this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
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hi. i'm looking for an extremely simple selfhosted photo gallery software. i have photos from my laptop, a camera, and my phone. they are all rsync'ed onto my server. so on the server I have ~/Pictures/Laptop ~/Pictures/Camera ~/Pictures/Phone filled with JPEG/PNG/HEICs and no subdirectories.

i want to view photos from all three directories on a single timeline/feed, from the web (and if possible, via a mobile app). currently I VNC onto the server to run XnView and check each directory and this is a terrible user experience especially on a phone.

i don't want to run a separate database or anything complex, so things like Immich or Photoprism are not an option. would be nice to be able to assign a tag to some images ("work", "computer", ...) but it's not a necessity. and i don't need the ability to edit/remove images from the gallery.

i've considered rolling my own solution but thought there might be something already available.

thanks!

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[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Immich works really well. Don’t fear the database. Docker makes it all super easy too.

Alternatively, Plex manages photos ok-ish.

[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.today 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (4 children)

I really don't want another complex service i have to manage. ideally i want something that's a simple python/perl/php script or something like that.

forgot to mention in OP but I run freebsd on my server and it's possible to run docker(podman) with linux emulation if it's very necessary, but i prefer not to use it

[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 hour ago

I hear you, I went through the same journey. After getting Immich set up, I haven’t had to do a single thing to it. There are scripts that can turn your folders into Immich albums, so I just set up the docker containers, ran the script, and watched as everything was created for me without more labor on my part.

I hope somebody else has the solution you’re looking for, but if you don’t find it, I really think you should give it a whirl because it turned out to be way easier than I expected it to be.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 2 points 19 minutes ago* (last edited 18 minutes ago)

Immich isn't complex, and I don't think it requires a separate database.

Edit: just checked and technically it does, but if you use the docker compose then it deploys it automatically and you don't have to think about it at all.

[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 3 points 47 minutes ago

It does nothing but serve photo. Background tasks are minimal and many of them only run once on new photos.

[–] MrQuallzin@pie.eyeofthestorm.place 0 points 25 minutes ago

You're likely not going to find something so simple and lightweight. Immich has some setup, but if you want a good gallery that's the way to go. Don't be afraid of the learning.