Release v2.5.0

January 27, 2026

— Immich Team

Release notes for v2.5.0 — free up space on mobile, database backup and restore (web), 90,000 stars and more!!

Release

Highlights

Happy New Year! Welcome to Immich v2.5.0. This release is our fireworks to celebrate both the new year and reaching 90,000 stars on GitHub. It is packed with major features that have been in the works for quite some time, and the team has kicked off the year with incredible momentum that we're excited to carry forward. We couldn't wait to share this with you. Let's dive right in:

  • Free Up Space
  • Non-destructive editing
  • Database backup and restore (web)
  • Foreground upload improvements
  • Visual refresh across all platforms
  • Disable admin setup
  • Star rating (mobile)
  • Additional fine-grained permissions (api keys)
  • Progressive JPEGs
  • Slideshow loop option (web)
  • Native HTTP clients for HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 image loading

Free Up Space

This feature was requested ages ago. So long in fact, that it has a 3-digit ID (#165)! Given the rapid iteration and development pace of the pre-stable era, it was risky to include it in the app due to its bulk-delete nature. But it is now 2026 😄, so here we are.

Free Up Space allows you to remove local media files from your device that have already been successfully backed up to your Immich server (and are not in Immich trash). This helps reclaim storage on your mobile device without losing your memories. The feature can be accessed from the user profile panel or from the Settings page in the mobile app.

There are configuration options and steps to make sure that everything is verified before deleting from the app.

  1. Configuration:
    • Cutoff date: Free Up Space will only look for photos and videos on or before this date.
    • Keep albums: Hold all photos and videos in the selected albums on your device, regardless of other settings. By default, **WhatsApp** related albums are selected to be kept on the device. Assets that are not already on the device will not be redownloaded.
    • Keep favorites: This works the same way **Keep albums** . By default, favorited assets are preserved on your device.
    • Keep on device: You can choose to restrict removal to **Always keep** All photos or All videos, regardless of other settings. This setting can hamper freeing up space significantly — with 80 GB of videos and 40 GB of photos, selecting **Always keep photos** retains thousands of photos on your device.

For more information about this feature, please read it here

Non-destructive editing

Immich now supports non-destructive photo editing. This means that any edits you make to an asset do not modify the original file; instead, the modifications are stored in the database, and new thumbnails are generated based on those changes. This means you can always revert to the original asset if needed.

When you download an edited asset, Immich provides the edited version by default. However, you can choose to download the original version if needed. Immich always generates an edited full-size version based on your full-size quality settings. This occurs regardless of whether the "Enable full-size image generation" setting is enabled or disabled.

You can click on the following icon to enter edit mode

Currently, Immich supports the following types of edits:

  • Cropping
  • Rotation
  • Mirroring

Opening the editor on an edited asset will load the existing edits back in so you can make adjustments and changes.

Downloading the edited version or the original asset.
Downloading the edited version or the original asset.

Backup and restore from the web UI

Backup and restore are an important part of any self-hosted application; this feature helps you maintain reliable access to your instance during unexpected events, such as database corruption caused by system failure or power loss.

Historically, restoring an Immich instance to a specific point required the user to have access to the command line, which proved challenging for many users, especially those new to self-hosting and software maintenance.

Now, we have the entire backup and restore pipeline built into Immich, which allows you to quickly restore a database backup directly from the web UI. You can perform the steps either from the Administration > Maintenance page, or from a brand new instance on the welcome page.

From administration's maintenance page
From administration's maintenance page
From onboarding
From onboarding

For more detailed steps, please read them in our documentation

Foreground upload improvement

This release also improves foreground upload in the mobile app. The previous implementation improves background uploads but leaves foreground uploads less reliable by leveraging the queue system to offload upload handling to the OS, which can be throttled under specific criteria.

We are taking back more control over handling uploads with the try-and-true method used in the old timeline, but this time it is supercharged with concurrent uploads and also correctly handles assets with missing file extensions from software such as DJI or Fusion Camera.

Visual refresh across all platforms

This release also brings you a refreshed look and feel across the web, mobile app, and the documentation sites, with a new font face ("The-name-must-not-be-named" Sans) that improves reading legibility, especially for numbers and smaller text.

The UI library (https://ui.immich.app/) components have also been added to the web app in more places. You should see a more standardized, coherent, and better hierarchy for UI components across the app.

All icon buttons now come with a tooltip, so you don't have to guess what function the button serves

Star rating (mobile)

Mobile now has the star-rating feature, similar to the web application. If you don't see a star rating on either platform, make sure the feature is enabled here.

\

Disable admin setup

New installs show a welcome page and allow anyone to sign up / register as an admin. To have more control over whether this is allowed or not, we have added the following environment variable:

IMMICH_ALLOW_SETUP = true | false;

This is especially useful if you have already initialized Immich and never want this situation to be possible in the future, which can happen if for whatever reason the database is reset.

Additional fine-grained permissions (api keys)

Some existing endpoints have been assigned fine-grained permissions, allowing the creation of API keys with limited access. The new permissions include:\n

  • map.read - Retrieve a list of latitude and longitude coordinates for every asset with location data
  • map.search - Retrieve location information for latitude & longitude coordinates
  • folder.read - Retrieve information about folders and which assets they contain

Progressive JPEGs

All image-generation settings now include a new option to enable progressive JPEGs. When enabled, supported browsers will progressively render the image.

Slideshow loop option (web)

The slideshow settings on the web now include an option to automatically start the slideshow over.

Native HTTP clients

On the mobile app, all remote images are now requested using optimized HTTP clients, meaning images load more quickly and can keep up with your scrolling. Caching is also improved: not only does this make images even snappier to load after being downloaded, but it also improves the offline experience with better responsiveness and a larger cache size.

What's Changed

🚀 Features

🌟 Enhancements

🐛 Bug fixes

📚 Documentation

New Contributors

Full Changelog: https://github.com/immich-app/immich/compare/v2.4.1...v2.5.0

Cheers,
The Immich Team

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