Move images from internal storage to external library

[hupfdule]

I am using Immich already with curated external libraries.

What I would really like to do is to use it for the bulk of images in my (and my spouses) phone, too.
My idea is to let Immich upload the images from the phone into its internal storage so they end up in the timeline (that should work without a problem).

I would like to be able to organize the photos of special interest (e.g. of specific events) into different folders. That should be possible by utilizing Storage Templates and using the album name as a subfolder in the Storage Template.

I would then want to move these folders with that images to an external library.
The one thing I am afraid of is the following note in https://immich.app/docs/administration/backup-and-restore#asset-types-and-storage-locations:

danger Do not touch the files inside these folders under any circumstances except taking a backup. Changing or removing an asset can cause untracked and missing files. You can think of it as App-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named, the only access to viewing, changing and deleting assets is only through the mobile or browser interface.

This sounds like moving images from Immichs internal storage to an external library on filesystem level is a bad idea.

But what does actually happen in such a case? What is this warning referring to?

And what is the recommended approach for doing this? How can I move images from the internal storage (that are already visible in the timeline) to a external library?

[bo0tzz]

This sounds like moving images from Immichs internal storage to an external library on filesystem level is a bad idea.

Correct

But what does actually happen in such a case?

Immich will not realise the files were moved, and all kinds of stuff will break when it fails to find them where it expects.

There is no recommended approach for this. You'll probably need to copy the files and then manually delete the internal library ones via the Immich GUI.

[chrislxn]

There's an idea, not verified but may work:
move the files and keep the data structures to a new location, Use a Symbolic link to refer your old folder to the new location

[hupfdule]

I also didn’t try it, but don’t expect this to work. As the internal ind the external library are totally separated in Immich the symbolic link would probably only lead to duplictes of all these files.

I think I will try @bo0tzz idea first an copy the relevant files and delete them afterwards from within Immich. Only an ugly workaround, but a least sounds as it would work until Immichs support of external libraries gets improved (if this will happen).

[Nordlicht-13]

I have the same workflow.
I changed to this:
Immich is not uploading the images anymore.
Set up syncthing to load immages to my TrueNAS
Storting images into the external library.

It would be nice to have a extended delete-function to delete a image from the library and force deleting the file as well.