Immich, the popular open-source, self-hosted photo and video management solution, has launched a community-driven initiative to improve its metadata handling capabilities. Through the new EXIF Dataset project, users can contribute their photos to help train and improve Immich’s EXIF parsing and metadata extraction features.
I recently contributed some of my own photos to the project, and I want to share how easy and straightforward the process is. If you’re an Immich user (or simply an open-source enthusiast), this is a fantastic way to give back to the community.
What is the EXIF Dataset Project?
EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data is the metadata embedded in your photos by your camera or smartphone. This includes information like the camera make and model, date and time, GPS coordinates, lens information, and much more. Immich uses this data extensively to organize your photo library, enable timeline views, power location-based features, and facilitate powerful search capabilities.
The EXIF Dataset project at datasets.immich.app/projects/exif allows community members to contribute photos along with their intact EXIF metadata. This crowdsourced dataset helps the Immich team understand how different cameras and devices encode their metadata, ultimately improving compatibility and parsing accuracy for everyone.
The contribution process is remarkably simple and well-designed. Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Upload Your Photos
After navigating to the EXIF Dataset project page, you’re greeted with a clean upload interface. I uploaded a couple of photos taken with my Samsung Galaxy A55 5G – a beach landscape shot and a photo from a beachside restaurant.
The clean upload interface showing my first selected photo with its EXIF metadata displayed
The interface immediately displays the extracted EXIF information on the right side, including the capture type (Single), camera brand (Samsung), and camera model (Galaxy A55 5G). This lets you verify that your photos contain the metadata you want to contribute.
Step 2: Select Photos for Submission
You can upload multiple photos at once using the “+ Add More” button. I selected both of my photos for contribution – each showing clearly with a checkmark indicating selection.
Two photos selected and ready to submit to the EXIF Dataset
The interface provides convenient “Select All” and “Deselect All” buttons, as well as a delete option if you change your mind about any uploads.
Step 3: Agree to the CC0 License
When you click “Submit asset(s) to dataset”, a Dataset Agreement dialog appears. This is where the legal side of your contribution is handled transparently.
The Dataset Agreement confirms your photos will be released under the CC0 public domain license
ℹ️ About CC0: The CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license means you’re releasing your contributed photos into the public domain. This allows the Immich project (and anyone else) to use the images freely for any purpose. Make sure you only upload photos you own the rights to and are comfortable sharing publicly.
The agreement requires you to confirm two things:
You agree to release the uploaded assets under the CC0 license into the public domain
The files have not been modified in any way that would alter their original content or metadata
You also provide a contact email in case the Immich team has any questions about your upload.
Why Should You Contribute?
Contributing to the EXIF Dataset helps improve Immich in several ways:
Better Device Support: By collecting EXIF samples from many different cameras and phones, Immich can improve its parsing for devices that may have quirks or non-standard metadata encoding
Improved Metadata Extraction: The dataset helps identify edge cases and unusual metadata formats that might otherwise go unnoticed
Community-Driven Development: Your contribution directly influences the quality of an open-source project used by thousands of self-hosters worldwide
Supporting Privacy-Focused Software: Immich is a privacy-respecting alternative to cloud-based photo services like Google Photos – your contribution helps make it even better
Tips for Contributing
To make your contribution as valuable as possible:
Contribute from different devices: If you have photos from older cameras, different smartphone brands, or professional equipment, these are especially valuable
Keep metadata intact: Don’t strip or modify the EXIF data before uploading – the original metadata is exactly what’s needed
Consider variety: Photos taken in different conditions (indoor, outdoor, various lighting) may contain different metadata values
Check your ownership: Only contribute photos you’ve taken yourself or have explicit rights to share
About Immich
For those unfamiliar with Immich, it’s a high-performance, self-hosted photo and video management solution that offers features comparable to Google Photos – but with full control over your data. Key features include automatic backup from mobile devices, facial recognition, smart search, timeline views, shared albums, and much more.
Immich is developed under the AGPL-3.0 license and is backed by FUTO, an organization dedicated to developing privacy-preserving technology. The project has grown tremendously, with over 77,000 stars on GitHub, making it one of the most popular self-hosted applications available.
🏠 Self-Host Immich: Get started with Immich at immich.app – available for Docker, TrueNAS, Unraid, and other platforms.
Conclusion
Contributing to the Immich EXIF Dataset is a simple yet meaningful way to support open-source software development. The process takes just a few minutes, and your contribution will help improve photo management for the entire Immich community.
Happy New Year, self-hosters! The Immich team has kicked off 2026 with a bang, releasing version 2.5.0 – aptly named the “90,000 Stars Release” in celebration of reaching this impressive GitHub milestone. This release is packed with long-awaited features that significantly improve both the mobile and web experience. Let’s dive into what’s new.
