Immich v2.5

Introduction: A Milestone Worth Celebrating

The core open-source team behind Immich has just hit an incredible milestone: 90,000 stars on GitHub! In their own words, this latest release is their “fireworks to celebrate” this achievement, and we want to extend a huge congratulations to them for this well-deserved recognition.

GitHub stars are more than just a number; they represent immense community trust, widespread adoption, and a project’s powerful momentum. This achievement signals Immich’s evolution from a niche self-hosted tool into a major force in the world of private media management. We’re thrilled to announce that their celebratory update, v2.5, packed with highly-requested features, is now available on our platform.

Major Feature Highlights: Powerful New Tools for Your Photos

This update is packed with significant new capabilities. Let’s dive into what you can do with the latest version.

Finally! Reclaim Storage with “Free Up Space”

This has been one of the most requested features for a long time, and it’s finally here. The “Free Up Space” tool allows you to safely remove local photos and videos from your mobile devices after they have been successfully backed up to your Immich server.

The feature gives you granular control to ensure you only remove what you intend to. You can configure a cutoff date to only consider older media, choose to keep specific albums on your device (WhatsApp albums are kept by default), preserve your favorites, or always keep all photos or all videos.

The process is simple and keeps you in the driver’s seat:

• Scan & Review: Before anything is deleted, the app presents a clear summary of which files will be removed and exactly how much storage you will reclaim.
• Safe Deletion: After you confirm, the selected items are moved to your device’s native Trash/Recycle Bin, not permanently deleted. This provides an extra layer of safety, allowing you to recover files if you change your mind.

You can find this powerful new feature on the user profile or settings page in the mobile app. To see the storage space become available, remember that you must manually empty your device’s system trash after using the feature.

Edit Without Fear: Introducing Non-Destructive Editing

Immich now supports non-destructive photo editing, a professional-grade feature that guarantees your original photos remain completely untouched and safe.

Here’s how it works: All modifications are stored separately in the database, and new thumbnails are generated to reflect the changes, while the source file is never altered. You can always revert to the original asset at any time.

Currently supported edits include:

• Cropping
• Rotation
• Mirroring

This means you can experiment with edits freely, knowing your original photo is always preserved.

Important Limitations: For transparency, it’s important to note a few limitations in this initial release.

• The mobile editor still uses the old destructive system (saving a new version of the photo) for now.
• Mobile clients must be updated to v2.5 or later to view assets edited on the web.
• When downloading an edited photo, the EXIF metadata from the original asset is not yet included.

A Fresh New Look: Visual and UI Refresh

This release introduces a polished visual update that makes the entire user experience more coherent and intuitive. You’ll notice a new font, “The-name-must-not-be-named” Sans (yes, that’s its real name in the release notes!), which significantly improves legibility, especially for smaller text and numbers. The user interface components have also been standardized across the platform for a more consistent feel. Best of all, helpful tooltips have been added to all icon buttons, so you’ll never have to guess what a button does again.

Snappier Performance and Smoother Browsing

You’ll feel a significant performance boost in this release. The implementation of Native HTTP clients (HTTP/2 and HTTP/3) makes image loading much faster and more responsive as you scroll through your library. This also improves the offline experience through better responsiveness and a larger cache size. Additionally, the use of Progressive JPEGs allows images to render more smoothly in web browsers, showing a preview faster while the full-resolution image loads.

Star Ratings on the Go

The popular star-rating feature from the web application is now available on the mobile apps. This brings feature parity between platforms and gives you another great tool for organizing and finding your favorite photos, no matter which device you’re on.

Pro Tip: If you don’t see the star rating option, make sure the feature is enabled in your user settings on the web.

Upload & Quality-of-Life Improvements

Beyond the major highlights, v2.5 includes several other valuable updates that refine the user experience.

Supercharged Uploads

Foreground uploads in the mobile app are now significantly more reliable and faster. This new implementation uses concurrent handling and also correctly processes assets that may be missing file extensions, a common issue with media from software like DJI or Fusion Camera.

More QoL Upgrades

• A new slideshow loop option has been added to the web interface, allowing your slideshows to play continuously.
• Improved support for handling assets from specific cameras that may be missing file extensions, ensuring more of your media is handled correctly.

Conclusion: Explore the New Features Today!

The Immich v2.5 update delivers a massive leap forward in functionality and refinement. You can now reclaim precious device storage, edit photos without risk, and enjoy a more polished and significantly faster overall experience.

Your instance on our platform has already been updated to v2.5. Log in now and explore these powerful new features—no setup required. The future for Immich is bright, and we’re excited to bring these continuous improvements to you.