Immich Folder Album Creator

This is a python script designed to automatically create albums in Immich from a folder structure mounted into the Immich container. This is useful for automatically creating and populating albums for external libraries. Using the provided docker image, the script can simply be added to the Immich compose stack and run along the rest of Immich's containers.

Current compatibility: Immich v1.111.x and below

Disclaimer

This script is mostly based on the following original script: REDVM/immich_auto_album.py

Table of Contents

1. Usage (Bare Python Script)
2. Usage (Docker)
3. Choosing the correct root_path
4. How It Works (with Examples)
5. Cleaning Up Albums

Usage

Bare Python Script

1. Download the script and its requirements

   curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator/main/immich_auto_album.py -o immich_auto_album.py
   curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator/main/requirements.txt -o requirements.txt

2. Install requirements

   pip3 install -r requirements.txt

3. Run the script

   usage: immich_auto_album.py [-h] [-r ROOT_PATH] [-u] [-a ALBUM_LEVELS] [-s ALBUM_SEPARATOR] [-c CHUNK_SIZE] [-C FETCH_CHUNK_SIZE] [-l {CRITICAL,ERROR,WARNING,INFO,DEBUG}] [-k] [-i IGNORE] [-m {CREATE,CLEANUP,DELETE_ALL}] [-d] root_path api_url api_key
   
   Create Immich Albums from an external library path based on the top level folders
   
   positional arguments:
     root_path             The external libarary's root path in Immich
     api_url               The root API URL of immich, e.g. https://immich.mydomain.com/api/
     api_key               The Immich API Key to use
   
   options:
     -h, --help            show this help message and exit
     -r ROOT_PATH, --root-path ROOT_PATH
                           Additional external libarary root path in Immich; May be specified multiple times for multiple import paths or external libraries. (default: None)
     -u, --unattended      Do not ask for user confirmation after identifying albums. Set this flag to run script as a cronjob. (default: False)
     -a ALBUM_LEVELS, --album-levels ALBUM_LEVELS
                           Number of sub-folders or range of sub-folder levels below the root path used for album name creation. Positive numbers start from top of the folder structure, negative numbers from the bottom. Cannot be 0. If a range should be set, the
                           start level and end level must be separated by a comma like '<startLevel>,<endLevel>'. If negative levels are used in a range, <startLevel> must be less than or equal to <endLevel>. (default: 1)
     -s ALBUM_SEPARATOR, --album-separator ALBUM_SEPARATOR
                           Separator string to use for compound album names created from nested folders. Only effective if -a is set to a value > 1 (default: )
     -c CHUNK_SIZE, --chunk-size CHUNK_SIZE
                           Maximum number of assets to add to an album with a single API call (default: 2000)
     -C FETCH_CHUNK_SIZE, --fetch-chunk-size FETCH_CHUNK_SIZE
                           Maximum number of assets to fetch with a single API call (default: 5000)
     -l {CRITICAL,ERROR,WARNING,INFO,DEBUG}, --log-level {CRITICAL,ERROR,WARNING,INFO,DEBUG}
                           Log level to use (default: INFO)
     -k, --insecure        Set to true to ignore SSL verification (default: False)
     -i IGNORE, --ignore IGNORE
                           A string containing a list of folders, sub-folder sequences or file names separated by ':' that will be ignored. (default: )
     -m {CREATE,CLEANUP,DELETE_ALL}, --mode {CREATE,CLEANUP,DELETE_ALL}
                           Mode for the script to run with. CREATE = Create albums based on folder names and provided arguments; CLEANUP = Create album nmaes based on current images and script arguments, but delete albums if they exist; DELETE_ALL = Delete all
                           albums. If the mode is anything but CREATE, --unattended does not have any effect. Only performs deletion if -d/--delete-confirm option is set, otherwise only performs a dry-run. (default: CREATE)
     -d, --delete-confirm  Confirm deletion of albums when running in mode CLEANUP or DELETE_ALL. If this flag is not set, these modes will perform a dry run only. Has no effect in mode CREATE (default: False)
   

Plain example without optional arguments:

python3 ./immich_auto_album.py /path/to/external/lib https://immich.mydomain.com/api thisIsMyApiKeyCopiedFromImmichWebGui

Docker

A Docker image is provided to be used as a runtime environment. It can be used to either run the script manually, or via cronjob by providing a crontab expression to the container. The container can then be added to the Immich compose stack directly.

Environment Variables

The environment variables are analoguous to the script's command line arguments.

