Encryption of our data at rest is essential for privacy. Proton Drive has a lot of important potential for the broader security-minded community. To add a more seamless UX I would recommend the following: - Allow “sharing” of files, photos, and the Notes App directly to Proton Drive. If I could long press and save a file directly from my browser to Proton Drive, that would offer a more seamless experience. - Allow uploading all attachments in an email to Proton Drive. This should especially be a feature for ProtonMail. - Improve ability to bulk upload iCloud Photos to Proton Drive, or even automatically sync. I understand this is a difficult ask. - Refine the capability of creating whitelisted “groups” to view shared folders. You could add two levels of security by both requiring them to access via their Proton account and then also requiring an admin-set email to read/write. - Improved “out of Proton” sharing of files and folders. ProtonMail on desktop does this effectively. - Bulk imports and exports. - Ability to create “rules” for automatic archiving of documents. If I receive X containing to my ProtonMail email, then save attachment and email to . I have to catalog a lot of travel receipts for work travel, for example. This would help with that. Overall, love that Proton Drive is making headway on this important project and I wish the devs continued success down the stretch.
I hear good things on the windows side. But in the iOS / Mac world, ProtonDrive is barely enough to upload files to an app predetermined folder and just leave them there. That is if you can get all your files up in a timely and reliable manner. Email is great, VPN is awesome, drive not so much. And waiting 9 months and not one update, doesn’t help it any. Next update must be huge. Seriously, are there any features coming to Proton drive? Since version 1.10 a whole year ago, all we’re getting is this “The latest version contains bug fixes and performance improvements.” That is one whole year without one single feature added. Edit to add, finally photo backup. And that is all it is. We now have the ability to very, very slowly, upload our pictures, while the app is open and in the foreground. And on WiFi only. 5k in pictures and tonight will be the 3rd night uploading. Oh, and you can’t see the pictures on the Mac folder. Let’s not even talk about the Mac app. Syncing for weeks and files still on the SSD instead of just the cloud as advertised.
This app is great for storing encrypted photos and pc files. The only thing I didn’t like was setting up my photos and files to be uploaded from my iOS device. Proton Storage has a photo or file maximum upload size of 10 items. So I can upload 10 items at once then have to go back and start the process all over again to upload the next 10 photos or files. This ended up taking me quite a bit of my time. I don’t understand this at all. Every other cloud storage app I’ve used you could simply select all the photos or files and upload all at once. Even considering the 10 photo or file upload at once max I still prefer and trust Proton Drive over any other cloud storage because I trust the company to do the right thing. So small inconvenience but worth the extra work.
Needs more work. Almost a good app. Has not been updated in months. Not enterprise ready.
I came from the tresorit ecosystem. I prefer proton, but here are some things I am missing. 1. I wish I can sort thru which folders I had last uploaded something to. Proton drive doesn’t really do this even if the sorting option for “Last Modified” is there, it actually sorts folders by when the folder was first created. That’s not the same thing. 2. I need to be able to search for files. Proton developers know this and they say they’re working on it but can’t state an ETA when the feature will be live. 3. Uploading directly from one app to another. If someone shares a file to me via signal or whatsapp then I should be able to upload it directly to proton. Instead, devs recommend a workaround of downloading onto the phone, then opening proton, and then choosing a file to upload. Too many steps. Tresorit already has these features. It’s a much more mature product however I am hoping proton can get these implemented soon.
I've lost access to my passwords! My account was blocked on the second day of using proton after purchasing a plan for two years, I sent a message to myself - from one proton mail to another my proton mail, they considered it spam, the support service takes a long time to respond, I wrote two letters, but the answer came with a question - why did I open an account, there are no more answers! But what does proton pass have to do with it? Proton drive? If the company believes that my mail does not comply with policy, block the mail and sort it out!!! But why block access to all applications!? There are passwords, keys to sites! Personal information on proton drive. I've lost access to my passwords! This is just terrible, a waste of money and the saddest thing is that I have to do a lot of work to recover my passwords. The lowest rating is for proton services. Addition: the money was never returned, they wrote that the money would not be returned. Tip: do not buy a long subscription. $191 was not returned, the account is blocked.
