Self-hosting opens up a world of possibilities, but if we’re being honest, one of the most universal reasons people end up buying a NAS is backup. Photos in particular are some of the most important files we store, but they often turn into a mess of thousands of unorganized images that are hard to browse and actually enjoy.
Fortunately, there’s an app that turns that problem into something genuinely worth building a NAS around.
The problem with managing your own photo backups
Keeping everything organized is a nightmare
For most of us, photos are by far the most valuable files we have. While losing something like all your ripped music and movie collections would suck, the vast majority of them are completely replaceable. Whether it’s an old, niche game, your favorite Metallica album, or a special lost episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, there’s usually a way to find a new copy.
The photos you’ve taken over the years, however, are your original creations, and if you’re not careful, you may only have one copy stored. When you lose that one copy of your photos, they’re gone forever—ask me how I know.
Quiz
Cloud storage and self-hosting
Trivia challenge
From Dropbox to your own home server — how well do you really know where your files live?
CloudSelf-HostingProtocolsSecuritySoftware
Which company launched the first widely popular consumer cloud storage service, debuting in 2007?
Correct! Dropbox launched in 2007 and is widely credited with popularizing consumer cloud storage. Its simple file-syncing model set the template that almost every competitor would follow for years.
Not quite — the answer is Dropbox, which launched in 2007. Google Drive didn’t arrive until 2012, and OneDrive (then called SkyDrive) only became prominent around the same time.
Nextcloud is best described as which type of software?
Correct! Nextcloud is a free, open-source platform you install on your own server to get Dropbox-like features without relying on a third party. It supports file sync, calendars, contacts, and hundreds of community apps.
Not quite — Nextcloud is an open-source, self-hosted platform. It was actually forked from ownCloud in 2016 by founder Frank Karlitschek and has since become one of the most popular self-hosting projects in the world.
Which protocol does Nextcloud and many other self-hosted storage tools use to sync files between a server and client devices?
Correct! WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is an HTTP extension that allows clients to read and write files on remote servers, making it a natural fit for cloud-style file sync applications.
Not quite — the answer is WebDAV. While FTP, SFTP, and SMB are all valid file-transfer protocols, WebDAV is the standard used by Nextcloud, ownCloud, and many other web-based storage platforms because it runs over standard HTTP/HTTPS.
What does end-to-end encryption (E2EE) mean in the context of cloud storage?
Correct! With true E2EE, encryption and decryption happen on the user’s device, so the cloud provider stores only ciphertext and cannot read your files even if compelled to. Services like Proton Drive and Tresorit are known for this approach.
Not quite — E2EE means files are encrypted on your device before they ever leave it, so the provider only ever sees unreadable ciphertext. This is different from standard server-side encryption, where the provider holds the keys and could theoretically access your data.
What is a NAS, commonly used in home self-hosting setups?
Correct! A NAS (Network-Attached Storage) device connects to your home router and makes its hard drives accessible to every device on the network. Popular brands include Synology, QNAP, and Western Digital, and many run apps like Plex or Nextcloud.
Not quite — NAS stands for Network-Attached Storage. It is a purpose-built box with one or more hard drives that plugs into your router, letting all devices on your network access shared storage without needing a full PC running 24/7.
Which cloud storage service is natively built into macOS and iOS, deeply integrated with Apple’s ecosystem?
Correct! iCloud Drive is Apple’s built-in cloud storage service, tightly integrated into macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. It handles desktop and document folder sync, app data, photos, and more, all within Apple’s walled garden.
Not quite — the answer is iCloud Drive. While OneDrive, Google One, and Dropbox all have iOS and macOS apps, iCloud Drive is the service Apple built directly into its operating systems, making it the default for most Apple users.
Which open-source media server software is frequently self-hosted to stream a personal video and music library to any device?
Correct! Jellyfin is a fully free and open-source media server that you host on your own hardware. It streams your personal library of movies, TV, and music to browsers, apps, and smart TVs — with no subscription or tracking involved.
Not quite — the answer is Jellyfin. VLC and Handbrake are local playback and transcoding tools, while Kodi is a media center app rather than a server. Jellyfin (and its proprietary cousin Plex) are specifically designed to serve media over a network.
When self-hosting a service and exposing it to the internet, which tool is most commonly recommended to securely provide remote HTTPS access without opening router ports directly?
Correct! A reverse proxy like Nginx Proxy Manager or Caddy sits in front of your self-hosted apps, handles SSL/TLS certificates automatically, and routes traffic securely. This avoids exposing individual app ports directly and centralizes access control.
Not quite — the standard answer is a reverse proxy such as Nginx Proxy Manager or Caddy. Telnet is unencrypted and obsolete, RDP exposes the whole desktop and is a common attack target, and plain FTP lacks encryption, making all three poor choices for secure remote access.
