[BUG] The Android app discovers all media on the device and can't be filtered

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:11 -05:00

Owner

Originally created by @briandipalma on GitHub (Jan 4, 2024).

The bug

This is a reopening of a previously closed issue https://github.com/immich-app/immich/issues/4629 I opened Immich on my phone today to discover that it wasn't syncing my photos. OK so I just clicked on the backup button and saw that it has nothing selected to backup. Odd as it was backing up the "Camera" album just a few days ago. I've no idea what happened. I clicked into albums to backup and I have 651 to scroll through... is there any chance we could filter out "/storage/emulated/0/Music" from the scanned directories? The Samsung Gallery app does this. Or put "/storage/emulated/0/DCIM" up at the top like "Recent" is?

Anyway I scrolled up and down the albums and I can't find "Camera" so I'm pretty baffled as to what's going on.

The OS that Immich Server is running on

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Version of Immich Server

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Version of Immich Mobile App

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Platform with the issue

Server
Web
Mobile

Your docker-compose.yml content

Your .env content

Reproduction steps

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Additional information

No response

Originally created by @briandipalma on GitHub (Jan 4, 2024). ### The bug This is a reopening of a previously closed issue https://github.com/immich-app/immich/issues/4629 I opened Immich on my phone today to discover that it wasn't syncing my photos. OK so I just clicked on the backup button and saw that it has nothing selected to backup. Odd as it was backing up the "Camera" album just a few days ago. I've no idea what happened. I clicked into albums to backup and I have 651 to scroll through... is there any chance we could filter out "/storage/emulated/0/Music" from the scanned directories? The Samsung Gallery app does this. Or put "/storage/emulated/0/DCIM" up at the top like "Recent" is? Anyway I scrolled up and down the albums and I can't find "Camera" so I'm pretty baffled as to what's going on. ### The OS that Immich Server is running on . ### Version of Immich Server . ### Version of Immich Mobile App . ### Platform with the issue - [ ] Server - [ ] Web - [X] Mobile ### Your docker-compose.yml content ```YAML . ``` ### Your .env content ```Shell . ``` ### Reproduction steps ```bash 1. 2. 3. ... ``` ### Additional information _No response_

deekerman

2026-02-20 00:59:11 -05:00

closed this issue
added the
📱mobile
label

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:12 -05:00

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@mikelococo commented on GitHub (Jan 13, 2024):

Does this issue mean that there is a currently known bug that makes it impossible to select the camera roll as a local album to select for upload? I'm a little confused as I've just set up Immich for the first time today. The server side is working well from the v1.92.1 docker-compose setup and I'm able to log in from the Android app version v1.92.1 as installed from this github repo via Obtanium. I see no way to select a useful subset of the photos on my Pixel 6 Pro with Android 13.

I tap the cloud button in the upper right-hand corner of the Photos screen.
I tap the "Select" button in the "Backup Albums" panel.
At the top of the list I see "Recent" as an album, which I can scroll the images in by tapping the image icon to the right of that entry. I see lots of my Photos, but also tons of irrelevant random images from I'm not sure where. I assume download or documents directories.
I see many hundreds more photo albums that seem to be the result of scanning my music folder, so each photo album contains one or two images that are music album covers.
I see no album corresponding to DCIM folder where camera photos and videos are written.

Like I said, I'm just trying the app for the first time, but I don't see any way to create an "album" from camera photos that excludes all the random junk stored elsewhere on my Phone. I'm a bit fuzzy on what an "album" even is at this point. I've done nothing to categories images, I'd instead expect to be dealing with folders/directories at this point. And many of the albums do seem likely to correspond to a folder/directory... but the most important one (DCIM) isn't present and I don't see any interface to add things to the list of local albums.

Does my report confirm this bug report wherein the camera roll is missing from the list of local albums one can choose as sync sources? Or is it more likely that I'm just confused about how to select albums? I've tried to read all I can in terms of docks, bug reports, and discussions... but I don't see anyone describing how to select their camera roll beyond what I've already tried... but no one describes what we should expect to see in that local album list, how it's generated, or how it can be manipulated to include the camera-roll/dcim-folder.

