[Feature] Ability to hide albums from the timeline.

[rollermy]

The feature

I would like to exclude some albums from showing up on the main timeline.

I have an album of random receipts. Another of store items i might wish to buy sometime. And a few others.
I want to keep these pictures and have access to them, but don't want to see them as i'm scrolling down memory lane.

Possibly a simple version of #2451 but without the complexity and privacy orientation.

Thanks!

Platform

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

[kaaku3]

Yes I want this. I still want to back them up just excluded from the timeline.
Perhaps as an option to exclude local albums from timeline or add local album to archive folder.

[Ember-ruby]

yeah, this'd be very helpful for still being able to upload, say, random screenshots, but not have them clutter up the view of photos i've taken

[bcsteeve]

The obvious solution is to use the archive feature.

BUT... the problem with archive, in this use-case, is that they then get mixed in with all the archived items and you can't un-archive from within the album. Hmm... I think that might be the solution. Add the ability to unarchive archived items from within the album view. I feel like that might already be in the works?

[stephen304]

I think the main problem with using archiving is that it makes organizing photos into the album a 2 step process.

For example I have a memes album - I don't want my memes to clutter up my timeline so I have to add the meme to the album then archive it. If I change my mind about a photo, I have to open the image and first unarchive it, then remove it from the album. If I remove it from the album before unarchiving it, then it disappears and I need to hunt down the image in the archive so I can unarchive it.

It would be better if the "archive" status could be applied to the album so that adding / removing assets to/from the album automatically archives or unarchives it (and of course handles edge cases, like if an asset is in multiple "archived" albums then removing from one would skip unarchiving it since it's still in another archived album). That way, organizing receipts and memes into albums can be as simple as marking those albums as archived and adding stuff to them.

[bkbilly]

There is also another issue with Archive. These images won't show on People tab.

[OnlyC0RE]

Any ETA on this feature? Is this being / will this be worked on?

[bo0tzz]

We don't give ETAs. If a feature is being worked on, the pull request will be linked in the FR thread.

[arifroni]

I would also want this feature. Archiving is not an ideal solution tbh.
I have screenshot folder/album, which i dont want in my timeline, just like google photos. I dont want to go to the album and archive it everytime i take a new screenshot!

[shortringbear]

Thank you! Right now I'm still holding off on syncing most of my photos to immich, because it would mess up my timeline. So it's basically just my /camera folder right now. The moment this feature gets introduced I would use Immich to manage all my photos, since then I could finally add stuff that I don't want on the timeline :)

[Actpohomoc]

Fully support this feature request

[wrkealey]

This is the one missing feature I desperately want.

I have a lot of pictures I take around the house for various projects and maintenance stuff I have to do. A lot of it is pictures of model numbers, measurements, or whatnot. Just so I can easily look that stuff up later. And Immich lets me just instantly have a glance at those pictures anywhere, from any device. But its off-putting when family photos get interrupted by 3 shots of a microwave magnatron I need to replace, or an oddly shaped hole in the ceiling.

[michaelreiners]

I second this feature. Would be really helpful. In my case I would host photos of other people. But I don't want them im my personal feed.

I imagine something like this in the album options:

[shortringbear]

This looks really good! Though I'd prefer to also have that option in the timeline tab itself, to simply toggle on or off albums.

[l-mb]

Yes, an "Exclude from Timeline" setting for an album (or individual photo) is what I'd be looking for too.

"Archive" isn't exactly the thing (and doesn't work per album), and most definitely isn't what users will look for.

[MergenStudios]

I would also really like this feature. It would really help with saving all my images to immich, as I do want to save screenshots etc., but I dont want them cluttering my main timeline, which is just for normal photos from my phone or camera

[TheToto]

I have a workarround for this. It's a bit ugly but it works.

Share your album by link, and allow upload. Open a private navigation window and upload photos to the album. You're not the owner of the pictures so you can view them in album view, but not in your timeline.

[Untimed4598]

This is an interesting workaround actually, might work out for many cases. Quick question though in case you're already doing this, do the photos added this way still run the face recognition? Like let's if I upload some of my own photos in there and then search using my face will it show up?

[DrD4ffy]

I could imagine that a per-album setting to hide the photos in the timeline would be helpful for everybody. A default setting could be defined in the user profile. This would cover:
1.) Users who see the timeline as an unorganised stream of photos they never touch. Nice things that should be highlighted will be placed in albums for a nice presentation. (default: don't hide)
2.) Users who see the timeline as a bunch of 'not yet sorted" photos. All sorted photos (assigned to albums) will be systematically hidden in the timeline. (default: hide)
3.) Users in between, who organise nice moments in albums without wanting to hide them in the timeline, (default: hide) but want to create some albums like 'screenshots', 'wallpapers', 'bills' ... with photos that are no longer shown in the timeline (album setting: hide)

[l-mb]

Or those who want different things at different times.

There's photos I really don't need to be reminded off that I still want to keep (even in my timeline, but not the "x years ago"), and others that I never want to see in my timeline, and thus that I may want to hide temporarily as "confidential" when I'm looking through my timeline with others, from the medical to personal.

