Setup Using Docker Compose¶
With Docker Compose, you use a YAML file to configure all application services so you can easily start them with a single command. Before you proceed, make sure you have Docker installed on your system. It is available for Mac, Linux, and Windows.
Podman is also supported as a drop-in replacement for Docker on Red Hat-compatible Linux distributions such as CentOS, Fedora, AlmaLinux, and Rocky Linux.
Step 1: Configure¶
Download our docker-compose.yml example
(right click and Save Link As... or use wget
) to a folder of your choice,
and change the configuration as needed:
wget https://dl.photoprism.app/docker/docker-compose.yml
Commands on Linux may have to be prefixed with sudo
when not running as root.
Note that this will point the home directory shortcut ~
to /root
in the volumes:
section of your docker-compose.yml
. Kernel security modules such as AppArmor and SELinux
have been reported to cause issues.
Ensure that your server has at least 4 GB of swap configured so that
indexing doesn't cause restarts when there are memory usage spikes.
Download our docker-compose.yml example
(right click and Save Link As... or use wget
) to a folder of your choice,
and change the configuration as needed:
wget https://dl.photoprism.app/podman/docker-compose.yml
Alternatively, you can run these commands to install Podman and download the default configuration to /opt/photoprism
:
mkdir -p /opt/photoprism
cd /opt/photoprism
curl -sSf https://dl.photoprism.app/podman/install.sh | bash
Please keep in mind to replace the docker
and docker compose
commands with podman
and podman-compose
when following the examples in our documentation.
Download our docker-compose.yml example for
the Raspberry Pi 3 / 4 and other ARM64-based devices (right click and Save Link As... or use wget
) to a folder of your choice,
and change the configuration as needed:
wget https://dl.photoprism.app/docker/arm64/docker-compose.yml
Mostly the same installation instructions as for regular Linux servers apply.
Commands may have to be prefixed with sudo
when not running as root.
Ensure your device meets the requirements and has
at least 4 GB of swap configured before you continue.
Download our docker-compose.yml example for
older ARMv7-based devices (right click and Save Link As... or use wget
) to a folder of your choice,
and change the configuration as needed:
wget https://dl.photoprism.app/docker/armv7/docker-compose.yml
Mostly the same installation instructions as for regular Linux servers apply.
Commands may have to be prefixed with sudo
when not running as root.
Ensure your device meets the requirements and has
at least 4 GB of swap configured before you continue.
Download our docker-compose.yml example for Windows (right click and Save Link As...) to a folder of your choice, and change the configuration as needed:
https://dl.photoprism.app/docker/windows/docker-compose.yml
Windows Pro users should disable the WSL 2 based engine in Docker Settings > General
so that they can mount drives other than C:
. 1 This will enable Hyper-V, which
Microsoft doesn't offer
to its Windows Home customers. Docker Desktop
uses dynamic memory allocation with WSL 2. It is important to explicitly increase the Docker memory limit to 4 GB or more when using
Hyper-V. The default of 2 GB can reduce indexing performance and cause unexpected restarts.
Also, ensure that you configure at least 4 GB of swap space.
Download our docker-compose.yml example for macOS (right click and Save Link As...) to a folder of your choice, and change the configuration as needed:
https://dl.photoprism.app/docker/macos/docker-compose.yml
It is important to increase the Docker memory limit to 4 GB or more, as the default of 2 GB can reduce indexing performance and cause unexpected restarts. Also, ensure that you configure at least 4 GB of swap space.
When editing the configuration file, please note that related values must start at the same indentation level in YAML files and that tabs are not allowed for indentation. We recommend using 2 spaces.
Always change PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_PASSWORD
so that the app starts with a secure initial password.
Never use easy-to-guess passwords or default values like insecure
on publicly accessible servers.
There is no default in case no password was provided. A minimum length of 8 characters is required.
Database¶
Our example includes a pre-configured MariaDB database server. If you remove it and provide no other database server credentials, SQLite database files will be created in the storage folder. Local SSD storage is best for databases of any kind.
