Thank you for that! Gmail utterly utterly screwed me over about 5 years back without explanation and caused me months of chaos and then went as far as to try to stop me exporting my data at all, which I'm told is a direct violation of GDPR. Some kind of tool like that back then would have been a godsend. Thank you. :)

By the way, is there any way we could have some kind of better export tool just for emergency backup instances. The one at the moment where you have to download something, use the console, and type a possibly complex password with no feedback, after which it typically crashes in 45 minutes could probably be improved upon. :)

Some people have mentioned Thunderbird which I think is still around. At the time I was "arguing" with gmail, I honestly still don't know why to this day, except that they called me an "information thief" or something, they blocked access the 18 year old account I had used since I was a student, actively prevented me making any new accounts for months on end, and still presumably from the footprint, tried to prevent me from exfiltrating any data as soon as they realised what I was doing. I can't remember how but I do remember I managed to get it all out in tiny pieces somehow via Thunderbird and then upload it to Proton, but the admin involved in that, not least contacting over 200 firms, many of whom are bizarrely reluctant to let you change your email for some reason... caused me a proper mental breakdown. That was it, Google Takeout. Once I eventually got back into the main account after months, they would let me get away with it for about 10 minutes and then immediately kick me from anything relevant to them and ban me again. Such weird behaviour. I freely admit it was my fault to store receipts for expensive music software in a free email account with no hard copies, but then I never imagined something like that would happen after nearly 2 decades of them happily harvesting my data. Oh well.

Thank you for that! Gmail utterly utterly screwed me over about 5 years back without explanation and caused me months of chaos and then went as far as to try to stop me exporting my data at all, which I'm told is a direct violation of GDPR. Some kind of tool like that back then would have been a godsend. Thank you. :)

Although I can find the mbox files on my macbook pro, I can't select them in the import tool. Can you help?

Set up a Complete suite tools and to be honest we need more marketing retail. like Manu people don't even know what this domain is and also administration Govt. should add some free Domain like @Protonmail.Us @Protonmail.connect

Thanks

https://www.Twitter.com/iamaryannahidx🛡

I too was sad that I couldn't transfer Gmail into protonmail.
Forced to get Gmail to (selectively) export to mbox files, then
import the mbox files into Thunderbird, then
Redirect the emails (one-by-one) into protonmail (losing the original rcvd dates), then
Delete the transferred emails from Gmail.

So its possible - but very difficult!!!
BTW This worked in Linux.

Following problems on the mac version:

- The window is not a "real application window" which means it doesn't show up on "command"+"tab".
- I can input the email address for my imap host but not the user name, which is not equal.
- The email-field can/should contain the imap username field if the user is not the email.

The IMAP import should work for not-paying users as well. Before paying it wanted to make sure that the email should work, and when an error occurred I panicked that it wouldn't be possible.

This feature should have been enabled for all versions of windows, so as not to exclude anyone.

Unfortunately, the tool works not reliably (on MacOS), it keeps crashing and upon restart the process of importing emails starts again from 0. I have over 200k emails that I need to import from Gmail and it's just impossible to do with these crashes.

In a next couple of weeks! I'm sorry but we are almost in 2019. I've tried the import my emails with the bridge but it does not work properly. What do you suggest ?

@LUH3417, I don't disagree with you, but I think the tone of your replies could be nicer. There's no need to say "someone messed up," or "you can go back to college to learn about this."

It would be nice if this was maybe a one time feature for new free accounts. The point of Protonmail isn't to be free and secure, but rather provide security you pay for, with the extras going to fund the free accounts. Please read their mission statement again. "ProtonMail is community software, funded by the community [...] Revenue from paid accounts is used to further develop ProtonMail and support free users."

What I hope to see is after features are rolled out for paid users, they would eventually be available to free users.

I was so disappointed to read the PM team response to this suggestion, affirming this feature will only be available to paid users. I remember reading long ago how it was your hope this service would benefit those who live and work under strict authoritarian rule. That your free plan would help support their right to privacy... Now, with such a basic feature as moving messages out of the government scrutinized email services, you want to prevent those very same users from availing themselves of a method to move all their message history away from prying eyes?