Your Score
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So it’s no surprise that most people jumped at the opportunity to use Google Photos or iCloud Photos to back up their precious memories when smartphones first became mainstream.
They’re a one-click backup solution and, importantly, offer advanced photo management features. By taking metadata from your images, these cloud backup tools can automatically organize your photos based on when they were taken to create a timeline, and you can use smart AI-powered search to find specific objects, as well as facial recognition to organize and find photos of a particular person in one place.
In contrast, managing your own photo library can be a nightmare if you try to do it manually.
While it’s easy enough to organize movies, TV shows, and even music, organizing thousands of photos manually can take days. Duplicates pile up, and they’re sometimes impossible to catch if they don’t have identical file names. The end result is that even if you have created a backup of all your photos, you might not even want to browse through the disorganized mess.
- Brand
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UGREEN
- CPU
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Intel 12th Gen N-Series
This cutting-edge network-attached storage device transforms how you store and access data via smartphones, laptops, tablets, and TVs anywhere with network access.
Immich turns your photo library into a self-hosted Google Photos alternative
A familiar experience fully under your control
Most of us know how effortless Google Photos and iCloud Photos feel to use, which makes the idea of replacing them with a self-hosted photo server sound like a daunting task.
Thankfully, Immich makes this transition as painless as possible. It is designed to look and feel like Google Photos, to the point where if you placed the two side by side and removed the logos, you would have a hard time telling them apart. It is about as close to a drop-in replacement for Google Photos as it gets.
Once you install Immich on your NAS (preferably in a Docker container), you can recreate the same experience you get with Google Photos, but with virtually unlimited storage and no subscription. This even includes remote access if you have set up VPN access to your NAS.
Setting up Immich to back up photos from your phone (or your family’s phones) is surprisingly easy.
After installing the Immich app, creating an account, and signing in, all that is left is enabling backup and selecting which albums to include. Within a few hours, your entire photo library is transferred to your NAS and neatly organized by Immich, and it will continue syncing new photos in the background as you take them.
Once your library is there, you can browse it smoothly on any connected device, such as your phone or PC, using the automatically generated timeline view. You can zoom out to get a wider overview of your gallery, search using face recognition, location data, or other metadata, or use AI-assisted smart search to find specific images. Immich also includes duplicate detection tools to help keep your library tidy and reduce wasted storage space.
The app makes self-hosting feel practical, not technical
You might be surprised how easy it is to set up
There are two major reasons why switching from a subscription service to a self-hosted solution like Immich is a smart move: privacy and cost. Privacy is fairly self-explanatory. Even though the cloud is extremely safe, there’s always a chance something could go wrong. When my photos are stored on my own server, I have the final say on how my data is protected.
As for cost, self-hosting Immich on a mini PC, old laptop, desktop, or an actual NAS device is effectively free to run, aside from the small amount of electricity needed to keep it running 24/7. Beyond the upfront cost of my host device and storage drives, I have no ongoing subscription fees.
Now compare that to a subscription like the Basic 100GB plan for Google One. It costs $1.99 per month, which sounds reasonable at first, until you realize that the cost of around seven months could have bought you a 128GB USB flash drive that you can plug into your NAS, and it won’t disappear once you cancel your subscription. Better yet, you could just buy a large hard drive once and use it to store your photos and other data for years to come.
- Storage Capacity
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2TB
- Brand
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Western Digital
The WD Red Plus hard drive line is designed specifically for NAS usage. This means the drive is build to withstand 24/7/365 usage, with up to a 180 TB per year workload rate. You’ll also get a 3-year warranty with the purchase of WD’s Red Plus drive lineup.
Another benefit of self-hosting and using Immich is that I get a lot more freedom in how I manage my photos. While Google Photos has a few basic tools for spotting blurry photos and screenshots, it’s nowhere near as flexible as the various built-in and third-party Immich tools available. For instance, I used Immich-Go to import locally stored photos as well as my Google Photos Takeout to unify and organize everything in one place.
PSA: Your Google Photos storage situation is worse than you think
Google didn’t expect anyone to actually leave.
Immich might be the reason you finally get your first NAS
The tipping point for getting started
If you’ve been holding off on buying a NAS because you weren’t sure it was worth the hassle, Immich could be the reason to finally get one. Backing up your photos alone makes it worthwhile, especially if it replaces a cloud subscription, and it could also be the perfect gateway into the broader self-hosting hobby.
7/10
- CPU
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8-core
- Memory
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4GB LPDDR4X RAM
This unified storage hub supports massive capacity up to 60TB. Unlike cloud storage with recurring monthly fees, a UGREEN NAS enclosure requires only a one-time purchase for long-term use. Equipped with a high-performance processor, 1GbE port, and 4GB LPDDR4X RAM, this NAS handles multiple tasks with ease.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
