[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.

[JohnDoe-dev-spec]

Bumping this up as its still something I think should be implemented as a quality of life improvement of the app and immich.

I'm wanting to upload all my albums including WhatsApp, memes, screen shots but these have no place in my timeline or my main area of photos.

It'd be great if you guys can look into this again.

Thanks

[clemrdh]

3 years later ... Bump

[adub08]

Agree with Everything said above, Achieving does not achieve the same functionality.

[AppyxDaniel]

Bumping up, some albums should just not be visible on time timeline, but accessible through the albums menu.

[deadmeu]

@bo0tzz please reopen this discussion as it has not be addressed. We do not want to archive files to hide them from our main timeline. I want my timeline to be full of photos and videos I have taken, not of all the media from WhatsApp or similar apps. The photos and videos I have received from WhatsApp are just as relevant and important as my own photos from my camera roll - they are not meant to be archived. I just don't want to see them on my timeline by default. Maybe if I wanted to favourite certain images or albums of images originating from WhatsApp, then it may be nice to be able to include them on the timeline in some way, but this has nothing to do with archiving files. Please reopen this discussion as it has been improperly closed.

[Rinyuu]

Yee, agreed. Immich is still sorely lacking some basic organisation features, like folders in the archive, folders in locked folder, and hiding any of those in the main timeline. Also just simply making a gallery and not adding them to the main timeline.

[nekonora]

Re-installed immich after almost 2 years, hiding an album is still impossible, please reopen this issue. Archive isn't a viable solution, as it doesn't even cover the same use case.

Also, reading about supposed UX concerns of an hide feature in related issues and PRs, I'd say "Archiving" is even more difficult to understand and prone to misunderstanding from casual users ("archive" is too subjective) than a simple "hide: everything in this album will not appear on the timeline".
It'd take 2 seconds to explain to a family member how to hide an album instead of explain what archiving is, its implications and how to do it.

[joshtheclipper]

I use Immich to backup a family shared album (apple photos) and it is very large. It would be nice to have a way to exclude that album from my photos tab or timeline. It seems like there is a good amount of interest in this feature. It would be nice if this issue was reopened.

[vonrobak]

This feature request should not be closed. "Archiving" is not the same as this feature request and as many others point out, it is unintuitive for most users that "archiving" should solve any such problems. So this is both a feature that is highly needed and solves a current UX issue. This kind of feature would truly help Immich being comparable to Google and Apple Photos in terms of user experience.

It would help enormously in making Immich more accessible for sharing moments with users who are not already onboard.

[dfiorini]

Hi, i'm new to immich. Is this feature available ?

[sysardex]

Please bring this feature back into development. This feature immediately comes to mind after installing immich. It's in high demand.

[dfiorini]

@alextran1502

[sysardex]

The best solution is to allow the ability to remove specific albums from the timeline. I understand that this is likely not easy, but it's a major issue. Most people mix technical photos with regular ones.

[bgr]

I have a vibecoded version of it on my fork (branch hide-album-from-timeline) if anyone feels like building it by themselves and giving it a try.

[bcsteeve]

How do you deal with a situation where a photo is both in hidden and non hidden albums?

[sysardex]

The priority of the ban needs to be raised.

[SirBoomBoom]

Commenting in the hopes of this coming back, have loads of pictures on my phone that I cannot backup to Immich because I'm unwilling to flood the timeline I share with my family with the thousands of jobsite photos I have to take and preserve for months at a time.

Would prefer it so much to be able to just mark the different albums so I could back them up to my server without having them completely ruin the timeline, instead of needing to split where some folder get backed up with Immich while others have to use Google.