@mikelococo commented on GitHub (Jan 13, 2024): Does this issue mean that there is a currently known bug that makes it impossible to select the camera roll as a local album to select for upload? I'm a little confused as I've just set up Immich for the first time today. The server side is working well from the v1.92.1 docker-compose setup and I'm able to log in from the Android app version v1.92.1 as installed from this github repo via Obtanium. I see no way to select a useful subset of the photos on my Pixel 6 Pro with Android 13. - I tap the cloud button in the upper right-hand corner of the Photos screen. - I tap the "Select" button in the "Backup Albums" panel. - At the top of the list I see "Recent" as an album, which I can scroll the images in by tapping the image icon to the right of that entry. I see lots of my Photos, but also tons of irrelevant random images from I'm not sure where. I assume download or documents directories. - I see many hundreds more photo albums that seem to be the result of scanning my music folder, so each photo album contains one or two images that are music album covers. - I see no album corresponding to DCIM folder where camera photos and videos are written. Like I said, I'm just trying the app for the first time, but I don't see any way to create an "album" from camera photos that excludes all the random junk stored elsewhere on my Phone. I'm a bit fuzzy on what an "album" even is at this point. I've done nothing to categories images, I'd instead expect to be dealing with folders/directories at this point. And many of the albums do seem likely to correspond to a folder/directory... but the most important one (DCIM) isn't present and I don't see any interface to add things to the list of local albums. Does my report confirm this bug report wherein the camera roll is missing from the list of local albums one can choose as sync sources? Or is it more likely that I'm just confused about how to select albums? I've tried to read all I can in terms of docks, bug reports, and discussions... but I don't see anyone describing how to select their camera roll beyond what I've already tried... but no one describes what we should expect to see in that local album list, how it's generated, or how it can be manipulated to include the camera-roll/dcim-folder.

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:12 -05:00

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@briandipalma commented on GitHub (Jan 14, 2024):

Yep, its broken for me ATM. What I do is copy the pictures out of a synced folder using syncthing and upload them to immich using the web upload.

@briandipalma commented on GitHub (Jan 14, 2024): Yep, its broken for me ATM. What I do is copy the pictures out of a synced folder using syncthing and upload them to immich using the web upload.

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:13 -05:00

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@mikelococo commented on GitHub (Jan 14, 2024):

Perhaps this was self-evident to others based on when the bug appeared vs the timing of the v1.92 release series, but I installed v1.91.4 of the app by downloading it manually and side-loading it, and the Camera album is available again (although it's buried in the middle of a list of hundreds of other albums that aren't sorted by name, image count, or any other property that's immediately clear to me).

I'm not sure how advisable it is to run the v1.91.4 app against the v1.92.1 server, but I'm able to log in and select the Camera album at least. Given how new I am to all this, though, I'm willing to see if it blows up and I can start fresh if it does. I'll be experimenting with the older app version and this may be a viable workaround for others as well provided they have an understanding of the implications of mixing app/server versions.

@mikelococo commented on GitHub (Jan 14, 2024): Perhaps this was self-evident to others based on when the bug appeared vs the timing of the v1.92 release series, but I installed v1.91.4 of the app by downloading it manually and side-loading it, and the *Camera* album is available again (although it's buried in the middle of a list of hundreds of other albums that aren't sorted by name, image count, or any other property that's immediately clear to me). I'm not sure how advisable it is to run the v1.91.4 app against the v1.92.1 server, but I'm able to log in and select the *Camera* album at least. Given how new I am to all this, though, I'm willing to see if it blows up and I can start fresh if it does. I'll be experimenting with the older app version and this may be a viable workaround for others as well provided they have an understanding of the implications of mixing app/server versions.

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:13 -05:00

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@briandipalma commented on GitHub (Jan 15, 2024):

Thanks, I tried again with an updated app and server and the Camera album is showing again. But I still think it should be sorted up at the top by default alongside Recent so I'll leave this issue open.

@briandipalma commented on GitHub (Jan 15, 2024): Thanks, I tried again with an updated app and server and the Camera album is showing again. But I still think it should be sorted up at the top by default alongside Recent so I'll leave this issue open.

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:13 -05:00

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@Gigahawk commented on GitHub (Mar 20, 2024):

Still seeing the same issue on 1.98.2 build.128 (F-droid), can't find a Camera folder or anything like it.

@Gigahawk commented on GitHub (Mar 20, 2024): Still seeing the same issue on 1.98.2 build.128 (F-droid), can't find a Camera folder or anything like it.

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:14 -05:00

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@Gigahawk commented on GitHub (Mar 21, 2024):

Still seeing the same issue on 1.98.2 build.128 (F-droid), can't find a Camera folder or anything like it.

Turns out there's used to be a search bar on the backup select page that was disabled by #5655.
I have a branch that reverts that change at https://github.com/Gigahawk/immich/tree/reenable-backup-search.
The search bar now shows up, and if I search for the Camera album it seems to work fine:

I have no idea if reverting that PR is required for the Camera album to show up, or if it was just really hard to find scrolling through an unsorted list of hundreds of albums.
In any case, this seems fine for now, but would really like it if search is reenabled officially.

