Really surprised this isn't default behaviour. Currently, I take photos via my Android camera and OneDrive syncs them to my desktop for me to work on. I can't move away from OneDrive fully until this functionality is replicated in Proton

Hello Proton team,

I'm a dedicated user of your services, particularly Proton Drive, which I use regularly on both my Android phone and desktop computer. I'm reaching out to share a significant functional limitation that currently affects the user experience, and I hope this can be addressed in future updates.

❌ The Current Problem
When enabling automatic photo backup on Android, the images are correctly uploaded to Proton Drive’s cloud. However, these photos are not automatically synced to the Proton Drive desktop application.
This requires manually accessing the web interface to download photos or using workarounds such as custom scripts, which are not ideal or user-friendly for the average person.

🧭 Expected Behavior
As is common with other services (Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox), I expected that:

📱 A photo taken on my phone

☁️ Is backed up automatically to Proton Drive

🖥️ Then becomes instantly available on my desktop without any manual action

✅ Concrete Suggestions
Here are a few suggestions that would greatly improve the user experience:

Allow users to mark cloud-only folders (like "Photos") for automatic sync to a local folder, even if they don’t originate from the desktop.

Enable bidirectional synchronization (cloud ↔ local) for any folder, including those created by mobile backup.

Consider adding a dedicated “Photos” or “Gallery” module to the desktop app that mirrors the mobile photo backup system.

💚 Why This Matters
This feature is expected by modern mobile users, and is part of what makes a cloud solution feel seamless.

It would strongly reinforce Proton’s mission of offering a private, secure alternative to Big Tech services.

It would make Proton Drive a more competitive and practical solution for everyday users, especially those who want to keep their memories safe without relying on Google or Apple.

Thank you for listening, and for your continued commitment to privacy-first digital tools. I would be more than happy to test or provide feedback on this feature if it becomes available.

A Photo folder should be available on all supported apps (including Windows/PC) - not just for android/iphone. It's crazy that the PC desktop app cannot access the photos that have been uploaded on mobile devices. When will this feature be available? What suggestions to you have for users (especially family users!!!) who would like to locally sync/backup whatever has been uploaded to the cloud from mobile devices to a centralized/local location?

This is the one missing feature that's preventing me from abandoning full use of onedrive/google.

Allow users to mark specific folders on their PC as photo folders, so any images in them are automatically synced to Proton Drive as part of their photo library, not as regular files.

Allow users to mark specific folders on their PC as photo folders, so any images in them are automatically synced to Proton Drive as part of their photo library, not as regular files.

It is strange to me that this isn't the default. I would rather have photos treated as regular files and synced in a folder than to have a separate system for them.

Very important, just sub-"critical" for me. I'd guess Windows has something weird making it harder than it sounds, so maybe if Photos could look like a virtual "folder" or "drive" within or alongside the regular Proton Drive in Windows Explorer?

Edit: updating to "critical" because it's driving me crazy. Also would clarify syncing should be bidirectional (or can be made thus in settings) so if a photo is deleted in Windows it is deleted online.

As a user, if I'm going to download a program, I expect that program to be as good (if not better) than equivalent functionality when logging into a web page. It's great and all that I can backup files from my computer, but I would really like to be able to view and manage my pictures on my phone without having to open up a webpage as well!

On joining Proton I had assumed that all my cloud files would also be visible from within my Windows desktop file explorer - including Photos. I cannot understand why that functionality is not available, not even as an option.

This is absolutely critical and in my mind, since there's already an "Other computers" folder, there could easily also be a "Photos" folder. Please add it to your tasks!

useful function
implemented hopefully soon

After one and half a year still no comment from the developers nor an ETA?!?
I am a little disappointed

It's kind of critical to have this in my opinion.

A first version to have it just appear in your Proton Drive as a seperate "Photos" next to "My files" for example, would already be an improvement, there needs to be some way to access your Photos in the Desktop app.

CRITICAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was really excited to switch to Proton Mail and Proton Drive. But the lack of image sync between phone and desktop ended up being a deal breaker. I’ve used this feature with other services for over a decade.

The separation into “My Files,” “Photos,” and “Backup” is both complicated and rigid — it should be the opposite: simple and flexible. These are all just files with different sync settings. Creating artificial divisions only makes something basic unnecessarily frustrating.

If there is an ETA before july I will cancel my dropbox subscription and switch to proton drive. Otherwise I will wait another year for a paid subscription for proton drive due to a renewed dropbox year license.

This is critical, there has been so much demand for it, at least please provide us with an ETA!

I enthusiastically bought the family with the hope of ditching google photos but the lack of this feature makes me regret my move, I would probably cancel my subscription should it not be implemented by the time the next renewal comes around.

I was really disappointed when I found, that I cannot see my photos on my desktop...

Why isn't it possible to add photos via the Desktop App or folder sync?
Why are phots treated differently from other files?

why isnt that a feature