Please discuss this at a staff meeting. Someone clearly messed up in decided this should only be for paid users. If anything, a free account user who is able to move all message history will be even more motivated to convert their account to a paid plan, if they are amongst those who have the financial resources to do so. And if they do not have the resources, allowing all to move message history aligns with your stated goal of offering a private channel of communication to all who need it. And complies with the passion behind all the great donations, big and small, you received at the start of this journey. Let's face it, all those who helped you, with startup funds, and all those who purchased lifetime and visionary plans, were not thinking about how to maximize your profitability. They were supporting a vision of privacy for all. Now it is time to fulfill that vision.

Is this now available for paid users?

Dear Ben, you are quite misinformed and malign people who are very happy to use PM. First, PM created this feedback space to welcome constructive suggestions, which only you interpret as whining. Second, this suggestion has absolutely nothing to do with editing. It is focused on privacy, the main goal for most users of PM. Those of us who were unfortunate enough to find ourselves reliant on google services, wish to rid ourselves of any further connection to them, by transferring any message history from old gmail accounts to PM accounts, and then permanently closing gmail accounts. It is a customary practice when switching between most other email services. In the case of PM, it presents some complications due to the encryption. For the same reason, many are waiting to switch to an encrytped calendar function synced to PM accounts, to end the dependence on the android based gOOgle calender app.

Good to hear you too will be switching to PM. After you adjust to the new service, perhaps you could treat the rest of the community, and their opinions, with more respect as well. as they would do for you.

Finally Ben, the great majority of those posting suggestions and feedback are PAID customers of PM. Feedback is an essential part of running a healthy business. You may learn about this in future college courses...

Wow what a bunch of whiners! If you love all the functions of gmail so much just stay with them OR be polite and give these guys a break! This company hasn't been around that long so it's just common sense that it's going to take a while to get more special features. Besides, what they are offering is security not some some advanced document editing software! I just started looking at proton mail and really appreciate the founders genuineness and ideas. Can't wait to start an account!

There are probably 20 or 30 basic features of gmail that I rely on daily, constantly, and since they're apparently missing from ProtonMail, it makes Proton very cumbersome to use -- eg, how to adjust the spacing between email messages in the inbox -- it's way too spread out for efficiently looking through messages; send delay (up to 30 seconds) I occasionally but importantly rely on; font size really needs adjusting, in both inbox and outgoing mail -- it's mostly way too tiny, but then some of them are way too big. There are probably a dozen more basic controls that I don't see in Proton; also your tutorial is barely anything. Overall, though I appreciate and want the security of Proton, it's so barebones at this point that I don't think I can use it. Like most people, I'm zipping through functions very fast, and need these basic features.

Lots of people looking for an alternative to Gmail at the moment.

It's been a couple of months now - will this feature be implemented? I really want to be able to transition completely from Gmail without going through a bridge!

Of all the features to limit to paid users, WHY would you want to limit this one???

For most people, this will be a one time use, to move their message history, short or long, to their new account with Protonmail. In my case, once I move my history from away from gmail, I will never look back! Each person who does this is further cementing their relationship with Protonmail. And even those who are not yet paid users will be that much more likely to switch to a paid plan in the future.

You may be going overboard on this effort to push people into paid plans by limiting even the most basic features, and perhaps alienating some potential paying clients.

I happen to be a loyal client. But this is a foolish policy. (This will be a good topic to bring up with Andy during his chat on reddit)

Is this now available for basic users?

Hi.
I'm fighting with bridge and Thunderbird. I need to put 5k old emails from local storage to PM via bridge and thunderbird. That takes veeeery long time, and it freezes.

I already know how to speed up the bridge and Thunderbird.
The idea is to transfer emails to the INBOX folder. First of all you need to turn off sync of all folders (turn sync on inbox folder only). Go to subscribing manager in Thunderbird (press right mouse button on account and select subscribing manager).

Here you have examples how you can do that:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-gmail

Then Thunderbird will work on one task only. If not it must sync all folders same time and it ends with errors, and just doesnt work.