I think those are fairly common needs/use cases.

[bgr]

My workaround for the "screenshots" use case:

1. created a new user "Screenshots"
2. created a new External Library and assigned it to the newly created user
3. uploaded screenshots to the network share
4. logged into new user, went to Account Settings > Partner Sharing
5. shared with my main account

the shared pictures are hidden by default from my main user's timeline, they can be accessed via "Sharing" menu in the sidebar.

[Tre916]

That would be maddening. And defeat the purpose of automatic sync.

[Doomnometron]

Are people in the "workaround photos" recognized and added to the people overview of the main account?

[bgr]

Are people in the "workaround photos" recognized and added to the people overview of the main account?

No, it says "Asset has unassigned faces" and there's an option to assign a person to the face manually.

[l-mb]

I think discussing workarounds is not really constructive. It's clear that Immich can't do it today, and workarounds don't/can't have sufficiently good UX to drop the feature request.

[bgr]

Nobody is asking for dropping the feature request. Workarounds provide a way to do something until the proper way to do it is available. People are coming to this page by googling, and it's useful to discuss what's possible, and what the limitations are. The discussion also provides useful insight to the maintainers as it provides insight on how people want to use the app, and how important it is to them compared to other issues.

[daltimus11]

I agree and I think this is an important feature to have separate from locked photos.

I also want to be able to hide albums such as screenshots & downloads from the timeline view, yet still sync them automatically.

[sol3uk]

+1 to this, in my use case I take hundreds of photos of the same thing for time-lapses which I do not wish to clog up the main feed and I don't have the option to "stack" them, since they were taken a minute apart each time.

[coolbigbear]

I asked in the Discord about this as was looking to try and implement it.
The immich team are happy with how archiving works and want that to be used to hide assets from the timeline.
That's an issue without some automation to hide new screenshots etc. but they have workflows in the works which would resolve that (i.e. image added to album -> archived image)

[rollermy]

Sound promising.
We would need a flag or something on the album: "auto archive album's images". Then any image added to the album would be auto archived.
Opening the album still shows all the images, whether them are archived or not.

[sol3uk]

That's interesting. I've not actually explored this, but for me it raises the question of exporting, and how the export treats archives? I would hate to archive a load of really important images and then not see them as part of an export.

[bo0tzz]

Closing, as mentioned this will be possible by archiving through #1673.

[stephen304]

@alextran1502 I hope this will have the ability to add conditions based on what other albums the asset is in, because I think there will be an annoying edge case where:

1. 2 albums both have an "archive when added" and "unarchive when removed" workflows
2. Asset gets added to both - it gets archived
3. Asset gets removed from 1 album, it gets unarchived despite still being in the other archived album

There would need to be a condition that allows checking whether an asset is in any other album that has an archive-when-added workflow to conditionally skip the unarchive-when-removed workflow for those assets.

If the user is required to add such a condition for every other archived album on each workflow, then it not only means that the user would need to create 2x(number of archived album) workflows to handle addition and removal, but also create (n-1)*n conditions due to needing to duplicate the list of other albums on every single album

Personally I think this is a good argument for Immich to have an internal "archive when added" and "unarchive when removed" workflows that can be enabled on any album with a checkbox. That way, the internal workflow(s) could more easily reflect on whether any particular asset is in multiple applicable albums - at least compared to coordinating multiple user created workflows for each album that needs this.

[l-mb]

This seems like a highly complex workflow / UX to achieve the effect of a "don't show in timeline (possibly if in confidential mode)" flag on albums/assets.

Maybe I'll have to see it in practice to understand, but it doesn't seem to be the same thing as what this feature was asking for. (I think rules and smart albums are quite useful, don't get me wrong, but it seems a stretch.)

I'll wait and see what happens :)

[Balthxzar]

Adding to this -

Given there are no plans for nested albums (thread closed with a "don't ask for updates" being the last actual response) I was considering the option of not using albums at all and instead relying on a folder based approach with the need to show/hide specific folders in the timeline. Not only is archiving NOT a proper way of handling show/hide, it only works on albums.

It seems user driven sorting/display/nesting/organisation is not something Immich is currently interested in looking into. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I love all of the other features, searching, geolocation, mobile backup etc. but being able to control the structure and display of my media is a must for me (and many others going by previous discussions and external discussions)

[bo0tzz]

Given there are no plans for nested albums (thread closed with a "don't ask for updates" being the last actual response)

It's locked, not closed. There's no point to any further discussion there but that doesn't mean the feature is ruled out.

[Balthxzar]

Given there are no plans for nested albums (thread closed with a "don't ask for updates" being the last actual response)

It's locked, not closed. There's no point to any further discussion there but that doesn't mean the feature is ruled out.

Okay, we'll ignore that point then (no further discussion or comment on the team in response to said discussion - but we are out of place for thinking that means it is ruled out)

Back to the main point, archiving should not be the main avenue for controlling the display of folders. An "archive" has connotations far beyond just "not readily available to view"

I will take it that archiving (and by extension, albums) is how Immich intends to handle media visibility, for lack of any other clarification.

