2d ago

Folks who moved from Google to Proton: What do you wish you'd known at the start?

I'm getting ready to move off of Google (and Private Internet Access), and Proton is looking like the best option. But I'm nervous. Some of the things I worry about:

Calendar support: I rely really heavily on Google Calendar. How will I share events with others? And what will I do without Google Tasks?
VPN App Quality: Seeing some mixed reviews on Proton VPN Android app.
Proton ethics & politics: Look, I really don't want to open up the holy war here. My big stipulation is: I don't want my money to go to a company that will donate its money or services to fascists. To my knowledge, Proton does not do that. I know they made a post that seemed to praise GOP antitrust efforts. I do not believe that that is the same thing as lending material support for fascists. (And, as someone who is very well read-in on antitrust issues, I'll say that -- for a lot of complicated reasons -- there is some truth to Proton's post, but I wish they had framed it as a critique of the corporate wing of the Democratic party and not praise of the GOP.)
Anything else I haven't thought to ask.

So, folks who have made the switch: What do you wish you had known? What do you wish you had done to make the move easier?

Thank you for your advice.

77 comments

Dont delete the gmail. As much as I want to move on...i still remember the occassional account tied to my gmail, and Im so, so thankful I can still get whatever notification, reset password, etc. I dont know when I'll feel comfortable deleting it. As long as Im getting emails, I can at least use it to reference what accounts still need to be moved over.
So despite "moving" emails I kind of just added one. But not a big deal, and the safety net is nice.

Went from google to proton, proton to tuta after the fascist supporting comments of the proton CEO. I wish I hadn't gotten involved with proton. There are better options for everything proton does and it's not a good idea to be tied to the same company for everything.

I thought it was not Proton who praised the GOP, but their CEO on his personal social media. It sounds like you are saying there is truth to the post -- is it wrong to praise one's opponents for doing something right? Is it not our inability to agree with our opponents even in the instances where we're aligned with their objective that causes so much political gridlock?
I'm not going to pretend Hitler was a bad painter just because he was fucking evil. I'll admit though -- I wouldn't want to have anything he painted in my home, even if I liked it.
- Andy Yen's messages were echoed and doubled-down on by official Proton accounts.
  The truth to the posts made are the critiques of the Democratic party, not their praise of the republican party. If their posts consisted only of the former, there would be nothing to argue with. But their statements included the unhinged notion that Republicans are somehow antitrust and will fight monopolies.
  I would say it is wrong to praise an opponent for doing something right when the only basis for it is that one of their opponents is also fucking up. The fact that democrats are controlled by money has no bearing on whether or not Republicans are.
  
  Thank you for explaining this. I didn't know.

Can we for all that is good get more Linux support? there isn't any proton drive application for Linux. The excuse? Not enough available linux devs.
I dont have the numbers but who does proton think a good chunk of their customer base is or can be? People who use Linux because they value their privacy.
Its mind boggling.
Its 'coming, ' whatever that means.

It costs money to be worth a darn.
Anything Proton costs money to be worth a darn.

Get a custom domain so that your new email address isn't tied to Proton. If Proton goes to shit it will be much easier to just take mail@mulcahey.com with you to your new email provider. I wish I had done this with Gmail so that it would've been easier to move to Proton.
- Mail@name is so much better than mine first@fullname.
- 100% this! Proton pass is convenient, but their email forwarding locks you into their ecosystem, and they limit your aliasing for your own custom domain. I started using it, and its nice, but I wish I knew about annonaddy before. I'd prefer making aliases using a custom domain so if i have to respond with a forwarded alias I can manage a way to reply from it, plus if I ever decide to leave proton, its not a road block. Sure you can usually change email addresses on sites, but may end up being a ton of work depending how many aliases you have, and how annoying the site makes it.
  
