Thumbnail Generation fails for HEIC images

[hulk66]

Since recent versions, it seems the Immich build has problem with generating thumbnails from HEIC photos. Not exactly sure, when this started to happen as I'm frequently updating Immch whenever there is a new image. I initially raised a bug on Immich itself but they claimed, it would be not on their side (immich-app/immich#27649) but has to do with the build.

OS: Unraid 7.2.4
Immich: 2.7.3 (seems also to be a problem in 2.7.0 and 2.7.2)

This I see in the log:
run job handler (AssetGenerateThumbnails): Error: /import/Tobias/2026/04/26-04-09 18-34-17 4944.heic: bad seek to 1875929 /import/Tobias/2026/04/26-04-09 18-34-17 4944.heic: bad seek to 1875900 /import/Tobias/2026/04/26-04-09 18-34-17 4944.heic: bad seek to 1875898 heif: Decoder plugin generated an error: Unspecified (7.0) Error: /import/Tobias/2026/04/26-04-09 18-34-17 4944.heic: bad seek to 1875929 /import/Tobias/2026/04/26-04-09 18-34-17 4944.heic: bad seek to 1875900 /import/Tobias/2026/04/26-04-09 18-34-17 4944.heic: bad seek to 1875898 heif: Decoder plugin generated an error: Unspecified (7.0) at Sharp.toBuffer (/app/immich/server/node_modules/.pnpm/sharp@0.34.5/node_modules/sharp/lib/output.js:163:17) at MediaRepository.decodeImage (/app/immich/server/dist/repositories/media.repository.js:120:31) at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5) at async MediaService.decodeImage (/app/immich/server/dist/services/media.service.js:186:32) at async MediaService.extractOriginalImage (/app/immich/server/dist/services/media.service.js:197:44) at async MediaService.generateImageThumbnails (/app/immich/server/dist/services/media.service.js:213:32) at async MediaService.handleGenerateThumbnails (/app/immich/server/dist/services/media.service.js:153:25) at async JobService.onJobRun (/app/immich/server/dist/services/job.service.js:51:30) at async EventRepository.onEvent (/app/immich/server/dist/repositories/event.repository.js:91:13) at async /app/immich/server/node_modules/.pnpm/bullmq@5.71.0/node_modules/bullmq/dist/cjs/classes/worker.js:570:32

The photos themselves are fine, I'm able to download them from Immich and on Mac the conversion to JPG works flawlessly. If needed, I can provide a HEIC Photo from my iPhone.

This is how I start Immich on Unraid.

docker run -d --name='immich' --net='REMOVED' --pids-limit 2048 -e TZ="Europe/Berlin" -e HOST_OS="Unraid" -e HOST_HOSTNAME="REMOVED" -e HOST_CONTAINERNAME="immich" -e 'DB_HOSTNAME'='REMOVED' -e 'DB_USERNAME'='REMOVED' -e 'DB_PASSWORD'='REMOVED' -e 'DB_DATABASE_NAME'='immich' -e 'REDIS_HOSTNAME'='REMOVED' -e 'DISABLE_MACHINE_LEARNING'='false' -e 'DISABLE_TYPESENSE'='false' -e 'DB_PORT'='5432' -e 'REDIS_PORT'='6379' -e 'REDIS_PASSWORD'='REMOVED' -e 'MACHINE_LEARNING_WORKERS'='1' -e 'MACHINE_LEARNING_WORKER_TIMEOUT'='120' -e 'PUID'='99' -e 'PGID'='100' -e 'UMASK'='022' -l net.unraid.docker.managed=dockerman -l net.unraid.docker.webui='http://REMOVED:[PORT:8080]' -l net.unraid.docker.icon='https://raw.githubusercontent.com/imagegenius/templates/main/unraid/img/immich.png' -p '18080:8080/tcp' -v '/mnt/user/immich_photos':'/photos':'rw' -v '/mnt/cache/appdata/immich/machine-learning/':'/config/machine-learning':'rw' -v 'REMOVED/files/Photos/':'/import':'rw' -v '/mnt/cache/appdata/immich':'/config':'rw' --device='/dev/dri' --gpus all 'ghcr.io/imagegenius/immich' b8fc0d3b0f2f394dc17950365fdfb8a99537033991c8f50588e123e1f5884a6d

I searched a bit myself about sharp where the error appears but there doesn't seem to be a new version recently.

It worked like this for more than 1.5 years with 80k assets, so any clue appreciated.

[scockman]

Having the same issue.

[WizenThorne]

Yes, same here. At first I thought it was related to a different issue I was having with uploads, until I found this report that it's isolated to the AIO image.

