Immich backs up and serves your photos locally, but reaching it from your phone away from home fails when your ISP uses carrier-grade NAT and port forwarding never lands. NeedPorts gives Immich a stable public endpoint so mobile backup and browsing work anywhere.
Immich serves its web and mobile API on a local port. Behind CGNAT there is no reachable public port to forward to your server, so the mobile app cannot sync or browse when you leave your home network, even with a correct-looking router rule.
Automatic phone photo backup and library browsing from anywhere, pointed at the server you control at home.
The Immich mobile app cannot reach the server on cellular data, because the ISP CGNAT layer blocks the inbound connection to your home.
NeedPorts gives you dedicated public ports over an outbound tunnel, so nothing depends on your ISP or router. After install, map one of your assigned ports to Immich (local port 2283) and restart:
sudo needports use immich <assigned-port>
sudo needports restartYour Immich instance is then reachable at your dedicated public endpoint, for example your-server:30000, with no port forwarding on the local network.
Immich has its own accounts, so use strong credentials and serve over HTTPS. Publish only the Immich port and keep the server updated, since it holds personal photos.
After mapping the Immich port, point the mobile app at the public endpoint and confirm it logs in and syncs on cellular data. That verifies the tunnel path before you rely on it for backups.
NeedPorts plans start at $5/month or $30/year for 25 dedicated ports, which is plenty for Immich and other self-hosted services on the same box.