Set up PrivoHub Photos on your devices

1. Find your Photos address

Your Photos library has its own web address:

https://photos-yourname.privohub.com

Replace yourname with your workspace name. This is the address you type into the mobile app, so it is worth having handy. The quickest way to get it exactly right is to open your Portal and press Copy link on the Photos tile.

2. How signing in works

Photos does not have a password of its own. You sign in with your PrivoHub account, the same one you use for the Portal, Drive and Vault. On the login screen you press Login with PrivoHub and finish signing in on the PrivoHub page that opens.

So if an app ever asks you to type a password directly into an email and password box for Photos, it will not work. There is no such password. Press the button instead.

3. Set up your iPhone or iPad

1. Install Immich from the App Store.
2. Open it. The first screen asks for your server address. Enter https://photos-yourname.privohub.com and continue.
3. Press Login with PrivoHub. A secure browser window opens.
4. Enter your PrivoHub email and password there, plus your two-factor code if you have set one up.
5. You land in your library. That is the setup done.

4. Set up your Android phone

1. Install Immich from Google Play.
2. Enter https://photos-yourname.privohub.com as the server address.
3. Press Login with PrivoHub and sign in the same way.

If you avoid Google Play, Immich also publishes a signed APK on its GitHub releases page and an F-Droid build in its own repository at app.futo.org/fdroid/repo, which you add to your F-Droid client by hand. It is not listed on f-droid.org, so searching there finds nothing.

5. Turn on automatic backup

This is the part that matters. Until you turn backup on, the app is only a viewer and nothing from your phone is being saved.

1. Open the Backup screen in the app.
2. Select the albums you want protected. On most phones that is Camera Roll or DCIM.
3. Turn on Background backup so new photos upload on their own.

Your first backup can take hours or days, depending on how big your library is. Leave the phone on wifi and charging, and let it work through. Photos upload at full resolution, so nothing is compressed or downscaled on the way in.

One thing worth knowing about iPhones: iOS is strict about what apps may do in the background, so background backup runs when iOS decides to allow it rather than instantly. Opening the app every few days is enough to keep it moving.

6. Use it on your computer

Nothing to install. Open https://photos-yourname.privohub.com in any browser and sign in the same way. You can drag photos straight from a folder into the browser window to upload them, and everything your phone backed up is already there.

7. Bring an existing library with you

If your photos are currently in Google Photos or iCloud, do not re-upload them by hand. We can move them for you, albums and dates intact, from the importer in your Portal. There are step by step guides for Google Photos and Apple iCloud.

8. Sharing and storage

Create a shared album and invite other people in your workspace, or generate a public link with an optional password and expiry date. Links can be revoked whenever you want.

Photos and Drive draw on the same storage quota. You can see what you are using in your Portal, and upgrade there if you are running low. A larger quota applies immediately.

Support Immich

PrivoHub Photos is built on Immich, an open-source project we did not write and do not fund out of your subscription. If you would like to support it directly you can buy Immich, or contribute code, translations, and bug reports. That goes to the project rather than to us, and it changes nothing about your PrivoHub plan. See our open source licenses page for the full picture.

Need a hand?

Email support@privohub.com and we will get back to you, or use the contact form.