settings.yml

User interface, download, and indexing preferences are stored in a settings.yml file, located in the config path. If it does not exist yet, it will be created automatically.

Experienced users may edit this file directly to change certain settings, as not all of them can be changed through the user interface.

Note that changes to the settings.yml file require a restart to take effect and that settings changed through the web interface will also be saved to this file. We therefore recommend that you only edit it manually while your instance is stopped.

File Format

You can use any text editor to create or modify YAML config files. However, it is important that related values, e.g. key-value pairs, start at the same indentation level and that spaces are used for indentation, for example:

Index:
  Path: "/"
  Rescan: false

To avoid ambiguity, it is recommended to enclose text strings in " (double quotes), especially if they contain spaces, a colon, or other special characters.

Global Defaults

User settings can optionally be initialized from a settings.yml file located in the same folder as the ↪ defaults.yml file, e.g. /etc/photoprism.

Sections

User Interface

UI:
  Scrollbar: true
  Zoom: false
  Theme: default
  Language: en

If you set Scrollbar to false, the browser scrollbar will be hidden regardless of which device you use and which page you are on. This is generally not recommended, but can be useful e.g. when taking screenshots.

Setting Zoom to true allows you to enlarge the user interface with gestures on mobile devices, making the app feel more like a regular web page. This can be useful for visually impaired users so that they can magnify text and images when needed.

Theme and Language change the theme and language of the user interface and correspond to the settings dropdowns you find when navigating to Settings > General.

File Downloads

Download:
  Name: file
  Disabled: false
  Originals: true
  MediaRaw: false
  MediaSidecar: false

The Name setting determines which file names are used when downloading pictures from search results or in the photo viewer. Currently, the following options are supported:

• file uses the actual file name in the originals folder
• original uses the original file name if the file was imported
• share uses a share-friendly file name based on the title and creation date

Note that your choice will not affect the file names in ZIP archives when you download complete albums, as they always use share-friendly names. However, we may add settings for this in a future release.

In case Originals is set to true, only the files in the originals folder will be downloaded, but not any files that were automatically created in the sidecar folder. This is the recommended default.

If you set MediaRaw to true, RAW image files are downloaded automatically, for example when you click the download button in the photo viewer.

Setting MediaSidecar to true will also download sidecar files as used for XMP metadata. This is generally not recommended except for some professional workflows.

Media Library

Import:
  Path: /
  Move: false
Index:
  Path: /
  Convert: true
  Rescan: false
  SkipArchived: false
Stack:
  UUID: true
  Meta: true
  Name: false

These settings affect which files are stacked, as well as your preferences when indexing or importing files.

You can also change these settings by navigating to Settings > Library and in the Library UI, so it is generally not necessary to edit them directly in the config file.