Environment varible	Mandatory?	Description
ROOT_PATH	yes	A single or a comma separated list of import paths for external libraries in Immich. Refer to Choosing the correct root_path.
API_URL	yes	The root API URL of immich, e.g. https://immich.mydomain.com/api/
API_KEY	yes	The Immich API Key to use
CRON_EXPRESSION	yes	A crontab-style expression (e.g. "0 * * * *") to perform album creation on a schedule (e.g. every hour).
ALBUM_LEVELS	no	Number of sub-folders or range of sub-folder levels below the root path used for album name creation. Positive numbers start from top of the folder structure, negative numbers from the bottom. Cannot be 0. If a range should be set, the start level and end level must be separated by a comma. Refer to How it works for a detailed explanation and examples.
ALBUM_SEPARATOR	no	Separator string to use for compound album names created from nested folders. Only effective if -a is set to a value > 1 (default: " ")
CHUNK_SIZE	no	Maximum number of assets to add to an album with a single API call (default: 2000)
FETCH_CHUNK_SIZE	no	Maximum number of assets to fetch with a single API call (default: 5000)
LOG_LEVEL	no	Log level to use (default: INFO), allowed values: CRITICAL,ERROR,WARNING,INFO,DEBUG
INSECURE	no	Set to true to disable SSL verification for the Immich API server, useful for self-signed certificates (default: false), allowed values: true, false
INSECURE	no	A string containing a list of folders, sub-folder sequences or file names separated by ':' that will be ignored.
MODE	no	Mode for the script to run with. CREATE = Create albums based on folder names and provided arguments CLEANUP = Create album nmaes based on current images and script arguments, but delete albums if they exist DELETE_ALL = Delete all albums. If the mode is anything but CREATE, --unattended does not have any effect. (default: CREATE). Refer to Cleaning Up Albums.
DELETE_CONFIRM	no	Confirm deletion of albums when running in mode CLEANUP or DELETE_ALL. If this flag is not set, these modes will perform a dry run only. Has no effect in mode CREATE (default: False). Refer to Cleaning Up Albums.

Run the container with Docker

To perform a manually triggered dry run (only list albums that would be created), use the following command:

docker run -e API_URL="https://immich.mydomain.com/api/" -e API_KEY="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" -e ROOT_PATH="/external_libs/photos" salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest /script/immich_auto_album.sh

To actually create albums after performing a dry run, use the following command (setting the UNATTENDED environment variable):

docker run -e UNATTENDED="1" -e API_URL="https://immich.mydomain.com/api/" -e API_KEY="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" -e ROOT_PATH="/external_libs/photos" salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest /script/immich_auto_album.sh

To set up the container to periodically run the script, give it a name, pass the TZ variable and a valid crontab expression as environment variable. This example runs the script every hour:

docker run --name immich-folder-album-creator -e TZ="Europe/Berlin" -e CRON_EXPRESSION="0 * * * *" -e API_URL="https://immich.mydomain.com/api/" -e API_KEY="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" -e ROOT_PATH="/external_libs/photos" salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest

If your external library uses multiple import paths or you have set up multiple external libraries, you can pass multiple paths in ROOT_PATH by setting it to a comma separated list of paths:

docker run --name immich-folder-album-creator -e TZ="Europe/Berlin" -e CRON_EXPRESSION="0 * * * *" -e API_URL="https://immich.mydomain.com/api/" -e API_KEY="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" -e ROOT_PATH="/external_libs/photos,/external_libs/more_photos" salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest

Run the container with Docker-Compose

Adding the container to Immich's docker-compose.yml file:

version: "3.8"

#
# WARNING: Make sure to use the docker-compose.yml of the current release:
#
# https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml
#
# The compose file on main may not be compatible with the latest release.
#

name: immich

services:
  immich-server:
    container_name: immich_server
    volumes:
     - /path/to/my/photos:/external_libs/photos
  ...
  immich-folder-album-creator:
    container_name: immich_folder_album_creator
    image: salvoxia/immich-folder-album-creator:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      API_URL: http://immich_server:3001/api
      API_KEY: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
      ROOT_PATH: /external_libs/photos
      CRON_EXPRESSION: "0 * * * *"
      TZ: Europe/Berlin

Choosing the correct root_path

The root path /path/to/external/lib/ is the path you have mounted your external library into the Immich container.
If you are following Immich's External library Documentation, you are using an environment variable called ${EXTERNAL_PATH} which is mounted to /usr/src/app/external in the Immich container. Your root_path to pass to the script is /usr/src/app/external.

How it works

The script utilizies Immich's REST API to query all images indexed by Immich, extract the folder for all images that are in the top level of any provided root_path, then creates albums with the names of these folders (if not yet exists) and adds the images to the correct albums.

The following arguments influence what albums are created:
root_path, --album-levels and --album-separator

• root_path is the base path where images are looked for. Multiple root paths can be specified by adding the -r argument as many times as necessary. Only images within that base path will be considered for album creation.
• --album-levels controls how many levels of nested folders are considered when creating albums. The default is 1. For examples see below.
• --album-separator sets the separator used for concatenating nested folder names to create an album name. It is a blank by default.

