u/drucker3

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice on a self-hosted photo/video setup that can replace iCloud Photos as much as possible. I'm open to paid cloud (Google Photos ~$20/2TB) but I'd rather stay DIY on my own hardware if the UX isn't hopeless.

My setup

• Raspberry Pi 5, 16 GB RAM, Docker
• Clients: iPhone, MacBook, Safari (Chrome doesn't matter to me)
• Just migrated from Apple Photos: export ~90 GB / ~6,200 files → uploaded via Immich CLI
• Most videos: 1080p60, often HDR from iPhone; I don't need 4K and I don't want unnecessary downscaling to 720p
• Metadata must be preserved (bad experience moving libraries to OneDrive in the past)

What I've done (Immich)

• Upload + background jobs (thumbnails, ML, face detection) completed
• Video transcoding queue was huge — on a Pi it's very slow (HEVC encode, HDR, etc.)
• Rough settings direction: accept H.264 + HEVC, target 1080p HEVC, CRF ~28, policy closer to "only when needed"; HDR still seems to force transcodes
• Ignoring .aae on upload; keeping .xmp sidecars

What I actually want (and Immich doesn't seem to offer)

The iCloud Photos model:

• Mac: full originals / normal library experience
• iPhone: don't store the entire library locally (optimize storage)
• No duplicate full library in Apple Photos on the Mac if I can avoid it
• Offline on Mac matters; on iPhone mostly on-demand or selected albums

Immich feels like server + client, not a system photo library. Full offline of the entire library on Mac without a second copy of files doesn't seem realistic in the same way as iCloud.

Considering: Nextcloud + Memories?

• Looks nice; claims Live Photos support (better than official Nextcloud Photos?)
• Mac: synced folder = real files locally (I already keep most of my export offline)
• Questions:
  1. Does Memories handle iOS Live Photos reliably in practice (HEIC + motion)?
  2. On iOS, is there anything like Optimize Storage (thumbnails on phone, full files on Mac), or does "available offline" always mean full file size and eat storage?
  3. On RPi5, is Nextcloud + Memories + previews/transcoding worse than Immich?
  4. Is there another self-hosted stack that gets closer to iCloud's "one library, smart mobile storage"?

Paid alternative (context)

Google Photos tier pricing is tempting for convenience, but I like control/privacy and already invested in self-hosting.

What would you do?

• Stay on Immich (+ Syncthing/Nextcloud only as a file mirror)?
• Move to Nextcloud + Memories?
• Hybrid?
• Or is iCloud/Google simply the only sane UX for "optimize iPhone, full Mac"?

Thanks — especially if you've run Immich or Memories on a Pi with HDR iPhone video and care about Live Photos.