Free Up Space: Finally Here
This feature has been one of the most requested since the early days of Immich (it has a 3-digit issue ID!). Free Up Space allows you to remove local media files from your mobile device that have already been successfully backed up to your Immich server.
Free Up Space accessible from the user profile panelConfiguration options for Free Up Space
The feature includes smart configuration options:
Cutoff date: Only process photos and videos on or before a specified date
Keep albums: Preserve specific albums (WhatsApp-related albums are kept by default)
Keep favorites: Favorited assets stay on your device
Keep on device: Option to always keep all photos or all videos
Before any files are removed, you’ll see a review screen showing exactly what will be deleted and how much storage you’ll reclaim. Deleted items go to your device’s native Trash, giving you a safety net.
Non-Destructive Photo Editing
Immich now supports non-destructive editing – a major enhancement for anyone who’s hesitated to edit photos for fear of losing the original. Edits are stored in the database while original files remain untouched. You can always revert to the original.
Click the edit icon to enter edit mode
Currently supported editing operations:
Cropping
Rotation
Mirroring
The editing interface with cropping, rotation, and mirroring toolsOpening the editor on an edited asset loads existing edits for adjustment
When downloading an edited asset, you get the edited version by default, but can also choose to download the original. Note that mobile editing still uses the old system for now – the non-destructive approach will come to mobile in a future release.
Web-Based Database Backup and Restore
Database management just got significantly easier. Previously, restoring an Immich instance required command-line access – a barrier for users new to self-hosting. Now, the entire backup and restore pipeline is built into the web UI.
You can restore from two locations:
Restore from the Administration → Maintenance pageRestore from the Onboarding page on a fresh installation
This is particularly valuable if you’ve ever worried about database corruption from power loss or system failures.
Upload Improvements
Foreground uploads on mobile have been significantly improved. The new implementation brings back reliable upload handling while adding concurrent uploads and proper support for assets with missing file extensions (common with DJI and Fusion Camera files).
Improved upload interface with concurrent upload support
A notable improvement for iOS/iCloud users: uploads now send unique metadata to the server for faster checksum retrieval when reinstalling the app. To take advantage of this for existing uploads, go to App Settings → Sync Status and tap “Sync Cloud IDs” once.
Sync Cloud IDs to backfill metadata for existing uploads (iOS/iCloud users)
Visual Refresh
The entire Immich experience has received a visual update across web, mobile, and documentation. A new font improves readability, especially for numbers and smaller text.
Refreshed visual design with improved typography
The UI library has been integrated more deeply into the web app, providing more consistent components and better visual hierarchy.
More standardized and coherent UI components
All icon buttons now include tooltips – no more guessing what a button does.
All icon buttons now show helpful tooltips
Additional Highlights
Star Rating on Mobile
Mobile users can now rate their photos with stars, bringing feature parity with the web application.
Star rating now available on mobile
Disable Admin Setup
New environment variable IMMICH_ALLOW_SETUP=true|false lets you prevent the admin setup page from appearing after initial configuration – useful if your database ever gets accidentally reset.
Fine-Grained API Permissions
New scoped permissions for API keys include: map.read, map.search, and folder.read.
Progressive JPEGs
Image generation settings now include an option for progressive JPEGs, allowing supported browsers to render images progressively as they load.
New progressive JPEG option in image generation settings
Slideshow Loop
Web slideshows can now automatically restart when they reach the end.
New loop option in slideshow settings
Native HTTP Clients
All remote images now use optimized HTTP clients supporting HTTP/2 and HTTP/3. Images load faster, caching is improved, and the offline experience is more responsive with a larger cache size.
Important Notes
Mobile App Update Paused: As of the release, the team has temporarily halted the mobile app release due to some reported migration issues. Check the GitHub release page for the latest status.
Client Compatibility: Mobile clients must be updated to v2.5.0 to view edited versions of assets. Older clients will continue to see original images.
How to Update
Follow the standard update procedure for your deployment method. As always, ensure you have a backup before upgrading.
For the complete changelog including all bug fixes and documentation updates, check the full release notes on GitHub.
Support the Project
If you find Immich helpful, consider supporting the project by purchasing a product key at buy.immich.app or grabbing some merchandise at immich.store.
Welcome to version v2.2.0 of Immich. This release comes with the traditional Immich fashion, where the features and enhancements list is longer than the bug fixes list. Let’s dive right into the highlights of this exciting release
New mutable Docker tag for v2 versions
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
[Web] Wasm implementation for justified layout calculation 🦀
[Web] UI improvement for the review duplicates screen
[Mobile] Show albums in the asset’s detail sheet
[Mobile] Show similar photos
[Mobile] Chat-style for activity view
[Mobile] High precision seeking for video
[Mobile] New UI to present server-client version mismatch
Option to create a new user as an admin
Notable fix: older iOS devices freeze when spawning background tasks
Notable fix: temporary files on iOS are now cleaned up properly