  Apparently proton pass has a custom domain function I was unaware of until now. Looks like you have to go into settings > aliases. There is an 'add custom domain' button, assuming you need the domain added to your proton account with a catchall address maybe?
- As someone with a tuta.io email address who might have to switch in the future because of .io potentially going away... Good tip. I needed it 3 years ago.
  
  Oof. Didn’t know that was the case. That’s rough.

Mail search is SO BAD - on EVERY DEVICE I make a database on.
I really wish I'd known that before I moved like 15 years of Gmail (and other accounts) over!
SO BAD. smh.

honestly i would recommend keeping google calendar. proton calendar just wasn’t cutting it for me so the only google app i still require is calendar

Went from Google to Proton and have since moved on from Proton. If there's one thing I wish I would've thought of before switching it would've been not using a single provider for everything.
At the end of the day it got me off Google, but with more or less the same situation I started with. Everything I was using was housed by one company. If they go under or turn evil you're scrambling to replace all your online services at once all over again. That isn't something I'm comfortable with so I split my service selection up and moved to multiple companies for the services I actually use.
Having everything in one place is super convenient until something happens that makes you want or need to move again. I'm happier now and ended up paying a bit less overall which is cool.
- This is good advice. Don't use a single provider for everything. I use Tuta for mail, bitwarden for pw management, selfhosted WebDAV for calendar + contacts, and nextcloud for the rest for exactly this reason. It's much easier to migrate one service at a time than everything at once.
- Who are you with now?
- You can just pay for and use single services with proton though so I don’t see this as an „I wish I knew this about Proton before“
- I don't know if that makes much sense. If you lose, for example, assuming you spread it over three providers, 1/3 of your accounts, wouldn't this already be bad enough? I think, the overhead of using so many different services simultaneously is way bigger and more real, than something bad happening to the single service I settled with. Am also with Proton for many many years (back then, it was only "ProtonMail"...) and nothing bad happened. It only got better & better over the years. It's amazing.
  
  I'm not sure what you mean. The "overhead" is putting your different logins into a password manager, no?

I went from Google to Proton and then switched out for another provider. No offline mode/IMAP support allowing me to use an email client on my phone was bothersome as I need to monitor multiple inboxes. Email was fine but sluggish (in part due to decryption so partially understandable I guess). Still use the VPN which I think is their most mature product. Drive is basic but I didn't need much more.
I was willing to put up with the annoyances when I really believed in what they were doing. But after the GOP comments, the crypto/AI stuff, and leaving Mastodon it just all became a bit much. I like that they are nonprofit, FOSS, and independently audited of course, but their messaging/priorities have been mixed to say the least. Wouldn't blame someone for staying, wouldn't blame them for leaving at this point.
- Yeah. Tried ProtonVPN before it was blocked, and hoped I'd also have another email address. But no, being unable to use it in my email client with all the other accounts made it unusable for me.
  
  Not sure sure if you know about this but they reason they don't allow it in other clients is the encrypted portion. However, they built a bridge recently that allows you to use it within other clients on Linux (not sure what other OS but looks like windows too) and I've been running it on the Evolution client since.
  Proton Mail Bridge
  
  What do you mean by saying that ProtonVPN was blocked?

Proton works fine for me. Email client works as you’d expect in iOS and the webmail is the same as any other. I don’t use the calendar though so can’t comment there. I DO use the vpn heavily. I don’t understand the issues people have with it because it’s always been good for me. I use it on my phone and multiple computers - even Linux (the unofficial flatpak also works well).
The thing I wish I realized earlier (keep in mind that I started using it like 10 years ago) is that it’s impossible to degoogle your life. Yay I use proton - but everyone else still uses Gmail so google gets it all anyway. Not everything, but you get the idea.
- Tbh i just don't send email. All i use it for is accounts that don't let you use a username, receiving shipping information, and sales ads for things I'm actually interested in.
  Only time I might actually need to send and reapond to emails is if I'm job hunting.
  
