Automatic URL switching starts checking for new assets on all Wi-Fi networks

[Darknicks]

I have searched the existing issues, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate report.

• Yes

The bug

For the Local Network I configured Automatic URL switching by adding the Wi-Fi name and Server Endpoint URL.

For the External Network, I didn't add anything and left it blank.

I assumed that Immich would ONLY try to sync only when connected to the Local Wi-Fi network I specified since the External Network was blank. However, as soon as I connect to any Wi-Fi network, Immich attempts to sync and I get the notification saying "Checking for new assets".

Why is that happening?

The OS that Immich Server is running on

Debian 12 running on Docker Compose

Version of Immich Server

v1.135.1

Version of Immich Mobile App

v1.135.1 on Android

Platform with the issue

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

Your docker-compose.yml content

#
# WARNING: To install Immich, follow our guide: https://immich.app/docs/install/docker-compose
#
# Make sure to use the docker-compose.yml of the current release:
#
# https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml
#
# The compose file on main may not be compatible with the latest release.

name: immich

services:
  immich-server:
    container_name: immich_server
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    # extends:
    #   file: hwaccel.transcoding.yml
    #   service: cpu # set to one of [nvenc, quicksync, rkmpp, vaapi, vaapi-wsl] for accelerated transcoding
    volumes:
      # Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the media storage location on your system, edit the value of UPLOAD_LOCATION in the .env file
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    env_file:
      - .env
    ports:
      - '2283:2283'
    depends_on:
      - redis
      - database
    restart: always
    healthcheck:
      disable: false

  immich-machine-learning:
    container_name: immich_machine_learning
    # For hardware acceleration, add one of -[armnn, cuda, rocm, openvino, rknn] to the image tag.
    # Example tag: ${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}-cuda
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    # extends: # uncomment this section for hardware acceleration - see https://immich.app/docs/features/ml-hardware-acceleration
    #   file: hwaccel.ml.yml
    #   service: cpu # set to one of [armnn, cuda, rocm, openvino, openvino-wsl, rknn] for accelerated inference - use the `-wsl` version for WSL2 where applicable
    volumes:
      - model-cache:/cache
    env_file:
      - .env
    restart: always
    healthcheck:
      disable: false

  redis:
    container_name: immich_redis
    image: docker.io/valkey/valkey:8-bookworm@sha256:fec42f399876eb6faf9e008570597741c87ff7662a54185593e74b09ce83d177
    healthcheck:
      test: redis-cli ping || exit 1
    restart: always

  database:
    container_name: immich_postgres
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0@sha256:5f6a838e4e44c8e0e019d0ebfe3ee8952b69afc2809b2c25f7b0119641978e91
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USERNAME}
      POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_DATABASE_NAME}
      POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: '--data-checksums'
      # Uncomment the DB_STORAGE_TYPE: 'HDD' var if your database isn't stored on SSDs
      # DB_STORAGE_TYPE: 'HDD'
    volumes:
      # Do not edit the next line. If you want to change the database storage location on your system, edit the value of DB_DATA_LOCATION in the .env file
      - ${DB_DATA_LOCATION}:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    shm_size: 128mb
    restart: always

volumes:
  model-cache:

Your .env content

# You can find documentation for all the supported env variables at https://immich.app/docs/install/environment-variables

# The location where your uploaded files are stored
UPLOAD_LOCATION=./library

# The location where your database files are stored. Network shares are not supported for the database
DB_DATA_LOCATION=./postgres

# To set a timezone, uncomment the next line and change Etc/UTC to a TZ identifier from this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones#List
# TZ=Etc/UTC

# The Immich version to use. You can pin this to a specific version like "v1.71.0"
IMMICH_VERSION=release

# Connection secret for postgres. You should change it to a random password
# Please use only the characters `A-Za-z0-9`, without special characters or spaces
DB_PASSWORD=postgres

# The values below this line do not need to be changed
###################################################################################
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_DATABASE_NAME=immich

Reproduction steps

1. Go to Settings > Networking and enable Automatic URL switching then Add a Local Network with your Wi-Fi name and Endpoint URL. Do not add anything in the External Network section

2. Enable Wi-Fi on your local Wi-Fi. It will work fine.

3. Disable Wi-Fi and then Enable it on a different Wi-Fi network with a different Wi-Fi name

4. You'll see that after a few seconds you will get a notification from Immich "Checking for new assets" even though you haven't added that specific Wi-Fi network to the list.

Relevant log output

Additional information

No response

[alextran1502]

This is the background backup tasks checking for local assets changes

[Darknicks]

Why is it checking for new assets on a different Wi-Fi network and attempting to connect to the URL?

[alextran1502]

The background service doesn't take into account the URL changes mechanism. It would check and try to communicate with the latest URL information

[Darknicks]

I see. I thought that was the whole point of the Automatic URL switching. I thought it would only try to do it on the specific Wi-Fi network you add. So I guess I just misunderstood how that feature works.

Any plans on adding that kind of feature in the future?
Like Immich checking the Wi-Fi network the phone is currently connected to and if it's not in the list of authorized, don't attempt sync?

Personally I use Immich locally and I use Caddy for local SSL. So my Immich URL is https://Photos.MyDomain.com
That domain has a valid Let's Encrypt SSL certificate that Caddy gets through a DNS Challenge. So if you're not connected to my Wi-Fi network, that URL won't work because the A record points to 10.0.0.50 which is my local Caddy IP address. But I don't know how Immich would react if I connect to an external Wi-Fi that happens to have a Caddy server on that same local IP address.

If I want to access Immich while I'm using mobile data, I just enable my Wireguard connection.

[Darknicks]

I would really like that this gets some attention because is very annoying that every time I connect to someone else's Wi-Fi, Immich starts trying to "backup" assets constantly.