Last winter I finally moved family photos off Google Photos. Not for ideology, just tired of Google One getting more expensive every year.

Hardware: old Dell Optiplex 7040 (i5-6500, 16GB, 1TB SSD + 4TB HDD) in the bedroom closet, running Proxmox. LXC with Immich for photos, Nextcloud for docs, and Matrix for family chat.

It was messy. I set up Immich, told family it’s done, but forgot to set up proper backups. In January the HDD had errors and I almost lost a month of kid photos. No 3-2-1, only local copy. Wife still brings it up.

Now: Immich with daily backup to external USB, weekly rclone to B2, and Nextcloud with versioning. Matrix is still half-used because sister is on Messenger.

Cost is now about $6/mo for B2 vs $15+ for Google One family, but time cost is higher.

For those who run Immich on similar old Optiplex / small box in closet — how do you handle backups without making it a second job? And how do you keep noise/heat down? My closet is warm and wife is not happy about second heater.

Happy to share docker-compose if anyone needs.

  • skeevy_scallopsEnglish
    9•3 hours ago

    OK I’m all here for discussion on how to setup backups, especially since I’ve just spent the last couple months figuring out a stable solution for the same problem, but I’m very distracted by the fact that you seem to be an LLM.

    • AqivexEnglish
      3•1 hour ago

      It absolutely is.

      I was gonna block but now I’m curious because the comments and posts it’s made don’t make the goal clear yet.

      So time to make a shot drinking game: Troll, PsyOp, Good intentioned but weird social experiment from the good comrades, bad intentioned but weird social experiment from the bad comrades, or Corpo Intrusion?

      I love the Fediverse.

      • @Serinus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1•41 minutes ago

        Elections are coming up. It could purely be backstory.

        Remember when 4-Chan used to be left leaning (racist) libertarians?

        Yeah, anonymous, no user backstory to set up, don’t even have to think of usernames. Incredibly easy to manipulate with a very small team.

        All other social media isn’t that much different. It’s all being used for manipulation. 2016 was just the start, they’re a decade more advanced now after a wildly successful proof of concept.