PhotoPrism is a open source application to store, manage videos and photos using an AI-Powered engine. Its a simpler option to other cloud providers when it comes to pictures and videos. PhotoPrism can be installed in a server, in the cloud or as simple as a raspberry pi. Making it easier for consumers install and maintain compared to other larger applications. PhotoPrism has different options of installation but, we will focus on using containers on the Raspberry Pi OS. The Raspberry Pi OS should be installed on 64 bit and have at least 4GB or more for RAM. To install PhotoPrism we will need to installl the following applications:


sudo apt install docker-compose wget

We use wget to download the docker-compose.yml from GitHub and use Docker as the container application. the deployment is straight forward and can have the application installed in minutes. The docker-compose.yml has all the options required to configure all the parts of PhotoPrism. Using VIM edit the docker-compose.yml

vim docker-compose.yml

Below is an example of what the fiole provides:


version: '3.5'

# Example Docker Compose config file for PhotoPrism (Raspberry Pi 3/4 and other ARM64-based devices)
#
# Note:
# - You have to boot your Raspberry Pi 3/4 with the parameter "arm_64bit=1" in config.txt to use our ARM64 (64-bit) image.
#   An "exec format" error will occur otherwise.
# - Try explicitly pulling the ARM64 version if you've booted your device with the "arm_64bit=1" flag and you see
#   the "no matching manifest" error on Raspberry Pi OS (Raspbian). See documentation for details.
# - Use https://dl.photoprism.app/docker/armv7/docker-compose.yml to run PhotoPrism and MariaDB on ARMv7-based devices
#   as well as Raspberry Pi OS (Raspbian) installations without 64-bit support.
# - Running PhotoPrism on a server with less than 4 GB of swap space or setting a memory/swap limit can cause unexpected
#   restarts ("crashes"), for example, when the indexer temporarily needs more memory to process large files.
# - In case you see Docker errors related to "cgroups", try adding the following parameters to /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt
#   or /boot/cmdline.txt (file location depends on the OS in use): cgroup_enable=cpuset cgroup_enable=memory cgroup_memory=1
# - If you install PhotoPrism on a public server outside your home network, please always run it behind a secure
#   HTTPS reverse proxy such as Traefik or Caddy. Your files and passwords will otherwise be transmitted
#   in clear text and can be intercepted by anyone, including your provider, hackers, and governments:
#   https://docs.photoprism.app/getting-started/proxies/traefik/
#
# Documentation : https://docs.photoprism.app/getting-started/raspberry-pi/
# Docker Hub URL: https://hub.docker.com/r/photoprism/photoprism/
#
# DOCKER COMPOSE COMMAND REFERENCE
# see https://docs.photoprism.app/getting-started/docker-compose/#command-line-interface
# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Start    | docker-compose up -d
# Stop     | docker-compose stop
# Update   | docker-compose pull
# Logs     | docker-compose logs --tail=25 -f
# Terminal | docker-compose exec photoprism bash
# Help     | docker-compose exec photoprism photoprism help
# Config   | docker-compose exec photoprism photoprism config
# Reset    | docker-compose exec photoprism photoprism reset
# Backup   | docker-compose exec photoprism photoprism backup -a -i
# Restore  | docker-compose exec photoprism photoprism restore -a -i
# Index    | docker-compose exec photoprism photoprism index
# Reindex  | docker-compose exec photoprism photoprism index -f
# Import   | docker-compose exec photoprism photoprism import
#
# To search originals for faces without a complete rescan:
# docker-compose exec photoprism photoprism faces index
#
# All commands may have to be prefixed with "sudo" when not running as root.
# This will point the home directory shortcut ~ to /root in volume mounts.

