Back up Lightroom Classic photos to Immich

If you edit in Adobe Lightroom Classic and host your photos with Immich, you can export copies of photos to Immich or publish selected collections there without leaving Lightroom. You need the Lightroom Immich Plugin, which is free and open source.

A published collection is a synchronised copy, not an independent backup: deletions can be carried over to Immich. Keep separate backups of your original files, your Lightroom catalog and your Immich data. The plugin does not back up your Lightroom catalog.

Why Immich

Lightroom Classic keeps your originals on a local disk and your edits in a catalog. Immich is a self-hosted photo archive similar to Google Photos, with deduplication, mobile apps and sharing. Sending your Lightroom photos to Immich gives you a copy outside Lightroom that you control. You need no subscription and are not tied to a cloud provider.

Requirements

Adobe Lightroom Classic (Windows or macOS)
A running Immich server that you can reach over the network, for example on your home network or over VPN
An Immich API key (in Immich under Account Settings → API Keys)
The Lightroom Immich Plugin

1. Install the plugin

Download the latest release and unzip it. In Lightroom Classic, go to File → Plug-in Manager → Add and select the unzipped plugin folder. The installation instructions on GitHub have more detail.

2. Connect to your Immich server

In an export preset, or when you create a publish service, enter your Immich server URL and API key. The key needs upload, album and read permissions. The project page lists the exact scopes.

3. Export or publish

There are two ways to get photos into Immich:

Export is a one-off upload. It suits archiving a finished shoot.
Publish keeps the published collection linked to Immich. When you add, edit or remove a photo in Lightroom, the next publish updates Immich to match, including creating and renaming albums.

For an ongoing backup, use a publish service. Your Immich copy then follows your catalog.

The plugin detects duplicates by Lightroom catalog ID, or by date and filename. Running an export or publish again does not create copies.

4. Stack RAW and edited versions

The plugin uploads files from your Lightroom catalog, including RAW files. If you keep RAW and edited versions of the same image, enable stacking. On upload, the plugin groups related assets into an Immich stack with a primary image. Your Immich timeline then matches how you organise photos in Lightroom and does not show every version separately.

Questions and feature ideas

Open an issue or start a discussion on GitHub.