immich-app/immich · error · BadRequestException

The first registered account must the administrator.

Error message

The first registered account must the administrator.

What it means

Thrown by BaseService.createUser when a non-admin user is being created (dto.isAdmin is false) but userRepository.getAdmin() returns nothing. Immich requires the very first account to be the administrator, so creating a regular user before any admin exists is blocked.

Source

Thrown at server/src/services/base.service.ts:305

  }

  async requireSetupAvailable(): Promise<void> {
    if (!(await this.isSetupAvailable())) {
      throw new BadRequestException('Admin setup is not available');
    }
  }

  async createUser(dto: Insertable<UserTable> & { email: string }): Promise<UserAdmin> {
    const exists = await this.userRepository.getByEmail(dto.email);
    if (exists) {
      this.logger.debug('User creation rejected: user already exists');
      throw new BadRequestException('Email is not available');
    }

    if (!dto.isAdmin) {
      const localAdmin = await this.userRepository.getAdmin();
      if (!localAdmin) {
        throw new BadRequestException('The first registered account must the administrator.');
      }
    }

    const payload: Insertable<UserTable> = { ...dto };
    if (payload.password) {
      payload.password = await this.cryptoRepository.hashBcrypt(payload.password, SALT_ROUNDS);
    }
    if (payload.storageLabel) {
      payload.storageLabel = sanitize(payload.storageLabel.replaceAll('.', ''));
    }

    const user = await this.userRepository.create(payload);

    await this.eventRepository.emit('UserCreate', user);

    return user;
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 199723261c)

Solutions

1. Make the first user-creation call on a fresh system set isAdmin: true.
2. Run the admin bootstrap/onboarding step before any non-admin provisioning.
3. If an admin was accidentally deleted, restore it or re-run setup with isAdmin=true before adding users.

Example fix

// before
await userService.createUser({ email, isAdmin: false, ...rest });

// after
const hasAdmin = await userRepository.hasAdmin();
await userService.createUser({ email, isAdmin: !hasAdmin, ...rest });

const isFirstUser = !(await userRepository.hasAdmin());
await userService.createUser({ ...dto, isAdmin: isFirstUser });

When it happens

Trigger: An attempt to register/create a normal (non-admin) account on a fresh installation that has no admin user yet.

Common situations: First-run registration submitted with isAdmin=false; a provisioning script that creates test users before bootstrapping the admin; DB reset that wiped the admin but the next request tries to add a non-admin.

Related errors

• Admin setup is not available
• Email is not available
• User does not exist
• User not found
• Admin status can only be changed by another admin

AI-assisted analysis of immich-app/immich@199723261c (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1a3c532eb0f9816c. Report an issue: GitHub.