Examples:
Suppose you provide an external library to Immich under the path /external_libs/photos. The folder structure of photos might look like this:

/external_libs/photos/2020
/external_libs/photos/2020/02 Feb
/external_libs/photos/2020/02 Feb/Vacation
/external_libs/photos/2020/08 Aug/Vacation
/external_libs/photos/Birthdays/John
/external_libs/photos/Birthdays/Jane
/external_libs/photos/Skiing 2023

Albums created for root_path = /external_libs/photos (--album-levels is implicitly set to 1):

• 2020 (containing all images from 2020 and all sub-folders)
• Birthdays (containing all images from Birthdays itself as well as John and Jane)
• Skiing 2023

Albums created for root_path = /external_libs/photos (--album-levels is implicitly set to 1) and --ignore "Vacation":

• 2020 (containing all images from 2020, 2020/02 Feb and 2020/08 Aug, but NOT 2020/02 Feb/Vacation or 2020/08 Aug/Vacation)
• Birthdays (containing all images from Birthdays itself as well as John and Jane)
• Skiing 2023

Albums created for root_path = /external_libs/photos/Birthdays:

• John
• Jane

Albums created for root_path = /external_libs/photos and --album-levels = 2:

• 2020 (containing all images from 2020 itself, if any)
• 2020 02 Feb (containing all images from 2020/02 Feb itself, 2020/02 Feb/Vacation and 2020/02 Aug/Vacation)
• Birthdays John (containing all imags from Birthdays/John)
• Birthdays Jane (containing all imags from Birthdays/John)
• Skiing 2023

Albums created for root_path = /external_libs/photos, --album-levels = 3 and --album-separator " - " :

• 2020 (containing all images from 2020 itself, if any)
• 2020 - 02 Feb (containing all images from 02 Feb itself, if any)
• 2020 - 02 Feb - Vacation (containing all imags from 2020/02 Feb/Vacation)
• 2020 - 08 Aug - Vacation (containing all imags from 2020/02 Aug/Vacation)
• Birthdays - John
• Birthdays - Jane
• Skiing 2023

Albums created for root_path = /external_libs/photos, --album-levels = -1 and --album-separator " - " :

• 2020 (containing all images from 2020 itself, if any)
• 02 Feb (containing all images from 2020/02 Feb itself, if any)
• Vacation (containing all images from 2020/02 Feb/Vacation AND 2020/08 Aug/Vacation)
• John (containing all imags from Birthdays/John)
• Jane (containing all imags from Birthdays/Jane)
• Skiing 2023

Album Level Ranges

It is possible to specify not just a nunmber for album-levels, but a range from level x to level y in the folder structure that should make up an album's name:
--album-levels="2,3"
The range is applied to the folder structure beneath root_path from the top for positive levels and from the bottom for negative levels. Suppose the following folder structure for an external library with the script's root_path set to /external_libs/photos:

/external_libs/photos/2020/2020 02 Feb/Vacation
/external_libs/photos/2020/2020 08 Aug/Vacation

• --album-levels="2,3" will create albums (for this folder structure, this is equal to --album-levels="-2")
  • 2020 02 Feb Facation
  • 2020 08 Aug Vacation
• --album-levels="2,2" will create albums (for this folder structure, this is equal to --album-levels="-2,-2")
  • 2020 02 Feb
  • 2020 08 Aug

⚠️ Note that with negative album-levels or album level ranges, images from different parent folders will be mixed in the same album if they reside in sub-folders with the same name (see Vacation in example above).

Since Immich does not support real nested albums (yet?), neither does this script.

Cleaning Up Albums

The script supports differnt run modes (option -m/--mode or env variable MODE for Docker). The default mode is CREATE, which is used to create albums. The other two modes are CLEANUP and DELETE_ALL:

• CLEANUP: The script will generate album names using the script's arguments and the assets found in Immich, but instead of creating the albums, it will delete them (if they exist). This is useful if a large number of albums was created with no/the wrong --album-separator or --album-levels settings.
• DELETE_ALL: ⚠️ As the name suggests, this mode blindly deletes ALL albums from Immich. Use with caution!

To prevent accidental deletions, setting the mode to CLEANUP or DELETE_ALL alone will not actually delete any albums, but only perform a dry run. The dry run prints a list of albums that the script would delete.
To actually delete albums, the option -d/--delete-confirm (or env variable DELETE_CONFIRM for Docker) must be set.

WARNING ⚠️
Deleting albums cannot be undone! The only option is to let the script run again and create new albums base on the passed arguments and current assets in Immich.