[Feature] Avoid resyncing if deleted manually

[RebeliusGaming]

The feature

It would be great to avoid immich reuploading a photo that has been deleted in immich.

Platform

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

[arnelap]

Yes, this would be nice!
i understand deleting stuff is scary,... could be a setting with a big disclaimer?

I would even go as far as deleting the image on all devices if it's deleted on the server. Mostly im just cleaning up blurry and failed pictures and then they just reappear!!!

[Sjustein]

I just had this 'issue' happen to me as well. It would be great if immich could have a sort of blacklist of deleted photo's, so they will not be re-synced by the mobile app. I think the blacklist is currently in place (correct me if I'm wrong), where images that are in the trash, because immich doesn't care where the image is, if it exists somewhere, it will not re-upload the image. However, images in the trash are cleared after 30 days, so older images will still be re-uploaded.

I think, the desired feature would be:

• When an image is deleted, it is added to a blacklist, in addition to moving the image to the trash.
• When an image is restored from the trash, it is removed from the blacklist again.

If my assumption is correct, upping the deletion time from trash also solves the issue. I'll do some testing, but let me know whether I'm correct.

[Sjustein]

Immich indeed re-uploads images that are permanently deleted from trash. I've mitigated the issue temporarily by upping the trash auto deletion time, but it's a workaround for sure.

[jbcortes]

This issue is what keeps me from using the mobile app on a regular basis. Given the amount of time that it took me to initially go through all my photos/videos on the server and remove duplicate and unwanted photos, it was really frustrating to then see that the mobile app re-uploaded all the files I had deleted.

I've also seen this issue mentioned in:
#8285
#12051

[verisgit]

Also:
#23897
Possible solution proposed

[StoricU]

This would be very nice.
Doing general housekeeping in the browser now just don't work, since the photos just pop back up 😅
After what I understood when I asked about this on the dicscord, the feature are on the roadmap and should be implemented in the next few releases.

[tzhouML]

My mouth honestly dropped when I saw how poorly this is handled in immich. An option to only sync photos beyond <custom_date> in the mobile apps would probably eliminate all my qualms surrounding this issue.

[lachsh]

My approach along these lines has just been adding all photos before <custom_date> to an album on my phone that I exclude from immich, once I'm confident they've been uploaded – then I just need to make sure to only dedupe/tidy up photos that are already present in that album on my phone.

[Tkd-Alex]

+1, I've built a custom env where the photos are synced with Immich from my Android and iPhone to a dedicated home-server. Then the photos are backupped trought "syncthing" to another driver and I've a mechanism that delete the photos on the Immich server uploaded more than x days ago (clear storage). Now I see the mobile app re-upload all the photos. So I'm now out of space

[Valenwe]

+1

Because I use an external library on Read Only with my pictures inside, I usually move my phone pictures to my external folders. But then when I move my phone's medias to my external library, the phone's application re-backup my moved files (because it sees them as deleted assets) and create tons of duplicates.

The solution to this would be to keep track of backup-ed medias and not backup them again, even if they do not appear in the server. Because we know we already sent the media once, no need to send it again.
Another solution could be to backup only medias created after a given date, or the last backup date.

[geransmith]

Adding a vote for this one.

My wife was more than frustrated to find out that she spent hours deduplicating photos in the web UI, only to have them uploaded again by the app. There needs to be some way to make it so that photos don’t get automatically reuploaded.

[SP2FET]

Same issue for me - spent 2 days of cleaning up the library just to figure out, that mobile app (android) reuploaded all of the deleted photos... Previously I've been using photoprism with photosync app and it handled such cases perfectly, syncing only new files.
Is there any possibility to speed up any work on that particular feature?
Thanks in advance

[msebald]

Same problem here for me/us.

I am using FolderSync for Android until now to sync/backup files to my home server. There is an option to only transfer new/changed files to the destination and do not transfer deleted files (at the destination) from the smartphone again.

For sure this needs to be implemented in a different way in Immich - by maybe keeping the hashs of deleted files and offer an option on the mobile clients (and also the web interface when uploading directly) to only upload files which were not deleted before.

[hodlemperor]

I’m adding my specific case here since my issue (#23897) was closed as a duplicate — and after reading this thread, I fully agree that it belongs here.