services:
  photoprism:
    ## Use photoprism/photoprism:preview-arm64 for testing preview builds:
    image: photoprism/photoprism:arm64
    depends_on:
      - mariadb
    ## Don't enable automatic restarts until PhotoPrism has been properly configured and tested!
    ## If the service gets stuck in a restart loop, this points to a memory, filesystem, network, or database issue:
    ## https://docs.photoprism.app/getting-started/troubleshooting/#fatal-server-errors
    # restart: unless-stopped
    security_opt:
      - seccomp:unconfined
      - apparmor:unconfined
    ports:
      - "2342:2342" # HTTP port (host:container)
    environment:
      PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_USER: "admin"                 # initial admin username
      PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_PASSWORD: "insecure"          # initial admin password (minimum 8 characters)
      PHOTOPRISM_AUTH_MODE: "password"               # authentication mode (public, password)
      PHOTOPRISM_SITE_URL: "http://photoprism.me:2342/"  # server URL in the format "http(s)://domain.name(:port)/(path)"
      PHOTOPRISM_ORIGINALS_LIMIT: 5000               # file size limit for originals in MB (increase for high-res video)
      PHOTOPRISM_HTTP_COMPRESSION: "none"            # improves transfer speed and bandwidth utilization (none or gzip)
      PHOTOPRISM_WORKERS: 2                          # limits the number of indexing workers to reduce system load
      PHOTOPRISM_LOG_LEVEL: "info"                   # log level: trace, debug, info, warning, error, fatal, or panic
      PHOTOPRISM_READONLY: "false"                   # do not modify originals directory (reduced functionality)
      PHOTOPRISM_EXPERIMENTAL: "false"               # enables experimental features
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_CHOWN: "false"              # disables updating storage permissions via chmod and chown on startup
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_WEBDAV: "false"             # disables built-in WebDAV server
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_SETTINGS: "false"           # disables Settings in Web UI
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_TENSORFLOW: "false"         # disables all features depending on TensorFlow
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_FACES: "false"              # disables face detection and recognition (requires TensorFlow)
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_CLASSIFICATION: "false"     # disables image classification (requires TensorFlow)
      PHOTOPRISM_DISABLE_RAW: "false"                # disables indexing and conversion of RAW files
      PHOTOPRISM_RAW_PRESETS: "false"                # enables applying user presets when converting RAW files (reduces performance)
      PHOTOPRISM_JPEG_QUALITY: 85                    # a higher value increases the quality and file size of JPEG images and thumbnails (25-100)
      PHOTOPRISM_DETECT_NSFW: "false"                # automatically flags photos as private that MAY be offensive (requires TensorFlow)
      PHOTOPRISM_UPLOAD_NSFW: "true"                 # allow uploads that MAY be offensive
      # PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_DRIVER: "sqlite"         # SQLite is an embedded database that doesn't require a server
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_DRIVER: "mysql"            # use MariaDB 10.5+ or MySQL 8+ instead of SQLite for improved performance
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_SERVER: "mariadb:3306"     # MariaDB or MySQL database server (hostname:port)
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_NAME: "photoprism"         # MariaDB or MySQL database schema name
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_USER: "photoprism"         # MariaDB or MySQL database user name
      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_PASSWORD: "insecure"       # MariaDB or MySQL database user password
      PHOTOPRISM_SITE_CAPTION: "AI-Powered Photos App"
      PHOTOPRISM_SITE_DESCRIPTION: ""                # meta site description
      PHOTOPRISM_SITE_AUTHOR: ""                     # meta site author
      ## Run/install on first startup (options: update, gpu, tensorflow, davfs, clean):
      # PHOTOPRISM_INIT: "update clean"
      ## Hardware Video Transcoding (for sponsors only due to high maintenance and support costs):
      # PHOTOPRISM_FFMPEG_ENCODER: "raspberry"       # FFmpeg encoder ("software", "intel", "nvidia", "apple", "raspberry")
      # PHOTOPRISM_FFMPEG_BITRATE: "32"              # FFmpeg encoding bitrate limit in Mbit/s (default: 50)
      ## Run as a non-root user after initialization (supported: 0, 33, 50-99, 500-600, and 900-1200):
      # PHOTOPRISM_UID: 1000
      # PHOTOPRISM_GID: 1000
      # PHOTOPRISM_UMASK: 0000
    ## Share hardware devices with FFmpeg and TensorFlow (optional):
    ## See: https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/accessories/camera.html#driver-differences-when-using-libcamera-or-the-legacy-stack
    # devices:
    #  - "/dev/video11:/dev/video11" # Video4Linux Video Encode Device (h264_v4l2m2m)
    working_dir: "/photoprism" # do not change or remove
    ## Storage Folders: "~" is a shortcut for your home directory, "." for the current directory
    volumes:
      # "/host/folder:/photoprism/folder"                # Example
      - "~/Pictures:/photoprism/originals"               # Original media files (DO NOT REMOVE)
      # - "/example/family:/photoprism/originals/family" # *Additional* media folders can be mounted like this
      # - "~/Import:/photoprism/import"                  # *Optional* base folder from which files can be imported to originals
      - "./storage:/photoprism/storage"                  # *Writable* storage folder for cache, database, and sidecar files (DO NOT REMOVE)