[rollermy]

@bo0tzz Sorry, i'm confused, maybe there is something i'm missing. Would you be able to clarify how this is currently possible? Will there be some UI on the album to enable auto archive or something similar?

[bo0tzz]

This is not currently possible, I said will be.

[Balthxzar]

This is not currently possible, I said will be.

Can you clarify that Immich's only solution for controlling visibility will be archiving?

I think these are two different things entirely in all honesty.

[MaKraMc]

This would also be important to me since I want all my screenshots and memes backed up but not on my timeline

[SmoochSmackers]

Yes! I've been advocating for something like this for years (#3838). I understand they have had other priorities, which is fine, because immich's core functionality and sheer speed never ceases to amaze me.

But a lot has changed since I wrote that old feature request. Now, since the mobile app can automatically add assets to albums based on origin folder, a more efficient system would probably be, as many have stated, the ability to exclude specific albums from the timeline.

I'd still like the ability make albums based on camera model, or whether the camera model metadata field is empty, as that is a good indicator as whether something was downloaded or taken by the user. To deal with old images that were not backed up through the app.

[jabsammy]

Looking forward to any progress. Thanks a lot for your work @bo0tzz

I cannot stress how much I'm waiting for this feature, both hiding albums by archiving and - if possible at some point - hiding without archving <3

[pscloud-patrick]

I would also love this. Like mentioned, i backup screenshots, whatsapp images and so ob but i dont want them to be shown on timeline. Just an Option to hide in the folder settings would be awesome! Love your work guys!

[ALMAAAAA]

This is exactly the thing that is still missing for my girlfriend and me. I never want to see screenshots or albums from certain apps in the timeline and the easiest thing would be to just select the album and deactivate it for the timeline in general.

[nedisy]

I think supporting a fully customized folder-based organization is the best.

On your mobile app, we can set up rules for uploads, "this local folder goes to that remote folder" kinda thing. For every remote folder, we can customize how the uploaded/imported media is processed. The processing options could look something like:

• The default folder template (the one with years/dates)
• Leave it as is + indices for duplicates
• Leave it as is + rename with custom template by using exif/metadata + indices for duplicates
• Custom folder template w/wo rename template + indices for duplicates

In the timeline tab or the settings tab, options can be added to toggle the visibility of each folder in the timeline. This can be made akin to the tree + checkboxes GUI that is widely used, the one where we can uncheck a root folder, which will uncheck every folder inside it. This also has a nice side effect of being able to hide specific dates depending on how you choose to process your uploads. This whole thing has the advantage of giving each user independence in their organization, compared to the current hacks needed just for serving external libraries to preserve folder structure. It can also support importing from the local machine and choose to preserve the original folder structure, with optional reorganization for each folder.

This folder system is backward compatible with the current system. The default current system in this folder-based system would be just to use the root and the default folder template. The phone upload rule for the current default would be: "each media folder goes to the root folder". I know this is a whole layer added to the file organization stack, but I think this is worth it in the long term.

I had a nasty experience with Google Photos Takeout (that has a very similar folder structure to the current Immich default). To my surprise, it didn't preserve the folder structure of my old phones. I spent days comparing for duplicates with my local copy and re-classifying them to where they belong. It gets worse with older pictures of screenshots and memes, where I can't access the original folder structure, so I have to manually re-classify them.

[vesk4000]

Yes I think that's an absolutely great idea!

[segdy]

Another big big +1!!

For me, the use case is family shared albums from iCloud. I want them in immich, as an album but I don't want them to show up in my timeline.

[NextBlaubeere]

For me exactly the same usecase: Having WhatsApp photos in immich, but not spamed in the timeline would be awesome.

[0xskynet]

This is exactly what I want to do, WhatsApp plus any "special" albums like Wedding pictures etc.

[xabierblanch]

It would be extremely useful to have a way to exclude specific media from the main Photos view without using the Archive feature. For example: hiding photos of a specific person (face recognition), or photos tagged with "work", or all images from a certain location or album — without having to remove them from their current structure or throw them all into a single “Archive” bucket.

The Archive feature is useful, but it's a blunt instrument — everything archived goes into one place. What’s missing is a more granular, intelligent filtering layer that lets users preserve the current organizational structure (albums, tags, people, locations), while simply excluding selected groups from the general photo feed.

Basically, allowing:

Hiding photos of specific people from the main timeline.
Hiding photos from albums or tags from the main timeline.
Hiding photos taken in specific locations the main timeline.

All without altering how those images are accessed via albums, people, tags, or search — just keeping them out of the all-photos timeline.

Immich’s existing architecture (tags, face recognition, location metadata) makes it ideal for implementing this kind of powerful and user-focused visibility control.

[jfietz]

Same argument is even more true for the locked pictures as those lose all structure (and that can't be restored). Tagging something and optionally having access control per tag seems the best from both worlds. With a default "locked" and "archive" tag, it would be an improved version of today's approach not changing anything for existing users(?)

[raldone01]

I think I would prefer the opposite approach to hiding. Basically I would love to add multiple timelines instead of just Photos in the sidebar. For each timeline I would like to select which folders are displayed in the timeline and give it a name.

[narsaw]

+1 for this feature