diff --git a/server/src/repositories/storage.repository.spec.ts b/server/src/repositories/storage.repository.spec.ts
index 3d1e503ed..dc10e2a66 100644
--- a/server/src/repositories/storage.repository.spec.ts
+++ b/server/src/repositories/storage.repository.spec.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import mockfs from 'mock-fs';
+import mockfs, { symlink } from 'mock-fs';
 import { vitest } from 'vitest';
 import { CrawlOptionsDto } from 'src/dtos/library.dto.js';
 import { LoggingRepository } from 'src/repositories/logging.repository.js';
@@ -216,6 +216,25 @@ describe(StorageRepository.name, () => {
     mockfs.restore();
   });
 
+  it.each(['crawl', 'walk'] as const)('%s should skip symbolic links to files and directories', async (method) => {
+    mockfs({
+      '/photos/image.jpg': '',
+      '/photos/subfolder/image.jpg': '',
+      '/outside/secret.txt': 'secret',
+      '/outside/album/image.jpg': '',
+      '/photos/file-link.jpg': symlink({ path: '/outside/secret.txt' }),
+      '/photos/directory-link': symlink({ path: '/outside/album' }),
+      '/photos/internal-file-link.jpg': symlink({ path: '/photos/image.jpg' }),
+      '/photos/internal-directory-link': symlink({ path: '/photos/subfolder' }),
+      '/photos/broken-link.jpg': symlink({ path: '/outside/missing.jpg' }),
+    });
+
+    const options = { pathsToCrawl: ['/photos'], take: 1 };
+    const batches = method === 'crawl' ? [await sut.crawl(options)] : await Array.fromAsync(sut.walk(options));
+
+    expect(batches.flat().toSorted()).toEqual(['/photos/image.jpg', '/photos/subfolder/image.jpg']);
+  });
+
   describe('crawl', () => {
     for (const { test, options, files } of tests) {
       it(test, async () => {
@@ -240,7 +259,10 @@ describe(StorageRepository.name, () => {
       const onError = vitest.fn();
       const close = sut.watch(['/photos'], {}, { onAdd, onChange, onError, onReady, onUnlink });
 
-      expect(mocks.watch).toHaveBeenCalledWith(['/photos'], expect.objectContaining({ ignored: expect.any(Function) }));
+      expect(mocks.watch).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+        ['/photos'],
+        expect.objectContaining({ followSymlinks: false, ignored: expect.any(Function) }),
+      );
 
       const error = new Error('watch error');
       getHandler('ready')();
diff --git a/server/src/repositories/storage.repository.ts b/server/src/repositories/storage.repository.ts
index 43766e91f..ef8800091 100644
--- a/server/src/repositories/storage.repository.ts
+++ b/server/src/repositories/storage.repository.ts
@@ -237,6 +237,7 @@ export class StorageRepository {
       absolute: true,
       caseSensitiveMatch: false,
       onlyFiles: true,
+      followSymbolicLinks: false,
       dot: includeHidden,
       ignore: exclusionPatterns,
     });
@@ -256,6 +257,7 @@ export class StorageRepository {
       absolute: true,
       caseSensitiveMatch: false,
       onlyFiles: true,
+      followSymbolicLinks: false,
       dot: includeHidden,
       ignore: exclusionPatterns,
     });
@@ -284,7 +286,12 @@ export class StorageRepository {
       strictSlashes: false,
     });
 
-    const watcher = chokidarWatch(paths, { ...options, ignored: (path) => matchesIgnoredPath(path) });
+    const watcher = chokidarWatch(paths, {
+      ...options,
+      followSymlinks: false,
+      // Chokidar still emits events for symlinks when followSymlinks is false.
+      ignored: (path, stats) => !!stats?.isSymbolicLink() || matchesIgnoredPath(path),
+    });
 
     watcher.on('ready', () => events.onReady?.());
     watcher.on('add', (path) => events.onAdd?.(path));
diff --git a/server/test/medium/specs/repositories/storage.repository.spec.ts b/server/test/medium/specs/repositories/storage.repository.spec.ts
index bf34c5c25..a25e761b4 100644
--- a/server/test/medium/specs/repositories/storage.repository.spec.ts
+++ b/server/test/medium/specs/repositories/storage.repository.spec.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
-import { mkdir, mkdtemp, rm, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
+import { mkdir, mkdtemp, rename, rm, symlink, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
 import { tmpdir } from 'node:os';
 import { join } from 'node:path';
+import { setTimeout } from 'node:timers/promises';
+import { vitest } from 'vitest';
 import { LoggingRepository } from 'src/repositories/logging.repository.js';
 import { StorageRepository, type WatchOptions } from 'src/repositories/storage.repository.js';
 import { automock } from 'test/utils.js';
@@ -32,6 +34,8 @@ describe(StorageRepository.name, () => {
 