A few things I’d like to see implemented: Currently, PDF’s have the page overview on the left 1/8 of the screen; being able to have the sheet you’re working on occupy 100% of the screen would be great. DropBox has such a feature, for example. Whenever you open another folder, the screen starts in the up, refresh position. You have to wait for it to refresh and settle before selecting your folder or risk hitting the wrong one because the screen moved down at an inopportune moment. Another means of signifying that the app is refreshing its contents which doesn’t hinder file selection would be better. Right now, if I want to go through 3 folders to one file, I effectively have to wait for every folder I click through to refresh even if no changes were made. Being able to save files straight to proton drive on iOS would be great. Right now I often have to download to iOS files and then import to proton drive. Just a redundancy I’d like to see eliminated. Also, if you have a PDF open and you go to the iOS Home Screen on a different app, proton drive often either loses your place or ctd’s.
I read a review of the product and wanted to test as a replacement for my 2TB google drive. I installed the app on my one Mac desktop, created free account, uploaded file, shared it and got extra 500gb bonus for taking those steps. I went to my email tab, saw thanks email, went back to proton app and account was locked for TOS violation! App was on ONE computer, accessed by one user at same ip address I had just created it on. I submitted the appeal form, after 4 days, no response and access still locked. Clearly, if this was my real data locking it would be a true disaster.. Fortunately, just a small test file. I am still awaiting unlock so I can delete the account. I have never experienced this in any other app. Security is fine but this is unacceptable. BTW, I had even entered a recovery phone and email but of course these don't help when you can't even login! I am using Nordvpn and have been testing their secure storage app, no issues at all. Take a lesson from them Proton.
File management is good. Photo backup needs developed more. Look at PhotoSync for inspiration. To backup photos on iOS means backing up potentially 5 files+. Photo, edited version, live .mov, edited live .mov, and the AEE file which’s I believe tracks the changes. On top of that there needs to be delta detection to backup edits and metadata changes that happen after upload. Maybe Proton and PhotoSync can collaborate to add Proton drive support into Proton photo backup.
The app seems zippy enough when you don’t have anything downloaded and kept locally, but when you have a lot of files kept on-device (available offline), the app slows to a crawl. The app has to “think” every time I tap into another folder. Tapping folders and files often doesn’t even register… or the tap is so painfully delayed that you assume the app is not paying attention, until it suddenly registers. The entire interface behaves this way: Tap something and wait several seconds to see if it worked or not. And forget object permanence. If you leave the app and return, it has to go through the same “thinking” all over again. Downloading files requires you to stay in the app, and not let your iPad or iPhone fall asleep, lest the downloads fail. Then you have to start all over again. The Make Available Offline will often fail. If the downloading of files inside a folder marked available offline is ever interrupted (see above!), the app gives up and the files remain offline, forever “Downloading.” You can try to start all over again, or mark each sub-folder in turn as available offline, or manually download each file individually. Ugh. Sadly, a truly miserable experience. I really hope they can improve this down the road!
Proton Drive is great from a security perspective, but as per usual, Proton releases incomplete products that are missing basic features and run poorly. Proton Drive has been out for a while now, and I can still only upload ONE FILE at a time. Is this some kind of joke? Additionally, the speed of upload/download is incredibly slow. Oh and I almost forgot to mention - uploads have recently been failing all the time. The app has almost become unusable. It seems like Proton just has a couple devs who work on all the mobile stuff, and they end up neglecting certain apps/devices for months or years on end with zero progress because they are caught up with other things. Either that, or all the employees have 100 committee meetings before they change anything. Either way, as a Proton user for multiple years, I’m very disappointed in this app. Do better.
This review only concerns the new photos backup feature. The initial sync was very slow and even subsequent syncs with just a handful of additions is slow. A couple of photos were noted as ‘failed to backup’ and retry doesn’t fix. Also, I noticed duplicates of photos that I had edited in the Apple photos app. Proton is showing the pre-edit version and the edit version despite the fact that the Apple photos app only shows the final edit version as it should. Even videos were being duplicated. Lastly, the playback of content (esp video) takes a long time to load before playing although if use the web version, it loads much faster. So overall, slow and buggy but hoping fixes will come out soon to make it more useable.