If anyone wants I have a compiled apk at https://github.com/Gigahawk/immich/releases/tag/reenable-backup-search-2024-03-21, keystore is of course not the official one so you may have to uninstall first.
Obviously if you're paranoid you should go and compile yourself to be sure.

@Gigahawk commented on GitHub (Mar 21, 2024): > Still seeing the same issue on 1.98.2 build.128 (F-droid), can't find a Camera folder or anything like it. Turns out there's used to be a search bar on the backup select page that was disabled by #5655. I have a branch that reverts that change at https://github.com/Gigahawk/immich/tree/reenable-backup-search. The search bar now shows up, and if I search for the Camera album it seems to work fine: ![Screenshot_20240321-005257](https://github.com/immich-app/immich/assets/10356230/12467d2c-792d-458f-bd31-a256b3972ea2) I have no idea if reverting that PR is required for the Camera album to show up, or if it was just really hard to find scrolling through an unsorted list of hundreds of albums. In any case, this seems fine for now, but would really like it if search is reenabled officially. If anyone wants I have a compiled apk at https://github.com/Gigahawk/immich/releases/tag/reenable-backup-search-2024-03-21, keystore is of course not the official one so you may have to uninstall first. Obviously if you're paranoid you should go and compile yourself to be sure.

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:14 -05:00

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@briandipalma commented on GitHub (Mar 21, 2024):

I find this issue is triggered when I delete the files from the Camera album using a file manager or syncthing.

@briandipalma commented on GitHub (Mar 21, 2024): I find this issue is triggered when I delete the files from the Camera album using a file manager or syncthing.

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:14 -05:00

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@adrinux commented on GitHub (May 23, 2024):

I see this problem in multiple apps. It's more an Android problem than an Immich app problem. That said some apps provide ways to exclude by path and otherwise make it easier to filter out music and audiobook art.

I have as @briandipalma mentions used Syncthing to keep files in sync with my desktop, so that might well be a trigger.

I can suggest another workaround if you arrange your data storage like me. I have all photo assets on internal storage and music/audiobooks on an sdcard. So I turned off my phone and removed the SD card before doing Immich app setup -- only the 4 different photo locations were then in the backup list. I put the SD card back in after setup.

Much easier than wading through several hundred album names looking for the 4 with photos.

@adrinux commented on GitHub (May 23, 2024): I see this problem in multiple apps. It's more an Android problem than an Immich app problem. That said some apps provide ways to exclude by path and otherwise make it easier to filter out music and audiobook art. I have as @briandipalma mentions used Syncthing to keep files in sync with my desktop, so that might well be a trigger. I can suggest another workaround if you arrange your data storage like me. I have all photo assets on internal storage and music/audiobooks on an sdcard. So I turned off my phone and removed the SD card before doing Immich app setup -- only the 4 different photo locations were then in the backup list. I put the SD card back in after setup. Much easier than wading through several hundred album names looking for the 4 with photos.

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:15 -05:00

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@Gigahawk commented on GitHub (Feb 14, 2025):

@alextran1502 is there any plan to fix this? It's been nearly a year of not being able to to update my server.

@Gigahawk commented on GitHub (Feb 14, 2025): @alextran1502 is there any plan to fix this? It's been nearly a year of not being able to to update my server.

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:15 -05:00

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@Gigahawk commented on GitHub (Jul 23, 2025):

Honestly insane that this has still not been resolved, is everyone really scrolling through every random junk album on their phone to find the ones they want to backup?

@Gigahawk commented on GitHub (Jul 23, 2025): Honestly insane that this has still not been resolved, is everyone really scrolling through every random junk album on their phone to find the ones they want to backup?

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:15 -05:00

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@danieldietzler commented on GitHub (Sep 11, 2025):

This is very likely fixed with the new beta timeline + backup. If not please let us know and we can re-open

@danieldietzler commented on GitHub (Sep 11, 2025): This is very likely fixed with the new beta timeline + backup. If not please let us know and we can re-open

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 00:59:16 -05:00

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@adamrt918 commented on GitHub (Oct 27, 2025):

This may still be an issue. Using V 2.1.0 and cannot see any device folders to backup on Android 15

@adamrt918 commented on GitHub (Oct 27, 2025): This may still be an issue. Using V 2.1.0 and cannot see any device folders to backup on Android 15

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[BUG] The Android app discovers all media on the device and can't be filtered #1933

The bug

The OS that Immich Server is running on

Version of Immich Server

Version of Immich Mobile App

Platform with the issue

Your docker-compose.yml content

Your .env content

Reproduction steps

Additional information