Infuriating and poor
I have used this app for over a year. 1 - the first obvious goal of the company is to lock you in and hold your photos and documents to ransom. There is no way to easily download and save your own content onto your device and there is no way to bulk download your content. So effectively you will either spend a lot of time downloading each and every file individually or submit to the fact you’re locked in and ultimately end up paying for the service. 2) there is no way to move uploaded single pictures into the main photos tab within the app. 3) uploading a single photo or file into the files tab is easy and quick but turning on photo backup to backup the photos in your camera roll takes forever. I was trying to upload 14 photos via auto backup which took over an hour. I assume this is deliberate so you just grow impatient waiting and leave the photo backup on and hence run out of storage eventually and have to pay. I turn on auto backup selectively and wouldn’t want the entire contents of my photo library endlessly uploading. Even with a ‘private’ service! I would advise against beginning a journey with the company. Perhaps just use their email service and avoid the rest. Also take note that their services don’t automatically log out of web browsers for months at a time and their VPN service enables logging by default. So their privacy practices are questionable and I have raised the issues directly with the company.
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Workable but could be simpler
App integration with iOS a main operating system is shocking you CANNOT add photos from you iPhone into the photo album on proton and if I add them to files section u Carnt move into photo album either.
Very difficult to move from Google Drive
Edit: Someone from Proton responded to my original review, I appreciate it. While it is true you can upload entire folders on the proton drive website, somehow you can not do that on the mobile website. Please allow a way to upload entire folders on the app and mobile web version, just like on the android app! Original review: It’s pretty hard to recommend the Proton Drive app is its current state. It’d be best to just add the website to your Home Screen. Trying to move from Google is not user friendly at all. The app doesn’t provide a way to uncompress zip files, and doesn’t allow you to select multiple files at once to upload either. Rather, the only way to transfer multiple files is to open proton drive on the web. And for some reason, you can’t transfer folders with files inside on the web either: you have to manually go inside of each of your folders and tap “select all” for each of them. Other than that this service is amazing, but it’s pretty difficult to move from google in it’s current state. Hopefully these issues get fixed.
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Response from developer
Thank you for your review! You can actually upload entire folders on the web client, if you use the 'upload folder' option. If you are opting to upload files instead, then Drive will ask you to select files. We've received the request to support unzipping files directly in Drive before, and we've added your vote to it.
I want to love it
Massive respect for Proton's mission! This is nearly a great alternative to Google Drive and Google Photos. However the photos backup feature only has on-device thumbnails which are currently taking up 4gb of space (making Proton Drive the largest app after photos on my phone, and taking up a significant amount of space on my 64gb iphone!). It would be a huge improvement if thumbnails could be generated and stored remotely. I understand the security tradeoffs for this but maybe some sort of opt-in system to allow people like me to keep using their older hardware without issues :)
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Response from developer
Thank you for your review and feedback! We've passed it along to the team.
Stuck On Login
Couldn't even get passed the login, I've tried to resend the code and still nothing and the website was so clunky. YOU NEED TO FIX THIS
videos not downloading, video thumbnails not loading
(this is the iPad App) videos are either showing “error” and unable to back, or showing as “backup complete”, when the video isn’t shown in the app like usual.
also, some video thumbnails won’t load, making it so that i have to click on the content to see what it is, pls fix asap!
also, some video thumbnails won’t load, making it so that i have to click on the content to see what it is, pls fix asap!
Version 3.0.0 dropped Files support
Look, guys. Congratulations on the new SDK platform. The upload and download speed increases are welcome. The upcoming ease of integration with the rest of the Proton ecosystem sounds promising.
But you broke customer workflows when you dropped iOS Files support, with no projected date for its return. And that’s a big no-no.
I appreciate the difficulties of software engineering. As a fellow professional developer, I’m acutely aware of the struggles with estimating completion of work.
But this isn’t about engineering. This is about valuing your customers. All the speed increases in the world are useless if you’ve downgraded us to uploading files ten at time from the iOS share sheet.
In short, this is about bad product management.
I’d love to give you an estimate of when I’ll update this review, but, you know, I’ve got other priorities too. I’m sure you understand.
