[Feature] Auto-generate XMP sidecars for all assets

[diogosalazar]

Immich is where my family's entire photo library lives. My parents upload from their phones and delete the originals to free space. There is no other copy. I trust Immich with this, but I also want an exit strategy that doesn't depend on a PostgreSQL dump.

Right now, if I copy the library/ folder to an external drive and hand it to someone without Immich, they get files with hash suffixes and no context. The original filenames, descriptions, ratings, tags, GPS corrections, and date edits all live exclusively in the database. XMP sidecars solve this -- they're the standard way to make photo metadata portable across tools -- but Immich only writes them on individual metadata edits, not systematically.

Proposal: A new admin setting (like storageTemplate.enabled) that automatically generates a full XMP sidecar for every asset:

1. On new uploads: sidecar written after metadata extraction, containing all available metadata (original filename, dates, GPS, description, rating, tags, camera info)
2. On metadata edits: existing behavior continues (sidecar updated)
3. Backfill job: one-time migration to generate sidecars for all existing assets (same pattern as Storage Template Migration)

This turns the library/ folder into a self-describing archive -- essentially an Immich Takeout. Files + sidecars are enough to reconstruct the library in Lightroom, digiKam, PhotoPrism, or any XMP-aware tool, no database required.

The implementation would follow the storageTemplate.enabled pattern closely: config toggle, AssetMetadataExtracted event listener, backfill queue job. Happy to contribute a PR -- would appreciate guidance on Discord #contributing first.

Related: #15083 (face metadata in sidecars), #10592 (download/upload sidecar metadata)

[github-actions[bot]]

This discussion has automatically been closed as it is likely a duplicate. We get a lot of duplicate threads each day, which is why we ask you in the template to confirm that you searched for duplicates before opening one. If you're sure this is not a duplicate, please leave a comment and we will reopen the thread if necessary.

[diogosalazar]

Related discussions and issues:

#	Title	Votes	Relevance
#15083	Write face metadata to sidecar files	88	Face data in sidecars (maintainer-filed)
#10592	Download/Upload sidecar metadata	31	Sidecar portability on download
#5530	Options for metadata storage/consumption	9	Broader metadata persistence strategy
#14169	Apply, not export, sidecar metadata	9	Sidecar as source of truth
#10538	Read-only external library metadata edits silently fail	19	Sidecar write failure mode
#23792	Bulk removal of tags does not update XMP sidecar files	0	Existing sidecar write bug

[diogosalazar]

This is not a duplicate. The related discussions I linked cover different aspects of the sidecar system:

• [Feature] Write face metadata to sidecar files #15083 is specifically about writing face/person data to sidecars. It doesn't address auto-generation of sidecars for all assets.
• [Feature] Download/Upload sidecar metadata #10592 is about including sidecars when downloading albums from the web UI. It's a download-flow feature, not a storage/generation feature.
• Options for Metadata storage/consumption #5530 is a broad discussion about metadata storage options. No concrete proposal.
• [Feature] Apply, Not Export, Sidecar Metadata #14169 was closed as nice-to-have.

What this proposes is different: a system-level admin setting (like storageTemplate.enabled) that automatically generates a full XMP sidecar for every asset after metadata extraction -- not just when a user manually edits metadata. This ensures that the library/ folder on disk is a self-describing, portable archive at all times, without requiring user interaction per asset.

No existing discussion proposes this specific mechanism: a config toggle + AssetMetadataExtracted event hook + backfill migration job. I've reviewed the codebase (v2.5.6) and the implementation would follow the storageTemplate.enabled pattern closely. Happy to contribute a PR if there's interest.

Could this be reopened?