How to Self-Host PhotoPrism Photo Manager

What Is PhotoPrism?

PhotoPrism is an AI-powered, self-hosted photo management application. It automatically organizes your photos using facial recognition, object detection, and location data. It supports RAW files, live photos, and videos, and provides a modern, responsive web interface for browsing your collection.

Prerequisites

• A Breeze with at least 4 GB RAM running Ubuntu 22.04+
• Docker and Docker Compose installed
• Sufficient storage for your photo library

Docker Compose Setup

mkdir -p ~/photoprism && cd ~/photoprism

version: "3.8"
services:
  photoprism:
    image: photoprism/photoprism:latest
    container_name: photoprism
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "2342:2342"
    volumes:
      - ~/Pictures:/photoprism/originals
      - photoprism_storage:/photoprism/storage
    environment:
      - PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_USER=admin
      - PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_PASSWORD=ChangeThisPassword
      - PHOTOPRISM_SITE_URL=https://photos.yourdomain.com/
      - PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_DRIVER=mysql
      - PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_SERVER=photoprism-db:3306
      - PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_NAME=photoprism
      - PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_USER=photoprism
      - PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_PASSWORD=DbPass456
    depends_on:
      - photoprism-db

  photoprism-db:
    image: mariadb:10.11
    container_name: photoprism-db
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - photoprism_db:/var/lib/mysql
    environment:
      - MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD=DbRootPass789
      - MARIADB_DATABASE=photoprism
      - MARIADB_USER=photoprism
      - MARIADB_PASSWORD=DbPass456

volumes:
  photoprism_storage:
  photoprism_db:

Launch and Index

docker compose up -d

Open http://your-breeze-ip:2342 and log in. Go to Library > Index to begin scanning your photo collection. The AI-powered indexing will detect faces, classify objects, and extract location data automatically.

Tips

• Use the mobile app or WebDAV to upload photos from your phone
• Enable hardware transcoding if your Breeze has a compatible GPU
• Schedule periodic re-indexing via cron for newly added files