  Wow really? I’m fascinated :)
  Generational thing maybe? I still communicate with doctors, family members, and like support for orders/inquiries via email. Not all the time, a lot with text too. But it’s still like 50/50 email / text.

I use Proton mail for a mailing list that's hosted and managed by a local linux users group. The messages from the mailing list arrive as .eml files, with each message as an attachment. the native web browser cannot read the attachments. I have to download each message, either individually or all of them as a single zipped file. It might be the fault of the admin of the mailing list and not Proton's fault. I'm not sure. It's not very active so I never bothered to look into the issue. it's a hassle but not a problem. I thought .eml was a standard email format so it seemed odd that the web client could not read it.
i also occasionally use proton drive to back up my plaintext journal every 3-6 months. i backup to mega as well. proton drive has 2 gb of storage on the free plan. mega has 20gb. my journal is 6.9 MiB across 166 files. i have plenty of storage for my use case. i do not store anything sensitive. so that's not a concern.

I wish I had know both how painless it was AND how happy (even proud) I'd be about it!
Honestly the 1 thing that matters is : having your data backed-up. Everything else is secondary. Sure, you will have some UX hiccups, the UI will be new, some tools won't behave exactly like you are used to, so what? Live and learn the same way you did with Google products. We have been absolutely brainwashed (and I do mean "we", I don't mean "you") to believe that whenever there is a big bright BigTech logo, it's safe and easy. It's not! We are just used to it and when we genuinely think back, we did learn where everything is. When things change we assume we're at fault.
Anyway... if you are genuinely nervous, just try for a month and rollback or, IMHO better, switch to another provider. I've been a paying Proton customer for years (all services) and I like it but it's not perfect either. If Proton goes to shit, I'll switch.

Switching to Proton from all the other shit accounts was one of the best online services thing I ever did in my life. I got a discount back then and to be honest, I would even pay double the price, if I had to. It's just worth it.
As to what you need to know... There is not much to know, except, just do it. Do not hang onto the obsolete accounts. Migrate everything to Proton, then keep the old accounts for 6-12 months, just to make absolutely sure, you did not miss some rare account you barely ever use and is still connected to the old e-mail address. Finally, just never log into the old one ever again and stay with Proton. Proton is king.
If I remember correctly, Proton even offers migrations features, which let you migrate from Google to Proton in some mouse clicks.

On desktop skip the ProtonVPN app and just use the official WireGuard app with the ProtonVPN config files which you can easily download from proton's website. If you're on Linux with gnome you don't even need the wireguard app. You can just use the GUI network manager app to connect with the config files.
Edit: stupid autocorrect
- Especially skip the ProtonVPN app if you're on Linux.
  To steal a line from LGR's video on Redguard, it's just so B A L L S.

The one thibg I'd wish I'd known when moving from google that self-hosting is bliss. For everything else there is tuta and nextcloud.

I use posteo.de/en for email and we use the calender as a shared family calender with my wife.
Works fine for me, but we don't really use the calender to share events with others, so I am not sure how well that works.

For me it is nothing. I don’t use the VPN and I own my domain, so I keep that if I ever change providers. The calendar works fine.
Ethically I have accepted that a comment was made by someone that should not have been shared, but I also accept that there is not a single company in the world where there are zero people with whom I agree 100%. The only difference is they don’t tweet about it. I am only fooling myself if I think changing providers will make any difference. Maybe the CEO of the next provider is a racist wifebeater…
Their service has been excellent, it’s European which I aim to support and their security is heavily scriutinzed as it’s open source. I sleep well giving them money for an great service.
- it’s European which I aim to support
  Indeed, to be clear it's in Europe but not in a EU country "Proton services are operated by Proton AG, a Swiss corporation whose primary shareholder is the non-profit Proton Foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland." but they are still GDPR (data protection law from the EU) compliant, cf https://proton.me/support/is-proton-mail-gdpr-compliant
  
  Yeah I’m Norwegian so only an EEA member as well. I consider Europe as one, regardless of EU membership.
  We’re still brothers even though we haven’t joined yet.
  Let us keep some control over our coastline to avoid over fishing and I would strugle to find good arguments not to join in the future. We already follow most directives anyways.

