[BUG] Foreground and Background Uploads Don't work on IOS

[treverehrfurth]

The bug

I attempted Immich months ago and stopped because I got so frustrated that IOS background and foreground uploading never worked. Hoped by now this issue was fixed and I see its not. I was on an Iphone XS Max months ago and now I'm on a 13 Pro, still same issue.

I have background app refresh turned on in settings for WIFI and Cellular and its enabled on Immich.
I have both Automatic background backup with only while charging disabled as well as foreground backup turned on.
I can take photos(s)/video(s) and days later its never uploaded. But once I open the App... it uploads.

How has this issue not been solved yet?

The OS that Immich Server is running on

Ubuntu, docker

Version of Immich Server

1.77

Version of Immich Mobile App

1.76 build.116

Platform with the issue

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

Your docker-compose.yml content

version: "3.8"

services:
  immich-server:
    container_name: immich_server
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    command: [ "start.sh", "immich" ]
    volumes:
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
    env_file:
      - stack.env
    depends_on:
      - redis
      - database
      - typesense
    restart: always

  immich-microservices:
    container_name: immich_microservices
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    # extends:
    #   file: hwaccel.yml
    #   service: hwaccel
    command: [ "start.sh", "microservices" ]
    volumes:
      - ${UPLOAD_LOCATION}:/usr/src/app/upload
    env_file:
      - stack.env
    depends_on:
      - redis
      - database
      - typesense
    restart: always

  immich-machine-learning:
    container_name: immich_machine_learning
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    volumes:
      - /mnt/share/dockerdata/immich/model-cache/_data:/cache
    env_file:
      - stack.env
    restart: always

  immich-web:
    container_name: immich_web
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-web:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    env_file:
      - stack.env
    restart: always

  typesense:
    container_name: immich_typesense
    image: typesense/typesense:0.24.1@sha256:9bcff2b829f12074426ca044b56160ca9d777a0c488303469143dd9f8259d4dd
    environment:
      - TYPESENSE_API_KEY=${TYPESENSE_API_KEY}
      - TYPESENSE_DATA_DIR=/data
      # remove this to get debug messages
      - GLOG_minloglevel=1
    volumes:
      - /mnt/share/dockerdata/immich/tsdata/_data:/data
    restart: always

  redis:
    container_name: immich_redis
    image: redis:6.2-alpine@sha256:70a7a5b641117670beae0d80658430853896b5ef269ccf00d1827427e3263fa3
    restart: always

  database:
    container_name: immich_postgres
    image: postgres:14-alpine@sha256:28407a9961e76f2d285dc6991e8e48893503cc3836a4755bbc2d40bcc272a441
    env_file:
      - stack.env
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USERNAME}
      POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_DATABASE_NAME}
    volumes:
      - /mnt/share/dockerdata/immich/pgdata/_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: always

  immich-proxy:
    container_name: immich_proxy
    image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-proxy:${IMMICH_VERSION:-release}
    environment:
      # Make sure these values get passed through from the env file
      - IMMICH_SERVER_URL
      - IMMICH_WEB_URL
    ports:
      - 2283:8080
    depends_on:
      - immich-server
      - immich-web
    restart: always

volumes:
  pgdata:
  model-cache:
  tsdata:

Your .env content

UPLOAD_LOCATION=/mnt/share/treshare/Trecloud/Media/immich2
IMMICH_VERSION=release
TYPESENSE_API_KEY=some-random-text
DB_PASSWORD=E7D^ba49!%bnvKanQUvfW2MAX
DB_HOSTNAME=immich_postgres
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_DATABASE_NAME=immich
REDIS_HOSTNAME=immich_redis

Reproduction steps

Take picture
Wait, check immich not from mobile app to see if uploaded.
no file uploaded until Immich ios app is opened.

Additional information

No response

[alextran1502]

@pray4tre The background upload works, but it heavily depends on the scheduler of iOS when it can run, and we don't have control over this. Usually, when the phone is not plugged it, the scheduler allows the background task to run every 10 or so minutes, and it can run around 30 seconds or so before getting killed by the OS.

The frequency of when the background task can run also depends on the user's usage behavior and how other apps are being used.

I advise you use foreground upload for initial bulk upload and use background upload for incremental upload after ward.

[treverehrfurth]

If thats true... why does it never upload, for days on end. Both plugged in and not?
Saying "it works" and then closing the request doesn't solve anything.

[alextran1502]

I converted the issue into a discussion to continue the conversation here.

Right now, we upload the asset from newest to oldest, so if there is a large video in the upload queue and the upload doesn't finish within the allowable time slice from the OS, it will retry and then eventually get killed again. That might give you the impression that the background upload doesn't work. Below the background backup setting, you can see the status of last sync, indicating the OS invoked the background task.

We are putting in a PR to prioritize the photo in the background context to avoid the issue mentioned above.

Please make sure to enable Background App Refresh as well on your phone. https://immich.app/docs/features/automatic-backup#background-backup

[treverehrfurth]

Ah gotcha. All good.

All are uploaded... nothings pending. I take one tiny photo and it sits there for days and never uplaods.
I have background app refresh on like I said in the initial post. I have everything set right as far as I can see but nothing ever uploads unless I'm directly in the app.

[alextran1502]

Yeah, background upload on iOS can be strange and hard to predict. You can increase the likelihood of the background task running by disabling other background task of less-used app and also try to restart your phone as well/

[chewenkai]

Thanks for your explain about how big video can make the background upload failed. The similar behavior happens to NextCloud too. So I think it maybe not a easy task to solve.

You just mentioned improve the priority of photo than video could improve the user experience in this issue. What about adding the feature of "breakpoint resume" when uploading no matter videos or photos, to avoid the re-upload.

Thanks for you time.

[treverehrfurth]

So I made sure only Immich was selected. It took over an hour but it finally attempted to run the upload job.
First time it said "trying to upload 0/1 ..."
But never did.
Second time just now after another hour or so I got "failed to upload 0/1, retrying...."
And it never actually uploaded.

[alextran1502]

Does the server log says anything?
What is the log from mobile app?

[treverehrfurth]

Just got another "Backup Error: Failed to backup assets. Retrying..."

Do you think it matters that I am connecting through nging reverse proxy manager?
I'll grab mobile log.

[alextran1502]

I setup a quick development server and observed the same behavior. I think this is a bug with the recent added feature of manual upload individual photo/video

[treverehrfurth]

Gotcha. Well I’m glad you’re seeing this issue too finally and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Will wait until a fix is discovered. Thank you.

[manawenuz]

any updates on the bug ?
I'm experiencing the same issue, it was so bad that i gave up on autobackup altogether, i know the scheduler sucks, and lack of user overrides makes it even worse, but at least a slow backup, (not sure if it supports resume upload if it gets killed by the scheduler), would go a long way.

[Zhan85]

I am also curious if there are any updates? This is the only bug keeping us, my wife and I, from switching to this over PhotoSync. Everything else about the app passes the "wife test" except the automatic uploading. I rarely see this capability simply work on our IOS devices. If this feature were to be resolved then this would be THE app for open source photo/video management.

[alextran1502]

@Zhan85 the mechanism is working as expected but the behavior is device specific.

1. It depends on the usage behavior of the app. If you use the app more then iOS would be more likely to allow background task to run

2. You can turn of Background App Refresh of other app to avoid other apps compete for the background task time slot

As you can see, none of this is can be controlled by us

[alextran1502]

I open an issue for tracking here #4020