If you value your time, do not use any service from this scummy company. They locked me, my brother, and my father from our accounts because we violated the TOS. According to them, the tos we violated was, and I quote, “operating multiple free accounts under a single individual.” You’d think a major company would know that 3 separate people can have the same last name, but nope. They refuse to fix their mistake, they refuse to do anything at all about it. Their customer service is godawful, I’ve reiterated the same information 3 separate times by email and they still keep asking for the same stuff. What a terrible terrible company. Run the other way, do not look back, you will regret using this company, they do not care about you or your information.
I paid for Proton Unlimited so I could switch from OneDrive to Proton for email and storage. Unfortunately, Proton Drive only allows 10 photos to be backed up at a time. And it doesn’t do it automatically. You have to keep track of which photos have been uploaded and which haven’t. Uploading is a cumbersome and time consuming task. Since photos are the main thing most people want to back up on their phone, and this app isn’t really capable of backing up more than a few photos, it’s a rather pointless app. I would recommend Mega Storage or something similar if people want private storage.
I like it because i can store data on here without Google reading it, even though it has a long way to go to compete with Google docs 1. The app directs you to your internet app. This makes it slow and takes about 10secs to edit the document once it’s opened - very annoying 2. When copying things over from your Notes app / Google docs, it won’t allow you to paste videos within a doc - another annoying con of the app. It’s 2024, almost 2025, video dominates the world. Please update 🙏 Additionally, when copying things over, it might delete previous text as this happened to me 3 times today. It makes me question if it will actually maintain all of my text over time or if it will delete it without my knowledge 🧐 If this was updated, i would give it a 5 star. Overall, im just going to use it as backup rather than my dominate internet database.
Seriously? I paid all this money for a year premium for all services thinking this is better than Microsoft and after working ok and taking forever to work on 65k photos to backup, it was down to the last 1k and started over ? Meaning I had all the photos just the count reset and then it stopped working before last weeks update. Just starts, shows 3 weeks ago photos, says loading and crashes out. Restarting phone, app, clearing cache does nothing. iPhone 13 Pro Max 1 tb. With 500gb free so it’s not my memory. At least its encrypted although I can’t even load to view since it just quits out.
I highly recommend this app, I understand some bugs are still being ironed out however you can't dismiss the fact that it's a cloud service that uses strong encryption methods that ensure protection over your files. I put complete trust in this app due to the zero knowledge encryption and other strong encryption methods. 10/10 recommend even though it's still under heavy development.
I am glad proton brought proton drive to iOS! But the app is way behind other apps that are similar. One thing I wish proton will put in the app is video streaming. I don’t like having to “download” the video just to view it. That takes up to much space on your device. When you have a video that is large it can take awhile to download. I just want to keep it in the cloud and stream it when I want to view a video file.
Great start to the Proton Drive app! Something that I’d love to see implemented that others have done is the ability to modify text files directly from the app. Having the ability to click on a text file, open it in a built-in text editor, modify the contents, then clicking done/save which will upload those changes automatically would extremely useful!
Seems this was made with a pretty limited audience in mind. Reliable but frustratingly incompatible with even basic iOS design patterns. Who wants to select a *single* file for upload? Seems no mind was paid to migrating from other services, let alone adding any amount of data other than single files or at most 10 photos at a time. 3 stars for encryption and relatively stable build but this needs to catch up fast with backup or I’m downgrading my subscription
This is a buggy app that has not received and update in 9 months. The app still has issues with offline files, still does not allow access in the files app if you enable biometrics (DEVONthink already solved this), and still sometimes logs me out for no reason. I’ve filed bugs and “it’s being worked on” but is it? There has not even been a bug update in 9 months! The developer says “We are working on on photo backup in beta!” Is there one person working on this at protonmail? You cannot work on photo backup and fix some bugs simultaneously?
Getting there, but immediate need is Docs integration - accessing via online connection is inconvenient as access to internet is uncertain (travel to poor cell locations, working on planes, etc.) Been a user then subscriber from the beginning and loving the growth of the platform and it’s clear dedication to privacy!!
