# REPORT — DIAGNOSE immich offsite restore (felhom.eu side: docs only)

> Written as `REPORT-diag-immich-restore.md`, **not** the shared `REPORT.md`, per the CLAUDE.md
> convention — `REPORT.md` is overwritten and currently holds the 2026-07-18 website refresh.
> No code shipped in this run; findings only.

**Date:** 2026-07-19 · **Box:** demo-felhom (felhom-pve guest 9201), controller 0.146.0, immich v3.0.3

> **CLOSED IN CODE 2026-07-19 — controller v0.148.0.** Findings 1 and 2 shipped as R-43 (offsite
> reconstitution: safety dump → stop → overwrite files → start → replay the snapshot's dump) and
> R-44 (every run dumps before it captures; manifests carry `offsite_run_id` + `dumps_at`). Deployed
> to demo 9201, healthy. **The §9 live acceptance has NOT run**, so no capability-map flip: the
> offsite row is PARTIAL, the customer-restore row stays MISSING, R-3 stays DRAFT. Implementation
> detail lives in `felhom-controller/REPORT.md`.

## What ran

A diagnosis of "immich offsite restore succeeds but photos do not reappear". No product code was
changed: no restore/backup logic, no labels, no flashes, no `restic prune`/`forget`, no snapshot or
escrow changes.

## Outcome

The restore did not fail. **It was never invoked on missing data, and could not have worked
if it had been.**

1. Viktor deleted the 11 photos in the immich UI to test offsite restore. A UI delete means
   **trash**, not deletion — no file left the disk. Both „csak a hiányzó fájlok" runs merged
   **0 files**, correctly, and flashed success. The test proved nothing.
2. A *valid* test would also have failed: **no offsite path loads a database.** All three buttons
   are file-only. Files would return; the library would stay empty.
3. The shipped dump is additionally stale by design — from the 02:30 local run, never refreshed
   before a manual push. Probed: **`asset: 0`, `user: 0`, `album: 0`**.

**Photos:** left in trash at Viktor's instruction (recovery not wanted). All 11 files verified
present on disk and all 11 rows intact, so an ordinary un-trash recovers them until immich's
30-day auto-purge.

**Answer to "can a customer trust same-day offsite?"** For a DB-indexed app: **no — files come
back, content does not.** The backup half is honest; the restore half cannot reconstitute the app.

## Decisive evidence

- `updatedAt` == `deletedAt` on all 11 asset rows ⇒ **no restore operation touched the DB.**
- Unit dump `immich-postgres.sql`, 51 954 452 B, mtime **02:30 CEST** ⇒ `asset: 0 / user: 0 /
  album: 0`. The 52 MB is entirely immich's shipped geodata reference tables. It predates the admin
  user (07:56:25) and the photos (07:57).
- **Latent hazard:** had a full restore loaded that dump, it would have written an empty DB over the
  live one, destroying the trashed rows that were the only surviving recovery path.

## Files written

| File | Change |
|---|---|
| `documentation/audits/DIAG-immich-restore-2026-07-19.md` | new — timeline, evidence, source mechanism table, 7 findings |
| `documentation/backlog/ROADMAP.md` | **R-43** (P2-HIGH, offsite restore cannot restore a DB) + **R-44** (P2-HIGH, manual push ships unrefreshed dump) |
| `documentation/architecture/00-capability-map.md` | customer-restore row **stays MISSING**, gains the finding + a method note for R-3; offsite-restore row flagged *scope contested* |

## Needs Viktor

1. **Capability-map ruling (line 61).** The offsite-restore row claims PROVEN-LIVE citing
   "immich end-to-end from offsite alone" (`CAMPAIGN-6D`). That phrase is contested by this
   diagnosis. I flagged it rather than downgrading a proven row — did 6D's accept leg exercise the
   DB half, or only the file half?
2. **Optional real red-proof.** Emptying the trash would create genuine data loss and convert the
   dump-probe inference into a live proof. Offered, **not run** — irreversible, and the probe
   already settles it.
3. **Unreconciled: the 704.6 MiB figure.** Measured 126 MB total on the library storage. If
   704.6 MiB came off a controller Storage page, that gap is its own defect.
4. **Orphaned pre-v3 tree** `dccc13fe…` (~55 MB across upload/thumbs/encoded-video) stranded by the
   immich 2→3 redeploy — worth a sweep policy for major redeploys.
