SD Sync Immich

A small app in the menu bar (the tray on Windows and Linux). It notices your camera's card by itself and uploads only the new shots to Immich. No more remembering which photo from the card you uploaded last.

Download for your system → macOS 13+, Windows 10/11 and Linux x86_64 (Windows and Linux are betas). Needs an Immich v3 server. Free and open source.

What it does

• Uploads by itself. Insert the card and the upload starts. Nothing to click.
• Remembers what is uploaded. Each card has its own progress: next time only the new shots go up.
• A gallery right from the card. Photos by day, newest first, each marked: in Immich, uploading, waiting or failed. Click a photo to see it large and flip through with the arrow keys. Handy for showing the shoot while it is still uploading.
• No duplicates. Checks the file date and checksum, as immich-go does.
• Survives interruptions. Network gone or the server down? The app stops and picks up where it left off when Immich is back.
• Photos, RAW and video. Everything Immich takes, with XMP sidecars, several files at once. Finds the shots on cards from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Olympus, GoPro, DJI and other cameras.
• RAW+JPEG as one photo. A RAW and the JPEG or HEIF shot with it are stacked in Immich, the JPEG on top. Can be turned off in Settings.
• Card ready to go. After the upload the card is ejected, so you can take it out. If you like, the app also formats it, but only after checking that every file is in Immich.
• History. When and how much was uploaded, and what failed; failed files can be uploaded again with one click.
• Notifications when an upload is done, when the server has a problem or when another card is inserted. Each kind can be turned on separately.
• Stays out of the way. Can start at login and updates itself.
• 8 languages: English, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese.

How it differs from other ways to upload

• The Immich mobile app backs up the photos on your phone. SD Sync Immich is for the camera's card: no need to copy the shots to the phone or the computer first.
• immich-go and the Immich CLI are command-line tools: you run them and point them at a folder. They are great for big imports such as a Google Photos takeout. SD Sync Immich is for the everyday card after a shoot: it notices the card, uploads only what is new on it, and ejects it when done.

Privacy

The app talks to your Immich server and to GitHub, to check for a new version and download it. No accounts. The API key stays on your computer and is only sent to your server.

Anonymous statistics are off until you allow them: the app asks once, and Settings → Statistics turns them on or off. When on, it sends the app's version and system, how many files each upload had and the errors it ran into, with a random id that changes each time you turn them on. Never file names, paths, the server's address or the API key. Details are in SECURITY.md.

How it is made

Most of the code, tests and texts are written with AI (Claude, through Claude Code); the commits that it co-wrote say so. I decide what the app does and how, and I use it myself: on macOS with my camera's cards since July 2026. Every change runs the automated tests on macOS, Windows and Linux; the tests use fake servers and temporary folders, never real cards or disks. The Windows and Linux builds have been tried by hand much less, which is why they are betas. If something breaks on your system, please tell me.

Installing

The easiest way is the download page: it offers the file for your system. All files are on the Releases page.

macOS

1. Download SD-Sync-Immich.dmg, open it and drag SD Sync Immich onto the Applications folder.

2. The app is not signed with an Apple Developer ID, so macOS blocks the first launch. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway next to SD Sync Immich. Or in Terminal:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/"SD Sync Immich.app"
   

Or with Homebrew instead of step 1 (step 2 is the same):

brew tap brofrong/tap
brew trust --cask brofrong/tap/sd-sync-immich
brew install --cask sd-sync-immich

Windows (beta)

1. Download and run SD-Sync-Immich-Setup-x64.exe. No administrator rights needed.
2. The installer is not signed, so SmartScreen warns about it: click More info → Run anyway. Edge may also say while downloading that the file "isn't commonly downloaded": … → Keep.

The app lives in the tray (the icon may be hidden under the "^" arrow on the taskbar).

Linux (beta)

1. Download SD-Sync-Immich-x86_64.AppImage, put it where it will live (for example ~/Applications) and run it:

   chmod +x SD-Sync-Immich-x86_64.AppImage
   ./SD-Sync-Immich-x86_64.AppImage
   

2. If the AppImage complains about FUSE, install the fuse3 (or fuse) package.

Or a Flatpak instead of the AppImage: download SD-Sync-Immich-x86_64.flatpak and install it:

flatpak install --user SD-Sync-Immich-x86_64.flatpak

The app shows up in the applications menu. The Flatpak does not update itself: download the new version and install it the same way.

Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 36 and newer work. On GNOME the tray icon needs the AppIndicator extension (Ubuntu has it); KDE and other desktops show the tray themselves.

First launch

1. Open the app's window: in the menu bar → Open SD Sync Immich (on Windows and Linux, click the tray icon).
2. Settings → Server: your Immich address (for example https://immich.example.com) and an API key. Create the key in Immich: Account Settings → API Keys → New API Key, with the asset.upload and stack.create permissions (the second one stacks RAW+JPEG pairs). Click Test Connection and Save.
3. Insert the card → Cards → Select.
4. That's it. From now on the upload starts by itself when the card is inserted.

To keep the app running all the time, turn on Settings → Open at Login.

The card after the upload

Settings → Card has two switches:

• Eject the card after uploading (on). When everything is uploaded without errors, the card is ejected and can be taken out.
• Format the card after uploading (off). The app checks that every photo and video on the card is in Immich, waits 30 seconds (you can cancel) and formats the card. If even one file is not found, the card is left alone and the app says why.

Warning: formatting erases everything on the card, not just the photos and videos. Photos in the Immich trash do not count as uploaded.

On Windows the system does not let the app format a card without administrator rights, and on Linux when it asks for a password; then the app just says so, and you can format the card in the camera.

If something goes wrong

The log opens in the window: Settings → Open Log. The settings and log files are here:

	Settings and history	Log (app.log)
macOS	~/.config/sd-sync-immich	~/Library/Logs/sd-sync-immich
Windows	%APPDATA%\sd-sync-immich	%LOCALAPPDATA%\sd-sync-immich\logs
Linux	~/.config/sd-sync-immich	~/.local/state/sd-sync-immich
Linux, Flatpak	~/.var/app/io.github.brofrong.sd-sync-immich/config/sd-sync-immich	~/.var/app/io.github.brofrong.sd-sync-immich/.local/state/sd-sync-immich

Uninstalling the app leaves these folders. To uninstall: on macOS drag the app to the Trash, on Windows use Settings → Apps, on Linux delete the AppImage or run flatpak uninstall io.github.brofrong.sd-sync-immich.

Found a bug? Open an issue with your system, what you did and what happened, and attach app.log. Questions and ideas are welcome in Discussions.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. How to build the app and try the window in a browser is in CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT: free to use, change and share, including commercially, as long as the copyright notice stays.

Not affiliated with the Immich team.