For me its not realizing that my email aliases will stop working if I stop paying. Wish I would have just went with simplelogin
- It kind of makes sense that a paid service stops working when you stop paying though...
  
  Existing aliases continue to work on Simplelogin. And I wish I would have known that beforehand.
- Just pay for SimpleLogin no? Proton owns SimpleLogin now.
  I purchased SimpleLogin before Proton purchased them. I have my own domain configured with all my aliases which all point to a proton email address which I do not give to anyone.
  I purposely created my own domain just so I could be flexible in the future and move to another provider if needed.
  
  To add on, if you have Proton Unlimited, then SimpleLogin is free
- Duckduckgo has 1 alias for each device

I only ever used Proton for a few secondary email accounts (compartmentalizing between personal and online) and I started transitioning shortly before they got in the news for statements.
My main problem was that I realized that I couldn't use email forwarding (or at least without paying for a plan, I forget), and I couldn't manually handle it with a third-party client without paying for their bridge, so unless I wanted to have to open and log in to an old email address for the rest of my life, I basically had to pay to deprecate an email address or move to another provider without risking any future emails to the protonmail address being lost, and I wasn't in a position where paying was an option for those addresses. Now I only register single-use throwaways on Protonmail (despite their efforts to detect and stop it).
- Now I only register single-use throwaways on Protonmail (despite their efforts to detect and stop it).
  That kinda sux. There are plenty of other, more suitable, services for that. I would recommend not wasting this great service for such purposes.
  
  The more suitable ones are often blocked, unfortunately.

You can always manually share .ics files in emails to share calendar events. I've never used Proton, but I'd be shocked if their calendar can't ics export. I think that's literally how Outlook actually implements that, so it should "just work."
- Having to manually share ICS was a bridge too far for me. Especially if event details get updated.

I’m in the process of switching to Proton too. I just opened the account; haven’t taken additional steps of switching login emails associated with all of my other accounts, yet. I’ll probably start with giving the new account to local grassroots organizations, first.
I’d like to learn more about what people have to say too!

The Android widget (not app just the widget) does not have a monthly view.
There is no office suite (I don't know why this surprised me but it did).
Generally it's been an overall positive experience.

- That's correct. You get better export tools with Google compared to Proton. Because of this alone I'd recommend not storing your important data with Proton

I looked to see if I could get by replacing Photos with Drive in Proton. Whilst I can upload stuff. Videos greater than 100mb need to be downloaded to be watched. I guess because Google process videos to allow them to be streamed. Sadly a deal breaker for me :(
- Might want to look into Immich or PeerTube.
  
  I've looked at Immich a few times. I don't really like self hosting important data as I don't trust myself to not lose anything!

I feel like the Android client for ProtonMail is really slow. Switching folders is painful.
I also tried sharing calendars with my wife who is still on Gmail and didn't have great luck there. I decided I'll just forward invites to events to her, though I haven't had a chance to test that.
- Not sure about the Mail app, but the Calendar app was definitely slow, though I believe that's because it didn't have offline caching and just fetched from the site every time you opened it up. Terrible, lazy design IMO.
- I wanted to test sharing my calendar with my wife (we use Google which is currently how we share) but you have to have a paid account to share your proton calendar. I'm happy to pay but want to make sure it works before I do!
  
  It does. I use Proton (paid) and she uses Google. Guide here

Proton bridge is scam - it only pretends that it works. I have been trying to get a support that it doesn't sync & delete e-mails correctly for 2 years and the only "help" was to clean the cache and wait 2 hours for resyncing...
- It's not a scam. It worked perfectly first try for me back when I tried it out like a year ago.
  
  I used it for 2 years...

77 comments