PhotoPrism

intermediate

AI-powered photo app for organizing your collection.

Overview

PhotoPrism is an AI-powered photo management application that combines machine learning capabilities with self-hosted privacy to organize and browse personal photo collections. Built with TensorFlow integration, PhotoPrism automatically tags photos, recognizes faces, and provides advanced search functionality including color-based queries and geographic mapping. Unlike cloud-based solutions, PhotoPrism gives users complete control over their photo data while delivering sophisticated features typically found only in commercial services. This deployment pairs PhotoPrism with MariaDB to provide robust database performance and reliability for metadata storage. MariaDB's enhanced storage engines and improved connection handling make it particularly well-suited for PhotoPrism's intensive indexing operations and concurrent user access patterns. The combination delivers superior performance compared to SQLite deployments, especially when processing large photo libraries or supporting multiple users simultaneously. This stack is ideal for photography enthusiasts, families with large photo collections, and professionals who need private photo hosting with advanced organizational capabilities. PhotoPrism's support for RAW file formats, combined with MariaDB's reliable transaction handling, ensures that valuable photo assets are properly indexed and searchable while maintaining data integrity throughout the AI processing pipeline.

Key Features

AI-powered automatic photo tagging using TensorFlow machine learning
Advanced face recognition with clustering and name assignment capabilities
RAW file format support for professional photography workflows
Geographic mapping and location-based photo organization
Color-based search functionality for finding photos by dominant colors
Live Photo support for iOS and Android dynamic images
WebDAV synchronization for mobile device photo backup
MariaDB's Aria storage engine for crash-safe photo metadata storage

Common Use Cases

1Personal photo library management for families with thousands of photos
2Professional photographer portfolio organization with RAW file support
3Privacy-focused photo hosting alternative to Google Photos or iCloud
4Photography business client gallery sharing with album organization
5Home lab enthusiasts building comprehensive media management systems
6Organizations requiring on-premises photo storage with AI capabilities
7Travel photography organization with automatic location tagging

Prerequisites

Minimum 4GB RAM recommended for AI features and face recognition
Available port 2342 for PhotoPrism web interface access
Sufficient storage space for original photos plus generated thumbnails
Basic understanding of photo file formats and metadata concepts
Environment variables configured for admin and database passwords
Docker host with adequate CPU for TensorFlow AI processing tasks

For development & testing. Review security settings, change default credentials, and test thoroughly before production use. See Terms

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  photoprism: 
3    image: photoprism/photoprism:latest
4    container_name: photoprism
5    restart: unless-stopped
6    security_opt: 
7      - seccomp:unconfined
8      - apparmor:unconfined
9    ports: 
10      - "2342:2342"
11    environment: 
12      PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_USER: admin
13      PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
14      PHOTOPRISM_SITE_URL: "http://localhost:2342/"
15      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_DRIVER: mysql
16      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_SERVER: mariadb:3306
17      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_NAME: photoprism
18      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_USER: photoprism
19      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
20    volumes: 
21      - photoprism_originals:/photoprism/originals
22      - photoprism_storage:/photoprism/storage
23    depends_on: 
24      - mariadb
25
26  mariadb: 
27    image: mariadb:10
28    container_name: photoprism-db
29    restart: unless-stopped
30    environment: 
31      MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
32      MARIADB_DATABASE: photoprism
33      MARIADB_USER: photoprism
34      MARIADB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
35    volumes: 
36      - photoprism_db:/var/lib/mysql
37
38volumes: 
39  photoprism_originals: 
40  photoprism_storage: 
41  photoprism_db:

.env Template

.env

1ADMIN_PASSWORD=changeme
2DB_PASSWORD=changeme

Usage Notes

1Docs: https://docs.photoprism.app/
2Access at http://localhost:2342 - login with configured credentials
3Index library: Library > Complete Scan to process photos
4AI features (faces, objects, colors) require 4GB+ RAM
5Mobile upload via PhotoSync (iOS/Android) or WebDAV
6Supports RAW formats, Live Photos, and video

Individual Services(2 services)

Copy individual services to mix and match with your existing compose files.

photoprism

photoprism:
  image: photoprism/photoprism:latest
  container_name: photoprism
  restart: unless-stopped
  security_opt:
    - seccomp:unconfined
    - apparmor:unconfined
  ports:
    - "2342:2342"
  environment:
    PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_USER: admin
    PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
    PHOTOPRISM_SITE_URL: http://localhost:2342/
    PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_DRIVER: mysql
    PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_SERVER: mariadb:3306
    PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_NAME: photoprism
    PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_USER: photoprism
    PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
  volumes:
    - photoprism_originals:/photoprism/originals
    - photoprism_storage:/photoprism/storage
  depends_on:
    - mariadb

mariadb

mariadb:
  image: mariadb:10
  container_name: photoprism-db
  restart: unless-stopped
  environment:
    MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
    MARIADB_DATABASE: photoprism
    MARIADB_USER: photoprism
    MARIADB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
  volumes:
    - photoprism_db:/var/lib/mysql

Quick Start

terminal

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  photoprism:
5    image: photoprism/photoprism:latest
6    container_name: photoprism
7    restart: unless-stopped
8    security_opt:
9      - seccomp:unconfined
10      - apparmor:unconfined
11    ports:
12      - "2342:2342"
13    environment:
14      PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_USER: admin
15      PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
16      PHOTOPRISM_SITE_URL: "http://localhost:2342/"
17      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_DRIVER: mysql
18      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_SERVER: mariadb:3306
19      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_NAME: photoprism
20      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_USER: photoprism
21      PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
22    volumes:
23      - photoprism_originals:/photoprism/originals
24      - photoprism_storage:/photoprism/storage
25    depends_on:
26      - mariadb
27
28  mariadb:
29    image: mariadb:10
30    container_name: photoprism-db
31    restart: unless-stopped
32    environment:
33      MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
34      MARIADB_DATABASE: photoprism
35      MARIADB_USER: photoprism
36      MARIADB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
37    volumes:
38      - photoprism_db:/var/lib/mysql
39
40volumes:
41  photoprism_originals:
42  photoprism_storage:
43  photoprism_db:
44EOF
45
46# 2. Create the .env file
47cat > .env << 'EOF'
48ADMIN_PASSWORD=changeme
49DB_PASSWORD=changeme
50EOF
51
52# 3. Start the services
53docker compose up -d
54
55# 4. View logs
56docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

terminal

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/photoprism/run | bash

Troubleshooting

Photos not appearing after upload: Run Library > Complete Scan to index new files into the database
Face recognition not working: Ensure container has access to at least 4GB RAM for TensorFlow processing
MariaDB connection errors on startup: Check that DB_PASSWORD environment variable matches between services
Slow indexing performance: Increase Docker container memory allocation and verify storage I/O performance
RAW files showing as unsupported: Install additional codec packages or verify PhotoPrism version supports your camera model
WebDAV sync failing from mobile: Verify firewall rules allow port 2342 and check PHOTOPRISM_SITE_URL configuration

Community Notes

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Download Recipe Kit

Get all files in a ready-to-deploy package

Includes docker-compose.yml, .env template, README, and license

Components

photoprismmariadb

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