There is one important scenario that makes this problem even more severe:

✔ When using an External Library (+ mobile backup enabled)

If a photo exists both:

• on the phone (mobile backup), and
• in a read-only External Library

Immich cannot remember that the user intentionally deleted the upload version after a merge.
Once Trash expires, the mobile app sees the file as “missing” and re-uploads it again → creating a duplicate again → and the cycle repeats forever.

✔ Merge duplicates does not fix this in practice

Technically, the user can merge duplicates:

• keep the External Library asset
• delete the upload version

…but after 30 days, the deleted-upload is gone, Immich forgets the hash, and the phone uploads the same file again.
So even the merge workflow is broken unless Immich can permanently remember excluded hashes.

✔ Realistic migration workflows make this unavoidable

This is also not an edge case.
Most users have:

• years or decades of photos remaining on their phone (even from 2006 or older),
• previous backup systems they don’t fully trust,
• overlapping content between phone and NAS/External Library while checking that everything was backed up correctly.

It is not realistic to expect users to:

• wipe their phone before migrating, or
• sanitize their entire External Library so that it never overlaps with their mobile library.

✔ The feature requested here (a permanent “deleted hash registry”) is exactly what solves it

A server-side list of hashes that were intentionally deleted would:

• prevent mobile clients from re-uploading them
• make the merge workflow actually viable
• stop duplicate loops
• allow External Libraries + mobile backup to coexist without chaos

Thanks — this FR is absolutely essential for users combining mobile backup with External Libraries.

[jazmit]

The "deleted files hash registry" would fix many pain points for me using Immich, dealing with unorganized files being shared between and uploaded from multiple users. Often we delete unwanted files only for them to be restored later and have to delete them again.

[brianpooe]

Is this being worked on? wonder if its even a feature request or just a defect hey.

[kiwi-software-dev]

Hi, i am also wondering if this is something that will come to immich's standard functionality anytime?
I got nothing to add, just to say i got the same problem. Deleted duplicates come back after moving them to trash and cleaning that up.
That's a pity for me :/

Actually, instead of deleting filed, i am currently archiving them, since storage space is the least issue for me.
Maybe it would help to - instead of deleting - be able to archive duplicates so they are removed from the timeline and not reuploaded?

That would be the faster fix, at least for me.

[timberpile]

I came to Immich from Synology Photos and love it!

Except that...
I spent hours and hours cleaning through old photos that were uploaded from my phone. Months later I realized that all that work was for naught :/

I expected Immich to work like Synology Photos, which DOES remember which files were already uploaded but deleted.

Having a blacklist for deleted file hashes would be a good solution to this problem.

The existing feature "Sync remote deletions" that deletes files on the phone when deleted on the server is NOT a solution to this problem. I want to keep these deleted photos on my phone, and have Immich be my curated photo collection.

I hope this feature gets implemented in the future, as it would make Immich a lot better for me!

[lrosm]

+1 on this, my wife was going mad about cleaning up and them reappearing. Seems like a simple fix?

[Redume]

+1

I delete photos/videos using a third-party app, immich restores the file. The same thing sometimes happens if I delete them using the immich app. At first, the files are gone and they are really deleted, but if I reopen the app, they may be restored

(this can have a negative impact on the phone's storage).

For example, this happens to me when I upload files to my server, add them to my personal folder, delete them from my phone, then go to my personal folder and after a while exit it, and see that these deleted files have been restored again.

(#25338)

[Rotaryracer]

Plus eleventy-billion for getting this added to the roadmap. I've been doing the initial testing to start hosting my and my wife's pictures from four different IOS devices. I actually thought I was losing my mind when I would delete a picture, and it would reupload, and I would delete again, and it would reupload again. I guess I'm glad I'm not crazy, but it's not really usable for me as a true "curated" photo hosting solution. I take a bunch of pictures, screenshots, etc of stupid stuff as a reminder to myself - I don't need to see those saved for posterity in Immich, nor do I want them to reappear once I've found and deleted them.

I saw there is movement on this for Android, although I think it was pulled at the last minute for the current release. Truly hoping an IOS fix can be supported soon, as essentially Immich is just acting as a mirror of my IOS device picture libraries right now.

[D4Ci0]

+1

Actually it drives me insane that for the last two years there is still no simple solution for this.