  ## Database Server (recommended)
  ## see https://docs.photoprism.app/getting-started/faq/#should-i-use-sqlite-mariadb-or-mysql
  mariadb:
    ## If MariaDB gets stuck in a restart loop, this points to a memory or filesystem issue:
    ## https://docs.photoprism.app/getting-started/troubleshooting/#fatal-server-errors
    restart: unless-stopped
    image: arm64v8/mariadb:10.9 # ARM64 IMAGE ONLY, DOES NOT WORK ON ARMv7, AMD or Intel
    security_opt:
      - seccomp:unconfined
      - apparmor:unconfined
    command: mysqld --innodb-buffer-pool-size=256M --transaction-isolation=READ-COMMITTED --character-set-server=utf8mb4 --collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci --max-connections=512 --innodb-rollback-on-timeout=OFF --innodb-lock-wait-timeout=120
    ## Never store database files on an unreliable device such as a USB flash drive, an SD card, or a shared network folder:
    volumes:
      - "./database:/var/lib/mysql" # DO NOT REMOVE
    environment:
      MARIADB_AUTO_UPGRADE: "1"
      MARIADB_INITDB_SKIP_TZINFO: "1"
      MARIADB_DATABASE: "photoprism"
      MARIADB_USER: "photoprism"
      MARIADB_PASSWORD: "insecure"
      MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: "insecure"

  ## Watchtower upgrades services automatically (optional)
  ## see https://docs.photoprism.app/getting-started/updates/#watchtower
  #
  # watchtower:
  #   restart: unless-stopped
  #   image: containrrr/watchtower
  #   environment:
  #     WATCHTOWER_CLEANUP: "true"
  #     WATCHTOWER_POLL_INTERVAL: 7200 # checks for updates every two hours
  #   volumes:
  #     - "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock"
  #     - "~/.docker/config.json:/config.json" # optional, for authentication if you have a Docker Hub account

That’s a lot of information, and can take some time to go through if you want a more customized deployment. Be sure to spend some time going over this file to make sure you have all the required configurations changes you desire. The first few options you will want to change is the password of the database and the admin user to login into the UI. Search for the following:

PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_PASSWORD: "insecure"
MARIADB_PASSWORD: "insecure"
MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: "insecure"

Change the insecure to a more secure password that meets your complexibility requirements. This avoids issues with security by having a more secured password that is harder to guess. The next required configuration option is the /host/folder:/photoprism/folder. The directory path on the left side is the path that will be mounted to the volume. The right side is the location that will be inside the container. All paths inside the container will always need to start with /photoprism/. After making the changes save the file and return to the terminal. Now we can startup PhotoPrism for the first time by using the command below.

docker-compose up -d

This pulls a new version and can take some time since it has to download all the necessary images for the application. After the process finishes then you can access the PhotoPrism UI by going to http://myip:2342/. You use the admin user and the password set in PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_PASSWORD:.