But you broke customer workflows when you dropped iOS Files support, with no projected date for its return. And that’s a big no-no.
I appreciate the difficulties of software engineering. As a fellow professional developer, I’m acutely aware of the struggles with estimating completion of work.
But this isn’t about engineering. This is about valuing your customers. All the speed increases in the world are useless if you’ve downgraded us to uploading files ten at time from the iOS share sheet.
In short, this is about bad product management.
I’d love to give you an estimate of when I’ll update this review, but, you know, I’ve got other priorities too. I’m sure you understand.
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Great overall - has a small challenge for students
I’ve been very happy with the document and photo storage as well as the privacy it affords. As a student, I wanted to ensure my academic work wasn’t being monitored or scraped to train generative AI models. However, as a student it’s an issue not to be able to view word count in the document itself. I’ve had to use third party tools to verify word count before turning in assignments which opens my work back up to the privacy concerns that made me switch to Proton. I think adding this feature could help convince a lot of students to move over to this service!
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Slowww
It takes far too long for photos to upload and I swear it doesn’t work unless I’ve got the app open…
Great but not
I live this app - in theory. But there are just too many missing features and too many things that don’t make your experience „seamless“. My two main complaints are that backing up iCloud Photos for some reason takes up 20GB+ of my phone storage and there is no way to only have it backup to Proton cloud. And files can’t automatically be backed up at all, this feature simply does not exist.
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Sucks don’t buy
Uploading from iOS sucks doesn’t work
Has potential
I’ve been using Proton mainly for the Mail app after making the decision to de-Google. Drive (and Photos) are the weakest services that Proton offers in my opinion. The app and website just don’t feel as smooth as Mail, and Photos has a long way to go before it can completely replace Google Photos for me. That being said, they’re not terrible by any means, and I would still highly recommend Proton products for privacy. But for usability, Drive and Photos has a lot of room for improvement. I have hopes for them though that it will improve in the coming years. Proton still has my full support.
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Desperately need the option to upload individual photos to library like on desktop
I like the photo library, but want the option to individually upload photos, not back my entire gallery up to it.
Retro-dank
Remember 40-50 years ago when universities were homebrewing their own Unix-based applications to run in your Lear-Siegler dumb-terminal, and applications had a very narrow palette of features?
That's Proton. The cloud-storage can archive whatever you want to store in it; expect little else. Document editing on-the-fly using Proton Docs... derpity-derp, especially on a smart-device. Practically any standardized feature you've taken for granted using on a smart-phone in the past 10-15 years with cloud-driven office-suites works poorly or is completely absent. Folks have been requesting simple feature-additions for years with Proton Docs and Proton Mail... never happens.
Use this service the way you'd use an external drive; it doesn't behave like iCloud, OneDrive, or any other productivity-based cloud-service. It's like having an account-based storage allocation on an old mainframe... but with contemporary security-measures, although I have some doubts whether they've competently integrated those security features we would expect from information/storage systems today.
That's Proton. The cloud-storage can archive whatever you want to store in it; expect little else. Document editing on-the-fly using Proton Docs... derpity-derp, especially on a smart-device. Practically any standardized feature you've taken for granted using on a smart-phone in the past 10-15 years with cloud-driven office-suites works poorly or is completely absent. Folks have been requesting simple feature-additions for years with Proton Docs and Proton Mail... never happens.
Use this service the way you'd use an external drive; it doesn't behave like iCloud, OneDrive, or any other productivity-based cloud-service. It's like having an account-based storage allocation on an old mainframe... but with contemporary security-measures, although I have some doubts whether they've competently integrated those security features we would expect from information/storage systems today.
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Response from developer
We appreciate the detailed feedback. Proton Drive hasn’t been around nearly as long as some of the services you’re comparing it to, and we know there’s still a lot of room to grow. We’re actively working on improving the experience and adding features. Our security claims have been backed up by independent security audits. Our code is open-source too, so everyone can inspect it on GitHub.
Just one request
App is basically perfect, easy to use, much better UI than competitors. My only gripe is the lack of integration with iOS Files, when other services can do so. I’d love to be able to edit Markdown notes right from my Proton cloud storage on my iPhone the same way I can on my Mac. Otherwise excellent.
