Proton Drive Reviews

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.

This is a buggy app that has not received and update in 9 months. ProtonDrive 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?

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 read a review of the product and wanted to test as a replacement for my 2TB google drive. I installed ProtonDrive 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.

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 ProtonDrive 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'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.

The iOS app is still extremely delayed and laggy when all my files are ‘Available Offline’ and in ‘Detail View’ instead of files in ‘Thumbnail View’.

Support was notified of this shortly after release and I was told they were aware and had similar reports. Still to this day, ONE YEAR LATER IT HAS NOT BEEN FIXED.

When in ‘Thumbnail View’, meaning it doesn’t show the size, last modified date, etc and just shows your file picture and name, things load quickly and without delay.

BUT;

When in ‘Detail View’ mode, where it shows your file picture, size, date, offline status, etc, AND you have your files Available Offline, ProtonDrive is EXTREMELY DELAYED AND LAGGY.
I click somewhere and it sits for a few seconds before going anywhere. Sometimes I’ll click somewhere and then have to click it again because it didn’t even register it.

I’ve also noticed the more files you make available offline, the more delayed it gets. A few hundreds MB’s and you should be fine. Anything over 500MB-1GB and ProtonDrive is darn near a hassle!

Do something about this Proton!!!

It’s been 4 months and your app hasn’t had an update!!

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. ProtonDrive 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 ProtonDrive. Do better.

ProtonDrive 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), ProtonDrive slows to a crawl. ProtonDrive 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 ProtonDrive 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 ProtonDrive and return, it has to go through the same “thinking” all over again. Downloading files requires you to stay in ProtonDrive , 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!), ProtonDrive 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!

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.

Paid extra for this because I believed in their privacy storage. But even while plugged in, on home wifi ProtonDrive 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.

I hear good things on the windows side. But in the iOS / Mac world, this app 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.

Not only is there no way to search by filenames but most filenames are unreadable (the names are abbreviated and there's no way to extend them in ProtonDrive ). Cryptomator is definitely the way to go for encrypted cloud storage. Proton Drive is incredibly under-developed and missing many basic features.

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.

Proton’s concept of self is broken - I use a proton.me account and therefore that’s what my password manager has saved but ProtonDrive looks for a protonmail.com account in my iCloud Keychain. Plz fix bundle identifier or wherever that’s set - also plz fix for other proton apps.

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.

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.

Now I’m unable to make a file unavailable offline. It downloads to 100% and then returns back to the un-downloaded state. This can go on in a loop indefinitely.

Needs syncing option for documents and photos. The only way to do it now is to manually upload them. Photos can only be manually uploaded 10 at a time. Quite cumbersome.

Hoping to be able to use multiple logins so access files through different accounts via ProtonDrive . Would be nice to have edit capabilities similar to the google platform. This would help me transition entirely over to protonmail for good

Fix this crap already sick of this. Paying for a service and it will NOT upload any of my files from my phone.

+ Beautiful interface.

- I’m not entirely sure what the point of ProtonDrive is if you can’t sync files between devices. I have cloud storage on my phone and on my PC so that I can send work and school documents on the go.

Sometimes it’s impossible to find a file I’m looking for on the mobile app because there is no search. When will you implement this?

It’s also frustrating that you can only upload 10 photos at once. No way to easily back up 100s of photos directly from the phone. I had to transfer photos from my phone to PC to upload them all at once on the web app. Is there a reason for it??

I wish you’ll fix these soon since otherwise Proton Drive is helpful.

Last one is a suggestion, it would be neat if the color of the folders was customizable like the labels in Proton Mail or Calendar. I think Google Drive lets you do this. It’s good for organizing many folders.

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 ProtonDrive 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.

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

Proton Drive is an OK app, but while it has better iPad support than the Proton email and calendar apps, iPadOS support is lacking. You can’t eve pin open the sidebar. Somewhat disappointing.

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 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. ProtonDrive 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 ProtonDrive . 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.

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.

I’m a big fan of all the Proton products, including Drive. The focus is on security and simplicity. My only complaint is that navigation within the UI is very slow. It is worse for large files, particularly large family videos I’m backing up using Proton Drive. Speed up the responsiveness and navigation and it’d be 5 stars.

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!!

ProtonDrive 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.

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 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 ProtonDrive ?

This is a great app but missing just one thing, syncing with iOS photos!

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 ProtonDrive .

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!

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.

I'm excited ProtonDrive 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.

Love having an app, but agree with the other reviews. Need to be able to integrate the camera and gallery for Apple Photos iCloud like functionality. Then I can be free from iCloud entirely and be 100% Proton. Very happy about the application though.

There isn’t much other than downloading and viewing files but we will see what the future brings.

I am glad proton brought proton drive to iOS! But ProtonDrive is way behind other apps that are similar. One thing I wish proton will put in ProtonDrive 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.

Basic functions work, haven’t found any bugs. Hopefully the $100/year I pay helps them develop more features like auto sync.

I know that building a platform like this is no walk in the park. That being said, this app 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.

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 ProtonDrive 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 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

I’ve been waiting for YEARS for Proton to release the Drive and Calendar apps and they are FINALLY HERE!!! Thank you SO MUCH Proton team! I really appreciate your commitment to your customers and willingness to listen to feedback and deliver on your products.

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.

Like everything else Proton has done for its free and paid users, Drive continues to only get better as time goes by.

My only ask: Please add a share sheet extension to save directly to Proton Drive. For now, we’re left with having to save files using the system Files app which doesn’t always work (especially if creating a new folder is involved), and using Files leaves ProtonDrive itself vulnerable to snooping since storage apps can’t be locked when their data is managed via the Files app.

Otherwise, keep on doing all the good you do!

Can’t wait for desktop version and auto sync features. Everyone pay for a membership you can afford.

Thank you for finally releasing this on iOS! I’ve been a long-time paid subscriber to proton services. Very happy to have a mobile app.

Thanks Proton for finally releasing this! It is barebones but it syncs well and the files can be off-lined on my devices.
Once they complete the PC app, this will really be a sweet encrypted drive system.
Here is my two cents for what I would like to see in the future as this continues to developer…..
1. The ability to scroll through photos in a file instead of having to open each individual photo file.
2. An automatic camera upload feature.

Everybody likes free stuff, but please consider supporting the Proton mission by purchasing a subscription.

Upload and Download speed is incredible
Folder creation is simple
Moving files to other folders is simple and better than Google Drive iCloud
The amount of data Google Drive and iCloud are a fraction of what Proton Drive give you
ProtonDrive is available for Android and Apple, but you may access your data from any Web Browser of you choice. Chrome Users (hint hint)

Hands down, ProtonDrive is fast, solid, simple, and bug free. I’ve been using it since the day it became Beta. Well over 1 year.

It’s only going to get better. Get in now when it’s $ is super low.

Having 30+ years IT & Computing experience, this quick access encrypted storage solution is hands down the best I’ve seen in decades.

I highly recommend ProtonDrive, 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 ProtonDrive due to the zero knowledge encryption and other strong encryption methods. 10/10 recommend even though it's still under heavy development.

Been using the Proton tools for years and they are amazing. So glad to see Drive finally being available for phones

5 star foundation. Excited for automatic sync! Keep it up ❤️

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’m being a little generous in my star rating because I believe in Proton and their mission. ProtonDrive 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

Great so far 👍

Not super robust yet, but I’m happy to have it!!! Already works better than the sync.com app. Keep up the good work, I’m thrilled to have a suite of encrypted apps!!

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.