Feature Request: Preserve existing assets when external library files are moved or reorganized

[forrest-x]

I have searched the existing feature requests, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate request.

• Yes

The feature

Feature Request: Preserve existing assets when external library files are moved or reorganized

Description

When using the external library feature, Immich currently treats moved files as completely new assets during a rescan.

For example:

• My external library contains three folders:

  /external-library/
    ├── a/
    ├── b/
    └── c/
  

• I moved folder c into folder a:

  /external-library/
    └── a/
        ├── c/
  

• After triggering a rescan of the external library, Immich detects these files as new assets instead of recognizing that they are the same photos/videos that already exist in the database.

As a result, Immich performs the following unnecessary operations again:

• Re-imports all photos
• Re-runs machine learning analysis
• Re-generates thumbnails
• Re-processes videos and performs transcoding again

For a large external library, this can consume a significant amount of CPU/GPU resources and take a very long time.

Expected behavior

Immich should be able to detect that files are the same assets even if their paths have changed.

A possible approach could be:

• Calculate and store a stable file hash (or use an existing asset identifier)

• During external library scanning, compare the hash of discovered files with existing assets

• If a matching asset already exists:

  • Update the file path/location information
  • Keep existing thumbnails
  • Keep existing machine learning results
  • Keep existing metadata and relationships
  • Avoid reprocessing the asset

Additional context

Many users organize their photo libraries by moving folders or restructuring directories. Since the file content does not change, these operations should ideally be treated as "file relocation" rather than "new asset import".

This feature would greatly improve the experience for users with large external libraries and prevent unnecessary duplicate processing.

Thank you for considering this improvement.

Platform

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

[bo0tzz]

#16394

[forrest-x]

Sorry, I missed this discussion when searching for related topics before creating my post.

My use case was reorganizing a large external library by moving folders, and I noticed that Immich treated the moved files as new assets and reprocessed thumbnails, ML analysis, and video transcoding.

After reading this discussion, I understand that this is already a known limitation of external libraries. Thanks for the clarification, and I will keep following the progress of this feature.