I have 1000 useless photos as information/reminder/etc for every 1-2 real photos. I dont need everyday photos in my timeline.

How is this still not implemented in the Androidand iOS App?

Photosync worked really great that way just adding new photos. What is really frustrating is that there is not even a single mentioning about that in roadmap/work in future.

I guess I‘ll still need to use photosync with photoprism instead of immich

[geransmith]

On iOS, I just made a shortcut to add photos to an “excluded” album, then set Immich to not upload those photos.

…

-------- Original Message --------

On Friday, 01/30/26 at 15:23 D4Ci0 ***@***.***> wrote: +1 Actually it drives me insane that for the last two years there is still no simple solution for this. I have 1000 useless photos as information/reminder/etc for every 1-2 real photos. I dont need everyday photos in my timeline. How is this still not implemented in the Androidand iOS App? Photosync worked really great that way just adding new photos. What is really frustrating is that there is not even a single mentioning about that in roadmap/work in future. I guess I‘ll still need to use photosync with photoprism instead of immich — Reply to this email directly, [view it on GitHub](#4282 (comment)), or [unsubscribe](https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB5I3A3CFA4GIJZQ77J2HC34JPRYNAVCNFSM6AAAAABQDJBH4GVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTKNRVGU3DOMY). You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[theadin]

Spent hours deleting photos from my Immich site only to have them all reuploaded. What is even the point of having a delete option and delete duplicates option on the site if they get reuploaded LOL?

[MozPri]

Did you try the experimental option "Sync remote deletions"?
It works for me on android.

[theadin]

Sorry. I wasn't clear. I'm interested in deleting the photos on the Immich server without them being deleted on the phone. Though of course an option to delete from server on phone could also be useful, this is not what I'm looking for.
Thanks anyway

[D4Ci0]

Only thing in this case is to use Photosync and sync to a NAS share/folder and mount this exact folder as an external libary to immich. Phontosync does not reupload if this is set in the sync menu.

I also dont get why this simple feature is ignored for so long.

[theadin]

I understand what you mean regarding using Photosync .

[GrantedCode]

I also am blown away at this not being a feature.
I program for a living and having a database table that stores the deleted media hashes and then checking and rejecting media based on that hash is NOT hard to do.

I NEVER write in GitHub discussions but this has boggled me so much that I'm breaking my rule. I can't believe this isn't number one priority for them to do. It's a slam dunk thing to implement. Come on guys, you have an amazing product. Keep those W's coming.

[bo0tzz]

Oleost's work is a vibecoded PR in a fork, not something we can merge.

[oleost]

As I clearly stated this wasn’t something planned to be merged, and also the reason I don’t make it a PR towards this repo. Was only meant as an inspiration and discussion of what needs to be implemented. (Save delete list, some way of manual re upload or manage delete list and sync deletions)

[bo0tzz]

Yeah, no worries and no animosity - just making things clear for @Rotaryracer

[fragden-buerotiger]

Would it be an easy solution, to include a date filter to the snyc-function; sync images after the date XX.XX.XXXX?

In this way, the deleted images would not be re-synced to immich, if I update the sync base date after I deleted the images in immich.

[Rotaryracer]

Thanks guys - sorry for any confusion. Not sure what next steps are to open a formal PR for the main code, but as this original thread dates back 2.5 years, I'm assuming posting in here isn't it. :) I did do some reading on steps to open a PR and realized I'm in well over my head, but if I can help out with any non-coding scut work, happy to do so.

[oleost]

I'm no coder, but I let Claude Code have a go at it: oleost#1

Unfortunately I don't have a test setup for Immich to actually verify it, and I don't dare use it on my main instance — so take it for what it's worth. Maybe someone with a dev environment can pick it up from here.

The PR also distinguishes between auto-backup and manual uploads — if you explicitly share a photo from iOS Photos or the Android gallery to Immich, it goes through regardless. Only the background sync is blocked.

And it inlcudes a server->device delete feature.

[Batwam]

I'm having the same issue, I can't manage my library from the webUI as anything I delete gets reuploaded when I clear the trash... I don't understand this, can't immich keep a record of deleted files and prevent reupload?

[sdmironov]

TL;DR Use FolderSync.