Following in the footsteps of their previous work, a solid end-to-end encrypted service. The ability to share a link accessible by others with the password for specific folders, and putting time frames that access is granted is fantastic. Definitely still room to grow, but this fills the core functions. I am sure there is a reason for it, but having a 10 item limit when uploading seems a bit harsh. My beat guess is it has to do with Apple still not handling background tasks well and long uploads would cause time-outs and thus higher failure rates. Meaning servers are have more wasted time. Thank you again for these services.
I’m being a little generous in my star rating because I believe in Proton and their mission. This app is missing a lot of features, but it will allow you to upload your files and picture to your encrypted cloud storage. There’s no sync and delete just yet but hopefully that’s coming soon
U fortunately it hardly works on my phone and when it does it’s extremely slow. Just navigating files is extremely slow. It doesn’t show my files in the apple files app. And when I try to ‘make available offline’ with in pd app, it will be stuck in download loop for ever. Sometimes it works, not often though. I pay for proton because I like it, but it doesn’t play nice with my phone or Linux unfortunately.
I would love to be able to sync my photos to Proton Drive from my iPhone automatically. They have this feature in OneDrive, I would love to get away from them and utilize this as my solution. Unless I am completely missing this while using the app?
Update: Some new half baked features, but also pretty frustrating that when I updated the app I had to log back in… I’m paying Proton User and will happily revise this review if it is addressed. I am randomly signed out (though all other Proton apps are signed). Most infuriating, I was told to use a CAPTCHA. First time ever on any Proton service I have seen a CAPTCHA. This has got to go. Proton is better than this. It is an archaic tool and generally used for crowd sourcing labor.
I use 2 different privacy respecting cloud drives. Proton as a backup for some important docs, and another service as my main drive for mobile photo uploads and other stuff. I would love to drop the other service and just use proton drive for my photos and other important stuff, but unlike the other service p.drive is missing a lot of features I like.
I am a big fan of Drive. It has become my photo storage place so I imagine auto photo device upload and delete from device could be a wanted feature in development. The interface now is pretty solid as is
Hate to write this but strongly recommend against use of PD if iOS is ones primary platform. I have been a Proton user since early on. Sadly PD is a nightmare to use with iOS. Whether via web and or using the App it is completely lacking. I could go on but suffice it to say that I have spent more time trying to research how to access and salvage my docs than all the time combined where access was useable. Only success has been with very small pdf files.
I know that building a platform like this is no walk in the park. That being said, ProtonDrive is off to a great start. Still needs work. Especially related to uploads. I should be able to upload more than 10 files at a time. Uploads also randomly fail.
My only complaint is the app icon doesn’t show the current date on the calendar. Just shows a permanent “31” is there plan to add it to a future update? It would make this calendar my default if it showed the date!
Paid extra for this because I believed in their privacy storage. But even while plugged in, on home wifi the app stops working after several short videos despite having hundreds of GBs in space, which will be wasted apparently. There is no version for Mac laptop. So I gave in and signed up for iCloud, everything transferred.
If you can afford to subscribe a little why not? Without our financial support these organisations wont acheive their goal of protecting privacy. If you can afford it, splurge on them and give a kick in the balls to fascistbook and googley eyes
I've been slowly migrating all my personal data to Proton, as well as backing up pictures. I've decided to activate Face ID to unlock the app once; even if Face ID worked, the app would remain locked on the Face ID lockscreen. I uninstalled it and made without Face ID. I've backed 50Gb of photos now, decided to retry locking with Face ID... And I cannot access the app anymore. A very inconvenient bug because now the app doesn't work anymore.
Where is the Linux desktop client? And why are you guys so weird about this particular feature? It’s one of the most requested features and you guys say basically nothing about it.
So far it’s nice to have a safe place to keep my files that’s encrypted in travel and at rest. All I need to completely switch over from iCloud Drive is sure photo sync and I can make it my new main cloud storage.
