse proxy if you intend to expose it publicly.

6

Backups

Photoprism provides its own backup facility [7]. However, since I run nearly everything in Docker, I am hesitant when adding too much configuration to the host itself.

7

Instead I added a Restic [8]-based backup container specifically made for Photoprism. To use this, simply add the following to the bottom of the `docker-compose.yml` and bring the services back up:

8

...

  photosbackup:
    image: wilw/photoprism-backup
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - "/path/to/originals:/photoprism/originals"
    environment:
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_SERVER: "mariadb"
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_NAME: "photoprism"
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_USER: "photoprism"
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_PASSWORD: "CHANGEME"
      AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: "CHANGEME"
      AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: "CHANGEME"
      RESTIC_REPOSITORY: "s3:endpoint/bucket"
      RESTIC_PASSWORD: "CHANGEME"
      RESTIC_HOSTNAME: "hostname"

Documentation for the container is available here [9] (specifically around configuring the Restic repos).

9

Syncing photos

I take many photos on my phone. In the old days of Apple and Google Photos, the official apps would seamlessly sync photos to the cloud. To replicate this model with Photoprism, I downloaded the PhotoSync [10] app, which has built-in support for Photoprism servers. Below summarises my setup:

10

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