Never store database files on an unreliable device such as a USB flash drive, SD card, or shared network folder. These may also have unexpected file size limitations, which is especially problematic for databases that do not split data into smaller files.
It is not possible to change the password via MARIADB_PASSWORD
after the database has been started
for the first time. Choosing a secure password is not essential if you don't expose the database to other apps and hosts.
To enable automatic schema updates after upgrading to a new major version, set MARIADB_AUTO_UPGRADE
to a non-empty value in your docker-compose.yml
.
Volumes¶
Since the app is running inside a container, you have to explicitly mount the host folders you want to use. PhotoPrism won't be able to see folders that have not been mounted. That's an important security feature.
/photoprism/originals¶
The originals folder contains your original photo and video files.
~/Pictures
will be mounted by default, where ~
is a shortcut for your home directory:
volumes:
# "/host/folder:/photoprism/folder" # example
- "~/Pictures:/photoprism/originals"
You can mount any folder accessible from the host, including network shares. Additional directories can also be mounted as subfolders of /photoprism/originals
(depending on overlay file system support):
volumes:
- "/home/username/Pictures:/photoprism/originals"
- "/example/friends:/photoprism/originals/friends"
- "/mnt/photos:/photoprism/originals/media"
On Windows, prefix the host path with the drive letter and use /
instead of \
as separator:
volumes:
- "D:/Example/Pictures:/photoprism/originals"
If read-only mode is enabled, all features that require write permission to the originals folder
are disabled, e.g. WebDAV, uploading and deleting files. Set PHOTOPRISM_READONLY
to "true"
in docker-compose.yml
for this. You can mount a folder with the :ro
flag to make Docker block
write operations as well.
/photoprism/storage¶
SQLite, config, cache, thumbnail and sidecar files are saved in the storage folder:
- a storage folder mount must always be configured in your
docker-compose.yml
file so that you do not lose these files after a restart or upgrade - never configure the storage folder to be inside the originals folder unless the name starts with a
.
to indicate that it is hidden - we recommend placing the storage folder on a local SSD drive for best performance
- mounting symbolic links or using them inside the storage folder is currently not supported
Should you later want to move your instance to another host, the easiest and most time-saving way is to copy the entire storage folder along with your originals and database.
/photoprism/import¶
You can optionally mount an import folder from which files can be transferred to the originals folder in a structured way that avoids duplicates:
- imported files receive a canonical filename and will be organized by year and month
- never configure the import folder to be inside the originals folder, as this will cause a loop by importing already indexed files
You can safely skip this. Adding files via Web Upload and WebDAV remains possible, unless read-only mode is enabled or the features have been disabled.
Step 2: Start the server¶
Open a terminal and change to the folder in which the docker-compose.yml
file has been saved.2
Run this command to start the application and database services in the background:
docker compose up -d
Note that our guides now use the new docker compose
command by default. If your server does not yet support it, you can still use docker-compose
.
Now open the Web UI by navigating to http://localhost:2342/. You should see a login screen.
Sign in with the user admin
and the initial password configured via PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_PASSWORD
.
You may change it on the account settings page.
Enabling public mode will disable authentication.
It can be helpful to keep Docker running in the foreground while debugging so that log messages are displayed directly. To do this, omit the -d
parameter when restarting.
Should the server already be running, or you see no errors, you may have started it on a different host and/or port. There could also be an issue with your browser, ad blocker, or firewall settings.
It is not possible to change the password via PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_PASSWORD
after the app has been
started for the first time. You may run docker compose exec photoprism photoprism passwd [username]
in a terminal to change an existing password. You can also reset your database for a clean start.
The server port and other config options can be changed in docker-compose.yml
at any time.
Remember to restart the services for changes to take effect:
docker compose stop
docker compose up -d
Step 3: Index Your Library¶
Our First Steps 👣 tutorial guides you through the user interface and settings to ensure your library is indexed according to your individual preferences.
Easy, isn't it?
