Skip to content
This repository has been archived by the owner on May 3, 2021. It is now read-only.

FAQ

Jump to bottom
Benoît Viguier edited this page Sep 16, 2019 · 20 revisions

Lychee is not working

If Lychee is not working properly, try to open plugins/Diagnostics/index.php. This script will display all errors it can find.

If your Lychee installation looks like the image below (credit: Wh00ps13) check your folder permissions. If you're not using SSL, check your .htaccess file. Symbols

What do I need to run Lychee on my server?

To run Lychee, everything you need is a web-server with PHP 7.2 or later and a MySQL-Database.

Lychee uses a .htaccess file to configure the server and allow for some advanced options, like uploading from other sources via the API. If you're running an Apache server, you need to enable .htaccess write permissions.

You can configure Apache globally in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf or per-directory in etc/apache2/sites-available/your-website.conf. Find the <Directory> directive and change AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All and save.

<Directory /var/www/your-site>
  AllowOverride All
</Directory>

I can't upload photos

If you experience problems uploading large photos, you might want to change the PHP parameters in .htaccess (if you are using the PHP Apache module) or in .user.ini (if you are using PHP >= 5.5 with CGI or FastCGI).

If you modify the .user.ini file, you may want to run git update-index --assume-unchanged .user.ini afterwards.

If possible, change these settings directly in your php.ini. We recommend to increase the values of the following properties:

max_execution_time = 200
post_max_size = 100M
upload_max_size = 100M
upload_max_filesize = 20M
memory_limit = 256M

upstream sent too big header

  • This error may be seen from your browser's console if you're trying to debug something with Lychee. If using nginx, try adding the following to Lychee's config and reload nginx's service:
fastcgi_buffers 16 16k; 
fastcgi_buffer_size 32k;

Which browsers are supported?

  • Lychee supports the latest versions of Google Chrome, Apple's Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
  • If you experience any issues with Lychee and wish to report it, make sure to specify the browser you're using and the version of it

Which file formats are supported?

  • Lychee supports most image formats, and since version 3.2.1 some video formats as well. Specifically, *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.png, *.gif, *.ogv, *.mp4, *.webm, and *.mov are accepted.
  • If you're uploading video files, make sure to increase your upload limits in php.ini. See the Basic Requirements section for more information.

What is new?

Take a look at the Changelog to see what's new.

Where can I easily contact the LycheeOrg organization ?

There is a gitter associated with the project, feel free to join us there: https://gitter.im/LycheeOrg/Lobby

How can I set thumbnails for my albums?

Thumbnails are chosen automatically by the photos you have starred and in the order you uploaded them. Star a photo inside an album to set it as a thumbnail.

How can I backup my installation?

To backup your Lychee installation you need to do the following steps:

  1. Create a copy of the whole Lychee folder
  2. Run the following MySQL Queries:
CREATE TABLE lychee_albums_backup LIKE lychee_albums;
INSERT INTO lychee_albums_backup SELECT * FROM lychee_albums;
CREATE TABLE lychee_photos_backup LIKE lychee_photos;
INSERT INTO lychee_photos_backup SELECT * FROM lychee_photos;
CREATE TABLE lychee_settings_backup LIKE lychee_settings;
INSERT INTO lychee_settings_backup SELECT * FROM lychee_settings;

How can I move my installation?

To move your Lychee installation, you need to do the following steps.

  1. Copy /var/www/html/Lychee into new host
  2. Dump MySQL Lychee database into a file:
mysqldump -u user -p Lychee > lychee_backup.sql

Replace user by your database username. 3. Restore the database on the new host:

mysql -u user -p Lychee < lychee_backup.sql

Can I use my existing folder-structure?

No. Lychee has its own folder-structure and database. Please upload or import all your photos to use them.

Can I upload videos?

Yes, but you will need to change this property for a bigger value:

upload_max_filesize = 20M

Why don't my videos have thumbnails?

You will need ffmpeg installed on your server, and to have installed php-ffmpeg using composer as detailed in the Installation Guide.

If you are still having problems, check your Lychee log. If you are still getting a Could not create thumbnail for video because FFMPEG is not available. error, you may need to specify the location of your ffmpeg and ffprobe binaries. In php/Modules/Photo.php replace

$ffprobe = FFMpeg\FFProbe::create();
$ffmpeg = FFMpeg\FFMpeg::create();

with

$ffprobe = FFMpeg\FFProbe::create(array(
        'ffmpeg.binaries'  => '/usr/bin/ffmpeg',
        'ffprobe.binaries' => '/usr/bin/ffprobe',
));
$ffmpeg = FFMpeg\FFMpeg::create(array(
        'ffmpeg.binaries'  => '/usr/bin/ffmpeg',
        'ffprobe.binaries' => '/usr/bin/ffprobe',
));

using your correct binary locations. If unsure, you can try running which ffmpeg on the server.

Is it possible to create multiple users?

No, not yet. and here

Does Lychee use ImageMagick?

Yes. Lychee uses ImageMagick when available.

Blank screen when viewing a photo using iOS

There's a problem with images compressed by ImageOptim. Read more.

How to change the title of the site?

How to reset username and password?

Simply delete the whole lychee_settings table from the database. Lychee will regenerate it and ask you to enter a new username and password.

How to hide smart albums?

In index.html add the following lines:

<style>
[data-id="0"] { display:none; }
[data-id="s"] { display:none; }
[data-id="f"] { display:none; }
[data-id="r"] { display:none; }
 </style>

How to disable the 'zoom' animation while browsing pictures?

Add the following custom CSS to your user.css or via the settings menu:

#image {
  transition: none !important;
  animation-name: none !important;
  animation-duration: 0 !important;
}

Lychee-front is not found

  • You may see this or a similar message in the Diagnostics logs:
/var/www/Lychee/Lychee-front/package.json not found. Please do: git submodule init ; git submodule update
  • You can attempt to do the suggested commands, but if they should fail, you can manually pull-in Lychee-front:
git clone --recurse-submodules 'https://github.com/LycheeOrg/Lychee-front.git' '/var/www/Lychee/Lychee-front'
  • ...and take note that if you use git pull to perform updates on your Lychee folder, you'll have to also do it on the manually pulled-in Lychee-front folder:
git -C '/var/www/Lychee/Lychee-front' pull origin 'master'

Composer can't create a cache directory

  • When running Composer, you may notice the following warning:
Cannot create cache directory /home/$USER/.composer/cache/files/, or directory is not writable. Proceeding without cache
  • You can specify Composer's cache directory with the environment variable COMPOSER_CACHE_DIR=. For Lychee, the cache is not necessary, and you can both disable it and hide the warning by specifying the location of the cache as /dev/null (information):
COMPOSER_CACHE_DIR='/dev/null' composer update --working-dir='/var/www/Lychee'

I'm importing a lot of photos using "Import from Server" and Lychee times out before it's done

Since 3.2.11 there's an advanced setting php_script_limit. If set to 1 it will remove PHP's execution time limit from the "Import from Server" function. This should be used with caution and reset to 0 once your import is complete.

Clone this wiki locally