When adopting Immich alongside an existing TrueNAS photo collection, you can choose from 3 architectural photo management strategies:
1. The Hybrid Model (The “Split-Brain” Approach)
This model forces you to manage two physical libraries both on disk and inside the Immich UI.
- Old Stuff (Legacy): Your historical photos stay on your TrueNAS SMB share and are mounted into Immich as an “External Library.”
- New Stuff (Moving Forward): You let the Immich Mobile App handle all day-to-day phone backups directly. These are ingested into Immich’s internal
/upload/library/directory, managed exclusively by the Immich database. - The Reality: Your total photo collection is split across two fundamentally different storage domains. If you ever leave Immich, you have to manually extract the internal library and merge it back with your old TrueNAS folders.
2. The SMB-First Model (The “Unified Master” Approach)
This model completely bypasses Immich’s internal ingest engine, meaning you only ever have one library.
- Old Stuff (Legacy): Your historical photos stay inside your TrueNAS SMB shares (
/mnt/tank/photos) under your custom folder hierarchy. - New Stuff (Moving Forward): You use a third-party sync app (like PhotoSync or Syncthing) to push new phone photos directly to that exact same TrueNAS SMB share.
- The Reality: Immich is configured strictly as a read-only UI layer mapped to this external library. You never use the internal Immich library. All your eggs are in one basket (TrueNAS), making it incredibly easy to back up, migrate, or share over the network.
3. Storage Template Automation (The “All-In Migration” Approach)
This model also results in one library, but it requires you to surrender your historical data to Immich.
- Old Stuff (Legacy): You must use the Immich CLI or Web UI to import all of your old photos into Immich. Immich physically moves/re-organizes all your historical files into its Internal Library based on the storage template (e.g.,
YYYY/MM/DD). - New Stuff (Moving Forward): The Immich Mobile app uploads new photos directly into that same internal template structure.
- The Reality: Immich handles all ingest and deduplication. However, if you don’t delete your old TrueNAS SMB folders after importing them, you are storing two copies of your historical data. If you do delete them, Immich is now the permanent, sole owner of your folder structure. Modifying these files directly over SMB outside of Immich’s awareness can corrupt its database state.
Strategy Comparison Matrix
| Strategy | Legacy Photo Location | New Phone Backups Location | Total Libraries on Disk | Primary SMB Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The Hybrid Model | TrueNAS Share | Immich Internal (upload/library) | 2 (External + Internal) | SMB for old photos; Immich API for new photos. |
| 2. The SMB-First Model (Selected) | TrueNAS Share | TrueNAS Share (via 3rd Party App) | 1 (External) | Full read/write access to all photos. |
| 3. Storage Template Automation | Immich Internal (Imported) | Immich Internal (upload/library) | 1 (Internal) | Managed automatically by Immich. Do not touch over SMB. |
How This Applies to Competitors
The fundamental tension between “I want to own my folders” (Strategy 2) vs “Let the app manage my files” (Strategy 3) exists in almost every self-hosted media manager:
- Nextcloud Memories (Strategy 2): Nextcloud is a file-sync platform first. Memories is essentially just a beautiful UI built on top of your existing files. It forces you into Strategy 2. You own the folders, and data hoarders love this because it respects the file system completely.
- PhotoPrism (Strategies 1, 2, or 3): Operates almost identically to Immich. They have an “Originals” directory (Strategy 2) for read-only indexing, and an “Import” feature (Strategy 3) where it aggressively moves and takes ownership of uploaded files.
- Synology Photos (Strategy 1 or 2): If you use Synology instead of TrueNAS, it forces a specific structure but sits on top of standard SMB shares (the
/photoshare). You can browse the files like Strategy 2. However, its mobile app backs up photos into a very rigidYYYY/MMformat, somewhat blending Strategy 1 and 3 depending on how much you manage manually vs automatically. - Google Photos / Apple iCloud (Strategy 3): Commercial cloud products completely hide the file system from you. You don’t get an “SMB Share” to browse Google Photos. You surrender total control of file organization in exchange for convenience (The purest form of Strategy 3).
The Adobe Lightroom Question
While Lightroom is a professional RAW editor (Digital Asset Manager) rather than a consumer gallery viewer, it is often discussed in this context. The version of Lightroom you use dictates your storage strategy:
- Lightroom Classic (and free alternatives like Darktable): These are the perfect Strategy 2 companions. They expect you to own your folder structure. You point them at your TrueNAS SMB share, and they save non-destructive edits into sidecar files (
.xmp) or local databases. Because they use Strategy 2, they are fully compatible with Immich! You can use Lightroom Classic or Darktable on your desktop to edit RAWs, and configure Immich to read that same SMB share so your family can view the finished JPEGs on their phones. - Lightroom (Cloud-Based / formerly CC): This is the pure Strategy 3 approach. You upload everything to Adobe’s cloud and they manage the backend structure entirely, locking you into their ecosystem.
[!TIP] Selected Primary Strategy: Strategy 2 (The SMB-First Model) This stack is architected around Strategy 2 to align with TrueNAS storage principles:
- Single Source of Truth: All photos and videos (phone backups, DSLR shots, drone footage) reside strictly inside one single TrueNAS ZFS dataset (
/mnt/tank/photos).- 100% Software Independent (Zero Lock-In): Photos remain standard files (
.jpg,.heic,.mp4) in standard folders. You maintain full read/write access over SMB/NFS for Lightroom, Digikam, or file managers.- Immich as a UI Layer: Immich serves as a rich, lightning-fast web/mobile frontend interface with AI search and face clustering—without capturing your file organization or taking ownership of disk layouts.
Workflow with the SMB-First Model
Because we are bypassing Immich’s internal ingest engine, DO NOT enable the “Backup” feature in the Immich mobile app. Instead, you need a dedicated tool to push photos from your phone directly to the TrueNAS /mnt/tank/photos/Phone_Uploads/ folder over the network.
Recommended Mobile Upload Tools (iOS/Android to TrueNAS)
- PhotoSync (The Gold Standard): Connects directly to TrueNAS over SMB, WebDAV, or SFTP. It allows incredibly granular custom folder naming (e.g.,
YYYY/MM/DeviceName/filename.heic) and supports reliable, automated background syncing when you connect to your home Wi-Fi. (Note: Automated background SMB backup requires the “Premium” lifetime license, which is a one-time purchase of roughly ~$25). - Nextcloud App (The “If You Already Have It” Option): If you are running Nextcloud on TrueNAS, the Nextcloud mobile app has an excellent free “Auto Upload” feature that drops camera roll photos directly into a designated dataset folder. Immich simply scans that folder.
- Syncthing / Möbius Sync: The holy grail for Android users, but on iOS (via Möbius Sync), Apple’s strict background execution rules can make automated silent syncing unreliable.
The Day-to-Day Routine
- Phone Backups: Handled automatically by your chosen tool above.
- Camera & DSLR Photos: Continue dropping camera uploads into
/mnt/tank/photos/2026/Maine_Trip/ - Immich’s Role: Immich operates as a 100% read-only frontend UI for your entire dataset. It detects changes automatically via a Periodic Scan, presenting the final result seamlessly.