Immich in the Real World: Why Technical Brilliance Doesn’t Equal Consumer Readiness
Honest review A builder’s perspective on how Immich behaves for non‑technical users in everyday use.
1. How a normal user actually uses Immich
It’s important to separate how a builder uses Immich from how a normal person does. A technical user might carefully batch uploads, watch logs, and reboot when needed. A typical user does none of that.
A realistic non‑technical pattern looks like this:
- Take photos and videos for days or weeks without opening Immich.
- Open the mobile app occasionally to “let it sync.”
- Expect it to upload everything automatically while the app is in the background.
- Assume it will “just work”, like iCloud, Google Photos, or OneDrive.
That simple behavior is enough to expose Immich’s weaknesses.
2. Medium mobile batches are enough to break the GPU
In practice, a “catch‑up” sync from a phone easily creates a medium batch of 100–300 photos and videos. This is not a corner case; it is exactly how normal users behave.
Under the hood, those 100–300 items are not “small” for Immich’s ML stack. For each item, it may run:
- Thumbnail generation
- Facial recognition
- CLIP embeddings for semantic search
- OCR for text in images
- Video analysis for clips
On paper, a 100–200 file batch doesn’t sound big. In reality, it’s enough to:
- Push the GPU into out‑of‑memory (OOM) states.
- Trigger CUDA and TensorRT failures.
- Force Immich to fall back to CPU‑only processing mid‑job.
- Make the app feel slow, stuck, or unreliable to a normal user.
So the “medium batch” that every non‑technical user will inevitably create is exactly the danger zone for Immich’s GPU pipeline.
3. The mobile app: slow uploads and unrealistic expectations
On mobile, especially iOS, Immich’s upload behavior has two conflicting properties:
- Uploads are slow – which ironically helps the GPU by reducing peak load.
- But even slow trickles still accumulate into batches of ~200 items or more.
On iOS specifically:
- The app often needs to be open and in the foreground to maintain uploads.
- The device may need to be plugged in and left overnight for large syncs.
- This is something a builder might do; a consumer will not.
For a normal user, the experience becomes:
- “It’s slow.”
- “It only really uploads when I stare at it.”
- “If I don’t babysit it, my photos are not fully backed up.”
That’s not “bad tech”; it’s simply not consumer‑grade UX.
4. No desktop sync: manual uploads only
For many people, a photo library is not just on their phone. It’s also:
- Folders on a Windows or macOS laptop.
- Archived photos on an external drive.
- Pictures edited on a desktop machine.
Immich, as it stands today:
- Has no native desktop sync client for Windows, macOS, or Linux.
- Cannot automatically watch and sync folders like Dropbox or OneDrive.
- Relies on manual uploads via browser or other tools.
That means desktop ingestion is:
- Manual – drag & drop, upload, wait.
- Non‑continuous – there is no background sync.
- Easy to forget – which defeats the idea of a “safe backup.”
Immich does do a good job of filtering duplicates, which helps. But it is still not a set‑and‑forget, “always in sync” solution for desktops.
5. Strengths vs weaknesses: an honest balance
What Immich does impressively well
- Facial recognition – fast and accurate on GPU.
- Smart (semantic) search – search by concept, not just filename.
- OCR and text search – find images by text inside them.
- Duplicate filtering – avoids clutter from repeated imports.
- LAN‑only operation – great for privacy and sovereignty.
- Good performance on fiber – especially within your local network.
Where Immich struggles for normal users
- Fragile GPU behavior – medium batches can cause OOM and CUDA errors.
- Mobile upload UX – slow, foreground‑dependent, not consumer‑friendly.
- No desktop sync clients – no automatic folder watching or continuous backup.
- Manual desktop uploads – requires discipline and effort most users don’t have.
- Not designed for always‑online, internet‑exposed use – better kept inside a LAN.
6. So, who should actually use Immich?
Based on real testing and not just feature lists, Immich makes sense for:
- Technical users who understand servers, containers, and GPU quirks.
- Hobbyists and builders who are willing to babysit imports and tweak settings.
- Families on a fast LAN who want a private Google Photos‑like experience and can live with manual desktop uploads.
Immich is not a good fit (today) for:
- Non‑technical users who expect automatic, background syncing across phone and desktop.
- People with huge backlogs who want to “dump it all in and forget about it.”
- Public, internet‑exposed photo platforms with many users uploading frequently.
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