Back us on Patreon or GitHub Sponsors. Your continued support helps us provide regular updates and remain independent, so we can fulfill our mission and protect your privacy.
Membership Activation¶
To connect a new instance to your membership account, you will need to log in with the admin user that is automatically created during setup, and then follow the steps described in our activation guide.
View Activation Guide › View Membership FAQ ›
Troubleshooting¶
If your server runs out of memory, the index is frequently locked, or other system resources are running low:
- Try reducing the number of workers by setting
PHOTOPRISM_WORKERS
to a reasonably small value indocker-compose.yml
, depending on the CPU performance and number of cores - Make sure your server has at least 4 GB of swap space so that indexing doesn't cause restarts when memory usage spikes; RAW image conversion and video transcoding are especially demanding
- If you are using SQLite, switch to MariaDB, which is better optimized for high concurrency
- As a last measure, you can disable the use of TensorFlow for image classification and facial recognition
Other issues? Our troubleshooting checklists help you quickly diagnose and solve them.
You are welcome to ask for help in our community chat. Sponsors receive direct technical support via email. Before submitting a support request, try to determine the cause of your problem.
Command-Line Interface¶
Introduction¶
photoprism help
lists all commands and config options available in the current version:
docker compose exec photoprism photoprism help
Use the --help
flag to see a detailed command description, for example:
docker compose exec photoprism photoprism backup --help
PhotoPrism's command-line interface is also well suited for job automation using a scheduler.
When using Docker Compose, you can prepend commands like docker compose exec [service] [command]
to run them in a service container.
Should this fail with no container found, make sure the service has been started, you have specified an existing service (usually photoprism
) and you are in the folder where the docker-compose.yml
file is located.
Opening a Terminal¶
To open a terminal session as the current user, you can do the following:
docker compose exec -u $UID photoprism bash
Changing the User ID¶
Specifying a user via -u $UID
is possible for all commands you run with Docker Compose. In the following examples, it is omitted for brevity.
The currently supported user ID ranges are 0, 33, 50-99, 500-600, and 900-1200. Note that commands will otherwise be executed as root.
We also recommend running the PhotoPrism service as a non-root user by setting either the user service property or the PHOTOPRISM_UID
environment variable in the docker-compose.yml
file. Don't forget to update file permissions and/or ownership with the chown
command when you make changes.
Examples¶
Action | Command |
---|---|
Start Services | docker compose up -d |
Stop Services | docker compose stop |
Download Updates | docker compose pull |
Uninstall | docker compose rm -s -v |
View Logs | docker compose logs --tail=100 -f |
Display Config Values | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism show config |
Show Migration Status | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism migrations ls |
Repeat Failed Migrations | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism migrations run -f |
Reset Database | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism reset -y |
Backup Database | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism backup -a -i |
Restore Database | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism restore -a -i |
Change Admin Password | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism passwd [username] |
Show User Management Commands | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism users help |
Reset Users | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism users reset -y |
Show Face Recognition Commands | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism faces help |
Index Faces | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism faces index |
Reset People & Faces | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism faces reset -f |
Transcode Videos to AVC | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism convert |
Regenerate Thumbnails | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism thumbs -f |
Update Index | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism index --cleanup |
Import Files | docker compose exec photoprism photoprism import [path] |
Complete Rescan
docker compose exec photoprism photoprism index -f
rescans all originals, including already indexed and unchanged files.
This may be necessary after major upgrades and after migrations of the database schema, especially if search results are missing or incorrect. Note you can also start a rescan from the user interface by navigating to Library > Index, checking "Complete Rescan" and then clicking "Start". Manually entered information such as labels, people, titles or descriptions will not be modified when indexing, even if you perform a "complete rescan".
-
https://rominirani.com/docker-on-windows-mounting-host-directories-d96f3f056a2c ↩
-
The default Docker Compose config filename is
docker-compose.yml
. For simplicity, it doesn't need to be specified when runningdocker compose
ordocker-compose
in the same directory. Config files for other apps or instances should be placed in separate folders. ↩