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Great app - needs Apple Files integration
Great app. Love the security and the independence both from a US software company subject to US Cloud Act government snooping requirements and ties to specific operating system provider. Just need to implement the IOS and Apple Files integration so it can be used as seamlessly as other storage providers. Also needs a Zip file extractor as one needs to download to another service to unzip first and manually upload to Proton Drive.
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Response from developer
Thank you for your 4-star review and feedback! We've passed it along to the team to help prioritize future improvements to the app.
Cannot install on Windows if not allowed to create a desktop shortcut
Title says the underlying issue. Installation fails outright if not allowed to create a shortcut. Support was asking me to edit my registry instead of providing a meaningful install process that makes the desktop shortcut optional like basically every other well developed installer. I am tired of needless desktop clutter, this is not acceptable. I will remain using the other seven cloud services I already have, this does not solve any new problem well enough to weather the setup headache. Fix this and release a version that does not have this issue and I will amend the review. Shortcuts should never be a dealbreaker for install process, fail.
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Private -but not quite there
I want to love everything about Proton, because it's not Big Tech or spyware, and is one of the few companies one can trust with data. Proton Drive does what you'd expect up to a point, but lacks essentials: NO SEARCH FUNCTION!!! I'm organised but occasionally forget where I put something or make an error when saving, and being unable to search a file is an absolute showstopper.
UPDATE: really appreciate developer response. Wondered if it could be something like that. Hoping you guys find a solution 😁
UPDATE: really appreciate developer response. Wondered if it could be something like that. Hoping you guys find a solution 😁
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Response from developer
Thank you for your feedback! Implementing search is challenging since the file names themselves are encrypted, so we need to figure out a way to make search both simple to use and secure. That’s why it’s taking us some time to come up with a solution. EDIT: We've recently posted this on Reddit for more context about our efforts: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonDrive/comments/1wamiz4/update_on_search_in_proton_drive/ :)
FRUSTRATING!!!!!
Whilst I knew and appreciated the app wasn't going to be like using google/apple photos, nevertheless, the usability of the app is very very frustrating. Almost to the point of cancelling it! You have to select each photo individually when moving into an album, no select and swipe across photos to select them. And if you select too many photos, it throws up an error and doesn't move the photos into the album. Very frustrating after having individually selected over 3000 photos to go in to an album!
Also, in the albums tab, all the albums are wonky, askew, not level. Why?!?! It makes the app appear childish and untidy! And you can't arrange the albums alphabetically! Lastly, whilst I did not expect an extensive option of editing tools, at the very least, I thought you would be able to rotate photos. Whilst I appreciate that the primary function of proton drive is encrypted cloud storage, I don't think it should be a frustrating unenjoyable experience when using it. Select and swipe to select photos, alphabetising albums, displaying albums squarely and being able to rotate photos are basic functions today, and it would be nice if these basic functions were present to make the app an enjoyable non-frustrating experience when using it. Having these basic functions missing, prevented me from giving 5 stars.
Also, in the albums tab, all the albums are wonky, askew, not level. Why?!?! It makes the app appear childish and untidy! And you can't arrange the albums alphabetically! Lastly, whilst I did not expect an extensive option of editing tools, at the very least, I thought you would be able to rotate photos. Whilst I appreciate that the primary function of proton drive is encrypted cloud storage, I don't think it should be a frustrating unenjoyable experience when using it. Select and swipe to select photos, alphabetising albums, displaying albums squarely and being able to rotate photos are basic functions today, and it would be nice if these basic functions were present to make the app an enjoyable non-frustrating experience when using it. Having these basic functions missing, prevented me from giving 5 stars.
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Response from developer
We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us! We understand the photo backup option is just a backup option at this time and we will be working on expanding the feature set.
Needs Apple Files Integration
It is pretty hard using this on Apple devices when I have to do a 2 step process every time I want to download or upload a file to another app. If I want to upload my resume stored on proton to a website I have to go to proton drive, ads it to my phone storage then upload it to the website. Something that should take 5 seconds takes over a min.
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