[Feature Request] Ability to sync with self-hosted servers

[TanihaR]

Hello,
I use Immich to back up all my photos and don’t keep images on my phone. Currently, when I add an image to the app, it creates a local copy. Immich then backs up this copy as well, resulting in duplicates. If I delete the local copy to save space, the image no longer appears in the app.
This becomes a major issue for long-term use. Imagine having 15,000+ photos in a few years I can’t keep all of them locally, yet I still want to relive my memories in the app.
I would love an option to directly use images from a hosted server (like Immich) instead of creating local duplicates, storing only thumbnails locally for fast display while loading full images from the server when needed. Since the photos are already backed up on the server, I wouldn’t need to manually export backups.
This feature would make the app much more sustainable for long-term journaling and compatible with personal cloud workflows.
Thank you for considering this. Love the app.

[Demizo]

This makes sense! That said, are you using image compression (which is on by default in the app)? With an expected use case of a few images per day and the default level of compression, it should take years to even reach a single GB. There is movement around adding more external syncing options, but these would still maintain a local copy of everything on device. I do see the use case for only having a limited cache on device and having the primary image a storage being a remote location. After all, some mobile devices may have limited space. Currently, the app is designed to be local first (it doesn't even have the internet permission), but I agree that support for this would be desirable.

[TanihaR]

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate you taking the time.
I did turn off compression as I was planning to use dailyyou as a primary way to organize my thoughts and photos. Right now if I delete the local copy, the image just disappears from the entry.Maybe a secondary option for hosted images could help here. That way the app could stay local-first,but if someone removes the local file they could still see the image (for example via a server copy) if they want to instead of it disappearing entirely.

[Demizo]

Agreed! In the meantime, I recommend leaving some level of image compression on. You won't lose much resolution or quality.

If you really want to keep the raw images, you could take the photos outside of the app and simply add them to you logs after the fact. This way Daily You's compression would apply to the image stored on device, but you could still backup the original image to Immich.