[ffery]

Having the same issue

[danomate]

Also having this same issue, recently changed Postgres deployment so glad to find it's not just me 😅
OS: Unraid 7.2.4
Immich Container version: imagegenius/immich:cuda (seemingly occurred on versions >=2.7.0)
Pg version: ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:16-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0

• Same error with HEIC images from iPhone, jpg versions of the same image process fine.
• HEIC files which had already been processed successfully with earlier versions of the ImageGenius/Immich image are now failing.
• Taking a direct copy of the file and uploading via Immich UI upload fails in the same way.
• Running a Generate Thumbnails job for missing files produces the following error:

ERROR [Microservices:{"id":"f46d6fe5-9609-4875-9174-357358a1bac4"}] Unable to run job handler (AssetGenerateThumbnails): Error: Input file contains unsupported image format Error: Input file contains unsupported image format at Sharp.toBuffer (/app/immich/server/node_modules/.pnpm/sharp@0.34.5/node_modules/sharp/lib/output.js:163:17) at MediaRepository.decodeImage (/app/immich/server/dist/repositories/media.repository.js:120:31) at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5) at async MediaService.decodeImage (/app/immich/server/dist/services/media.service.js:186:32) at async MediaService.extractOriginalImage (/app/immich/server/dist/services/media.service.js:197:44) at async MediaService.generateImageThumbnails (/app/immich/server/dist/services/media.service.js:213:32) at async MediaService.handleGenerateThumbnails (/app/immich/server/dist/services/media.service.js:153:25) at async JobService.onJobRun (/app/immich/server/dist/services/job.service.js:51:30) at async EventRepository.onEvent (/app/immich/server/dist/repositories/event.repository.js:91:13) at async /app/immich/server/node_modules/.pnpm/bullmq@5.71.0/node_modules/bullmq/dist/cjs/classes/worker.js:570:3

[danomate]

@hydazz - Noticed you mention thumbnail generation testing for an update recently, any insights? 🙏
#676 (comment)

[hydazz]

I think libaom3 is being autoremoved, dependency spaghetti (sharp -> libvips -> vips-heif.so -> libheif -> libaom.so.3)

should be fixed once imagegenius/docker-baseimage-immich@a0e1ab0 ripples to latest

[Tscherno]

Anything we can do it the meantime? Additional question: Is there a way to rescue the already uploaded pictures? For some i also tried to the delete them on the server. Is there a way to force the upload again (after the original issue is fixed)?

[Tscherno]

I think libaom3 is being autoremoved, dependency spaghetti (sharp -> libvips -> vips-heif.so -> libheif -> libaom.so.3)

should be fixed once imagegenius/docker-baseimage-immich@a0e1ab0 ripples to latest

Are you sure? I just checked within the running container:
"libaom3 is already the newest version (3.13.1-2)."

So indeed it seems to be installed.

[CrypticFade10]

Having the exact same issue when uploading HEIC images from both the iOS app and webui

[Tscherno]

I just fixed it by switching to the official Docker / Compose Image.

[HeroBaskan]

Temporary Fix I did was this, I debugged with ChatGPT so VERIFY IT MANUALLY before using it on your instance. Generation works now.
Immich Ver 2.7.4
OS: Unraid 7.2.2
Inside the container:

libheif1 was installed as 1.21.2-3
only libheif-plugin-aomdec was installed
libheif-plugin-libde265 was not installed

docker exec -it Immich bash -lc 'cd /app/immich/server && node -e "
const sharp=require(\"sharp\");
const file=\"/photos/upload/.../file.heic\";
sharp(file)
  .metadata()
  .then(m => { console.log(\"metadata OK:\", m); return sharp(file).resize(420).webp().toBuffer(); })
  .then(buf => console.log(\"decode+resize OK, bytes:\", buf.length))
  .catch(err => { console.error(\"sharp failed:\"); console.error(err); process.exit(1); });
"'

metadata worked
decode failed with:
bad seek ...
heif: Decoder plugin generated an error: Unspecified (7.0)

That proved the failure was in the actual HEVC decode stage.

So the container could parse HEIF metadata, but it did not have the proper HEVC decode plugin path for those .heic files.

Fix
I manually upgraded the libheif runtime and installed the matching HEVC plugin inside the running container.

These were the important packages:

libheif1 → upgraded to 1.21.2-4
libheif-plugin-libde265 → installed 1.21.2-4
also ended up with matching libheif-plugin-aomdec and libheif-plugin-dav1d

The successful install path was (by opening web terminal or SSH):

docker exec -it Immich bash -lc '
set -e
cd /tmp
curl -LO http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libh/libheif/libheif1_1.21.2-4_amd64.deb
curl -LO http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libh/libheif/libheif-plugin-aomdec_1.21.2-4_amd64.deb
curl -LO http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libh/libheif/libheif-plugin-dav1d_1.21.2-4_amd64.deb
curl -LO http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libh/libheif/libheif-plugin-libde265_1.21.2-4_amd64.deb
dpkg -i \
  libheif1_1.21.2-4_amd64.deb \
  libheif-plugin-aomdec_1.21.2-4_amd64.deb \
  libheif-plugin-dav1d_1.21.2-4_amd64.deb \
  libheif-plugin-libde265_1.21.2-4_amd64.deb || true
apt-get -f install -y
'
docker restart Immich

The problem appears to be that:
libheif present
but no matching HEVC decode plugin installed/configured for that runtime version

After the fix, I generated the "missing" thumbnails only since previous uploaded files were fine.

[WizenThorne]

I just fixed it by switching to the official Docker / Compose Image.

Is that also AIO?

[Tscherno]

I just fixed it by switching to the official Docker / Compose Image.

Is that also AIO?

Yes, PG and Redis are included. I decided to keep PG separate.

[WizenThorne]

Yes, PG and Redis are included. I decided to keep PG separate.

Is that because you wouldn't be able to switch over to the build-in PG easily? I'm assuming it would require a user to export the database from their existing PG db and import it into the Immich one?

So for the image change you just kept your existing redis and PG url and ports and Immich just ignores the ones it runs in the container?

[coltography]

From what I understand this is only an issue on the imagegenius container then?