--- title: I replaced Google Photos and OneDrive with my own... description: A user shares his year-long experience replacing Google Photos and OneDrive with Immich, a self-hosted photo management server. He praises its Google... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-google-photos-and-onedrive-with-my-own-server-and-it-made-me-realize-i-never-needed-the--pv1maelxn twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I replaced Google Photos and OneDrive with my own server, and it made me realize I never needed the cloud | daily.dev og:description: A user shares his year-long experience replacing Google Photos and OneDrive with Immich, a self-hosted photo management server. He praises its Google... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-google-photos-and-onedrive-with-my-own-server-and-it-made-me-realize-i-never-needed-the--pv1maelxn og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/PV1MaELxN.png og:image:alt: I replaced Google Photos and OneDrive with my own server, and it made me realize I never needed the cloud og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I replaced Google Photos and OneDrive with my own server, and it made me realize I never needed the cloud **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A user shares his year-long experience replacing Google Photos and OneDrive with Immich, a self-hosted photo management server. He praises its Google Photos-like UI, timeline view, map feature, and albums, and notes photos are additionally backed up to Backblaze for offsite storage rather than relying on Microsoft or Google cloud. He also flags downsides: storage templates can complicate future Immich upgrades, and updates have occasionally failed due to Postgres version requirements, requiring manual intervention. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What issues can occur when updating a self-hosted Immich server? Immich updates can fail when a new release requires a newer version of Postgres than the one currently running, causing the automatic update process to break and requiring manual intervention to complete the upgrade. Using storage templates, which organize files into folders by month and day, can also introduce complications when upgrading to a newer Immich version. _Anyone weighing self-hosted photo tools against cloud storage can compare real-world trade-offs on daily.dev._ ### What are the main benefits of using Immich instead of Google Photos or OneDrive? Immich offers a Google Photos-like interface with a timeline view, location-based map browsing, and album creation, while keeping photos stored locally on a personal server instead of a third-party cloud. It supports automatic mobile backups and lets users pair local storage with a plain backup service like Backblaze for off-site redundancy without any AI or content features attached. _Developers exploring self-hosted alternatives to big cloud photo services can track experiences like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [My family stopped using Google Photos and OneDrive after installing this container](https://daily.dev/posts/my-family-stopped-using-google-photos-and-onedrive-after-installing-this-container-kzhy4y2ww) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [This is the first self-hosted app I've used that actually feels better than its cloud alternative](https://daily.dev/posts/this-is-the-first-self-hosted-app-i-ve-used-that-actually-feels-better-than-its-cloud-alternative-mgwmevckw) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Self-hosting my photos with Immich](https://daily.dev/posts/self-hosting-my-photos-with-immich-xv9hvupn8) · Lobsters · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [I replaced Google Photos with Immich, and my entire photo library finally stays under my control](https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-google-photos-with-immich-and-my-entire-photo-library-finally-stays-under-my-control-i3hrfiwq0) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#postgresql](https://daily.dev/tags/postgresql), [#self-hosting](https://daily.dev/tags/self-hosting) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-google-photos-and-onedrive-with-my-own-server-and-it-made-me-realize-i-never-needed-the--pv1maelxn) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I replaced Google Photos and OneDrive with my own server, and it made me realize I never needed the cloud","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-google-photos-and-onedrive-with-my-own-server-and-it-made-me-realize-i-never-needed-the--pv1maelxn","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-google-photos-and-onedrive-with-my-own-server-and-it-made-me-realize-i-never-needed-the--pv1maelxn"},"datePublished":"2026-08-20T21:01:39.649Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:31:34.796Z","description":"A user shares his year-long experience replacing Google Photos and OneDrive with Immich, a self-hosted photo management server. 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