So, my situation is:

• 2 phones: mine and wife's
• immich web where I manage the library
• wife doesn't want my actions in the web to affect the library on her phone

Task:

• to upload all photos from multiple phones to immich
• to sort these photos in immich web (albums, removes, etc)
• to not sync this changes back

Solution:

• rclone-server with webdav on the host where immich is hosted
• FolderSync android app on both phones that syncs all files from DCIM/Camera folder to webdav (one way, upload only)
• webdav folder is mounted inside immich container (-v /srv/immich/external:/mnt/external)
• immich is configured to use this folder (/mnt/external) as External Library

Works like a charm.

[s-martin]

It took me a while to understand why assets would reappear after some time (i.e. 30 days) in the duplicate utility.

I think for most users (at least for me) it’s unclear that the duplicate utility works only in combination with syncing deletions to the mobile device (which is even experimental).

I think the feature is desperately needed (I personally think this is a bug or unexpected behavior and not a missing feature).

[D4Ci0]

Use PhotoSync instead of the slugish built-in backup feature in the Immich app

[s-martin]

Yeah, looks like a possible mitigation. Nevertheless I would prefer a built-in solution as an external tool would have side effects. From what I see with PhotoSync I can't separate users.

[verisgit]

Having the same problem. It's described accurately above from #23897. Like many, I've spent hours deduplicating and cleaning up photos only to waste my time as they all get reuploaded and come back the following day - meaning I cannot use the deduplicate feature or manage my photos in immich as my phone will just overwrite it.

The phone app needs to give the user a way to stop this from happening, either by keeping track of and not uploading duplicates or via some kind of data cutoff that updates after each sync completes. Keeping a hash of every permanently deleted asset per user, and having the upload check consult that table before accepting a backup upload, seems likely the best way forward. A draft implementation exists at oleost#1.

Until this is resolved, Immich's deduplication feature and web UI library management are effectively broken for anyone using mobile backup. It's exactly the same as having a plethora of unmanaged duplicates in iCloud or Google Photos.

Happy to donate some $ to someone getting oleost#1 or similar over the line.

[verisgit]

Found a bit of a clunky workaround for the time being; it's tedious, but better than 30k photos and videos resurrecting themselves on every backup run.

Immich iOS — Stop Deleted/Deduplicated Photos Re-syncing

Problem

The iOS client has no awareness of server-side deletions. Every sync cycle it re-uploads anything it thinks is missing — including photos you've already deleted or deduped within immich, constantly repopulating anything you've cleaned up on the server.

Solution

Use a manually managed excluded iOS album as a sync fence.

Steps

1. Let Immich fully sync your library first.
Don't delete or deduplicate anything yet. Upload all photos from your phone.

2. Create an album in iOS Photos called excluded.

3. Select your entire library and add it to the album.
iOS has no "select all" — workaround: scroll to the end of your library, tap Select, drag back to highlight a few photos, then with your other hand tap the clock icon to jump to the top. Everything in between gets selected. Add to excluded.

4. In Immich → Backup Settings, add excluded to the excluded albums list.
Previously synced photos won't re-upload. New photos aren't in the album yet, so they'll sync normally.

Ongoing

After every sync to Immich, you will need to figure out what new photos were added and then manually add them to excluded. This prevents them from being re-uploaded if you later edit or delete it server-side.

[rogersia]

The only workaround I have done so far is extend the trash folder auto delete to a stupid amount of time, but it completely eliminates the benefit of deleting and emptying trash

[Rotaryracer]

@bo0tzz mentioned needing a formal PR to get this trivial task knocked out quickly. Is there anyone in this thread that has the prerequisite skills to do so? I’m a user, not a coder, and have not used GitHub past the forum-style discussions. I tried poking around to try to figure out how to make a PR happen because the current functionality is no bueno, but couldn’t get it done. If someone can point me to “GitHub PRs for Dummies” or I can assist somehow with idiot-level grunt work, I’m happy to help however I can to get this fixed. We’re at 2.5+ years since the OP flagged this as an issue, so I’m assuming we are not requesting a fix correctly or in the right forum.

[GovSat1]

+1 Very annoying - and it is not obvious this is the case until you look through older photos or catch iOS app re-uploading older pics

[aptura-scott]

Is this on any feature plan for Immich?