- Open Archive Health.Choose Exact copies for byte-for-byte duplicate groups or Possible duplicates for related files that require comparison.
- Open a group.Compare the images, paths, dates and evidence before deciding what the group means.
- Use Folder Check from the Cimmich sidebar.Select one folder to see where its contents overlap the rest of the archive.
- Configure Backup check once.From the extracted release folder, export the installer-managed state root and the three values for your independent destination, then start the supplied read-only override with the runtime environment.
- Return to Backup check.Select the read-only destination and run the comparison.
export CIMMICH_COMPANION_STATE_ROOT="${XDG_STATE_HOME:-$HOME/.local/state}/cimmich-companion"
export CIMMICH_BACKUP_SCAN_PATH=/mnt/independent-photo-backup
export CIMMICH_BACKUP_SCAN_LABEL='Primary NAS backup'
export CIMMICH_BACKUP_STORAGE_DOMAIN='nas-volume-photos-1'
docker compose --env-file "$CIMMICH_COMPANION_STATE_ROOT/runtime.env" -f compose.yaml -f compose.backup-scan.yaml up -d
Replace the example path, label and storage-domain ID with the independent destination you intend to check. The destination is mounted read-only at /backup/primary.
Read the labels literallyExact copy means identical bytes. Possible duplicate is a review lead, not proof that either file is safe to remove.