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✔️ First steps

First Time Setup Wizard​

When you first access LibrePhotos, you'll be greeted with a guided setup wizard that walks you through the initial configuration in three easy steps.

Step 1: Create Your Admin Account​

The first step is to create your administrator account. Fill in the following details:

  • Username – Your login name (will be converted to lowercase)
  • Email – Your email address
  • First Name – Your first name
  • Last Name – Your last name
  • Password – Choose a secure password
  • Confirm Password – Re-enter your password to confirm

Click Sign Up to create your account. You'll be automatically logged in and taken to the next step.

Step 2: Site Settings​

In this step, you can configure important site-wide settings:

  • Allow Upload – Enable or disable the ability for users to upload photos directly to LibrePhotos
  • Allow Registration – Enable or disable public user registration (new users can create their own accounts)

These settings can always be changed later in the Admin Area. Click Continue to proceed.

Step 3: Configure Your Scan Directory​

This is where you tell LibrePhotos where your photos are stored:

  1. Skip RAW Files (optional) – Toggle this on if you want LibrePhotos to ignore RAW image files during scanning

  2. Scan Directory – Select or type the path to your photos folder. If you haven't modified the default docker-compose.yml, this should be /data, which corresponds to the folder you configured as scanDirectory in your .env file.

    The directory picker shows a visual tree of available folders that you can click to select, or you can type the path directly.

  3. Click Save to save your settings and start the initial photo scan, or click Skip if you want to configure this later.

Once complete, you'll be taken to the main LibrePhotos interface and your first scan will begin automatically if you configured a scan directory.

After Setup​

Understanding Scan Directories​

The basic idea is this:

  • For scanning photos that reside in the local file system
    • Only the admin user can change the "scan directory" of the users, including that of the admin themselves.
    • Normal users cannot change their own "scan directory"
    • Only the admin can find the page to control this - under the user icon (top right) > Admin Area
  • For scanning photos that reside in external Nextcloud instances
    • Any user can change their own Nextcloud endpoint, and choose a top level directory in the Nextcloud account.

How to Change Your Scan Directory​

Click on your avatar in the top right, and go to Admin Area. On this page, it will show a list of users. Manually set the Scan Directory for the desired user. Only an admin can do this.

How to Start a Scan​

Click on your avatar in the top right, and go to Library. Click the green Scan photos (file system) button. See the auto scan page if you would like to set up automated scanning for new photos.

How to Import Photos from an External Nextcloud Instance​

If you have a Nextcloud instance, you can also input login details for it in the Dashboard > Library page. Fill out the details for the Nextcloud section. Once logged in (the little circle next to Nextcloud Scan Directory will be green), you can choose a top level directory in your logged in Nextcloud account. Once this has been configured, you can click the blue Scan photos (Nextcloud) button. This will copy the contents of the specified Nextcloud directory (excluding videos) to the local filesystem.