Folks who moved from Google to Proton: What do you wish you'd known at the start?
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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.
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If you can only get Service B by paying for Service A, then Service B isn't really free; it's just added value.
A nitpick, yes, but I feel it's an important one.
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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 your 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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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 they 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.
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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.
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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.
Who are you with now?
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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.
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.
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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...
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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.
I use posteo.de 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.
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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!
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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 can't vouch for them but there are managed solutions for Immich, e.g. https://elest.io/open-source/immich
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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.
What do you mean by saying that ProtonVPN was blocked?
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What do you mean by saying that ProtonVPN was blocked?
Blocked by the government I mean.
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Blocked by the government I mean.
which government? is it not usable anymore?
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I used it for 2 years...
Okay. I don't understand your point. It may be broken. It may even suck ass. But it's certainly not a scam.
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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.
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.