Updating review with more feature requests: • In photo backup, when a camera roll photo is modified ONLY upload the modified version that we see in the camera roll, not the original unmodified version, which makes duplicates • Be able to manually upload more than 10 photos at a time and more than 1 file from Files app at a time • File search, please prioritize this • Dark mode for Docs and PDF preview background • Be able to preview the entire file name for long file names that are cut off, maybe by long pressing the file, please!
Syncing is great between iOS and macOS. Good looking app and easy to use. Uploads speeds are usable when using Proton vpn on both devices. Would highly recommend over big tech cloud services.
I use all the Proton products and I’ve been waiting a long time for the iOS Drive app. It gets the job done. Looking forward to improvements and additional features.
I'm excited the app is here, even if it's barebones right now. I do want to see integration into the share sheet, there is a workaround to save the content to the iOS files app and upload to Proton Drive from there but native sharing will be very welcomed. Thanks Proton.
If you want to back up a lot of files or have more than 20gb of data to back up… good luck. You’re going to have to delete the app several times to reset the process and even then it’s just a luck of the draw. For the subscription price I pay I wish the app was more reliable.
I installed the app on the phone and then on the computer. The desktop prompted me to select folders to backup. It all appeared to work but there were no files showing in the app. Lo and behold these files don’t appear in the app. Why? Isn’t the point of this to see the files on your desktop? Apparently it’s been in the works for months. This app isn’t ready. Uninstalled.
I’m a big fan of Proton and I love your mission. Drive continues to improve. Usability and UI still needs a little work. Please add the ability to scan documents on the iPhone app. Keep up the good work!
Photo backup chewed thru all remaining storage space on the phone
Tried it out for photo backup. Would love it if proton could perfect this. But the app, absent any other files stored in proton drive single-handedly chewed thru the remaining storage space on the phone. Almost 10 GB of storage space on the phone used by drive and for what, just to upload to the cloud? Makes no sense and makes it unusable.
I am a Proton Visionary subscriber and the only thing that Proton really frustrates me with is Proton Drive. Proton Drive desperately needs a file viewer system similar to google cloud. I should also be able to mount my drive to my desktop which I can not do. Proton is actively blocking the open source software that allows cloud drive mounting as well.
Dissatisfied, I wanted this to be my google photos replacement but looks like it won't happen. Who wants to upload 10 files at the time? I literally have thousands of photos. Nothing is automatic, you have to select what you want to upload. I'm considering going the nextcloud route. It's just as expensive and way easier to upload.
Hoping to be able to use multiple logins so access files through different accounts via the app. Would be nice to have edit capabilities similar to the google platform. This would help me transition entirely over to protonmail for good
App no longer opens on iPhone after most recent update. Phone restart does not fix the issue. Pretty frustrating to say the least and doesn’t lend much confidence to make this app your daily driver for storage of important docs, files or photos. Hope this bug is addressed soon.
Switched to this from Google drive. After spending the better part of a day backing up all my photos the app is trying to backup all 4400 photos again??
New automatic photo upload feature from proton is bad. Only setting option is to enable or disable automatic backups. No choice of where to store photos, no choice of making them upload in a format that plays nice with Fedora Linux and alike
Why use Proton Drive? • Easy to use: Fast, reliable, and intuitive file storage experience • End-to-end encryption: Files are automatically encrypted on your device. No one else can access them. • Zero-access encryption: All files are stored in encrypted format — not even Proton can read your files. • Free storage space: Get started with a free plan that comes with up to 1 GB of storage. • Swiss privacy and neutrality: Your data is protected by the Swiss data privacy laws, some of the strongest in the world. • Open-source cryptography: Anyone can check our code, and it has been audited by third-party professionals so you can know it's secure. • Mission-driven: Proton believes privacy is a human right. That's why our apps have no advertising, no data harvesting, and no strings attached. • Trustworthy: Proton Drive was developed by the same team behind Proton Mail, the world’s largest encrypted email service. With the Proton Drive app, you can: • Upload documents and store photos and videos from your mobile device • Share your files with anyone, even those without a Proton account, using a secure link • Password-protect file-sharing links to prevent unauthorized access • Disable file-sharing links with a single click or set an expiration date • Access your files or folders offline • Organize your files easily and securely in the app: rename, move, or delete them
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