The storage space on my ZimaOS hard drive is simply too small for my Immich app. I copied the data directory with the images, etc., to a large USB hard drive and created a symlink to this directory. Unfortunately, I am now unable to change the user rights from the original USB user to the root user. All attempts have failed.
How should I approach this problem in order to find a working solution?
I believe the reason you can’t change ownership or permissions on your USB drive is simply because of the filesystem. Most USB disks are formatted as exFAT or NTFS, and these don’t support real Linux permissions. That’s why every attempt to change rights is being ignored, nothing is actually wrong with your system.
I suggest two clean paths depending on what you want:
1. For the most reliable Immich setup
I suggest using a drive formatted as ext4, because Immich and Docker can only apply proper ownership and permissions on Linux filesystems. I think this gives you the smoothest long-term experience.
2. If you want to keep your USB drive as-is
I suggest avoiding symlinks. Immich doesn’t always follow them correctly. Instead, point Immich directly to the folder on the USB drive. Docker handles this internally, so the permission issue disappears even though the filesystem doesn’t support it.
In short: exFAT/NTFS can’t accept new permissions, so I suggest either moving to ext4 or mapping the USB folder directly in Immich without symlinks.