   const startWatching = (options: WatchOptions) => {
     const paths: string[] = [];
+    const changedPaths: string[] = [];
+    const unlinkedPaths: string[] = [];
     let resolveReady!: () => void;
 
     const ready = new Promise<void>((resolve) => (resolveReady = resolve));
@@ -39,10 +43,16 @@ describe(StorageRepository.name, () => {
       onAdd: (path) => {
         paths.push(path);
       },
+      onChange: (path) => {
+        changedPaths.push(path);
+      },
+      onUnlink: (path) => {
+        unlinkedPaths.push(path);
+      },
       onReady: resolveReady,
     });
 
-    return { close, paths, ready };
+    return { close, paths, changedPaths, unlinkedPaths, ready };
   };
 
   it('should emit add events for initial files', async () => {
@@ -69,6 +79,92 @@ describe(StorageRepository.name, () => {
     }
   });
 
+  it('should ignore symbolic links to files and directories', async () => {
+    const outsideDir = await mkdtemp(join(tmpdir(), 'immich-storage-outside-'));
+
+    try {
+      await writeFile(join(outsideDir, 'secret.txt'), 'secret');
+      await writeFile(join(outsideDir, 'photo.jpg'), 'outside');
+      await symlink(join(outsideDir, 'secret.txt'), join(tempDir, 'file-link.jpg'));
+      await symlink(outsideDir, join(tempDir, 'directory-link'));
+      await symlink(includedFile, join(tempDir, 'internal-file-link.jpg'));
+      await symlink(join(tempDir, 'included'), join(tempDir, 'internal-directory-link'));
+
+      const watcher = startWatching({ ignoreInitial: false });
+
+      try {
+        await watcher.ready;
+
+        expect(watcher.paths.toSorted()).toEqual([includedFile, excludedFile].toSorted());
+      } finally {
+        await watcher.close();
+      }
+    } finally {
+      await rm(outsideDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+
+  it.each([
+    { type: 'file', action: 'created' },
+    { type: 'directory', action: 'created' },
+    { type: 'file', action: 'retargeted' },
+    { type: 'directory', action: 'retargeted' },
+  ])('should ignore $type symlinks $action after the watcher is ready', async ({ type, action }) => {
+    const outsideDir = await mkdtemp(join(tmpdir(), 'immich-storage-outside-'));
+
+    try {
+      const targetDir = join(outsideDir, 'target');
+      const targetFile = join(targetDir, 'photo.jpg');
+      await mkdir(targetDir);
+      await writeFile(targetFile, 'outside');
+
+      const link = join(tempDir, type === 'file' ? 'link.jpg' : 'link');
+      const target = type === 'file' ? targetFile : targetDir;
+      if (action === 'retargeted') {
+        await symlink(type === 'file' ? includedFile : join(tempDir, 'included'), link);
+      }
+
+      // Use real Chokidar events without relying on platform-specific native watcher limits.
+      const watcher = startWatching({ ignoreInitial: true, usePolling: true, interval: 50 });
+
+      try {
+        await watcher.ready;
+
+        if (action === 'retargeted') {
+          const replacementLink = join(outsideDir, 'replacement-link');
+          await symlink(target, replacementLink);
+          await rename(replacementLink, link);
+        } else {
+          await symlink(target, link);
+        }
+        // Confirm the watcher processes real file events before checking for unwanted symlink events.
+        const newFile = join(tempDir, 'new-photo.jpg');
+        await writeFile(newFile, 'new');
+        await writeFile(includedFile, 'changed inside');
+        await vitest.waitFor(
+          () => {
+            expect(watcher.paths).toContain(newFile);
+            expect(watcher.changedPaths).toContain(includedFile);
+          },
+          { timeout: 3000 },
+        );
+
+        await writeFile(targetFile, 'changed outside');
+
+        // Allow deferred filesystem events and Chokidar's directory rescan throttle to settle.
+        await setTimeout(1500);
+
+        expect(watcher.paths).toEqual([newFile]);
+        expect(watcher.changedPaths).toEqual([includedFile]);
+        expect(watcher.unlinkedPaths).toEqual([]);
+      } finally {
+        await watcher.close();
+      }
+    } finally {
+      await rm(outsideDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+    }
+  });
+
   it.each(annoyingExclusionPatterns)('should ignore folders with %s in their name', async (char) => {
     const ignoredFolder = `${char}folder`;
     const ignoredFile = join(tempDir, ignoredFolder, 'photo.jpg');