So I've been slowly de-googling my life, and the biggest piece was Google Photos. That thing was basically a ticking time bomb of "pay us or lose your storage," plus who knows what they're doing with all your family pics behind the scenes.
Solution: I set up my own version using a free open-source tool called Immich. It's basically Google Photos, except it lives on my own server instead of Google's. Auto backup from my phone, timeline, albums, face recognition, search — all of it, just running on hardware I own.
I got almost 17000 images downloaded from Google takeout and organized into Immich!
Setup wise: it runs in Docker on a Linux box, you connect the Immich app on your phone to your own server instead of Google's, and it backs up in the background exactly like you're used to. I've got mine reachable from anywhere using Tailscale so it's not just stuck at home on my wifi. There's also a migration tool if you want to pull your whole existing Google Photos library over instead of starting fresh.
Not gonna lie, getting all the pieces (Linux, Docker, networking) talking to each other correctly is the part that trips people up.
If you want off Google Photos but don't want to fight with a terminal for a weekend, we'll install and configure Immich (or whatever self-hosted setup you're after) for you. Just message us.
