Dear Proton Team,

I’d like to propose a new feature for Proton Drive: a dedicated Google Takeout Import Tool to streamline the process of importing data from Google Photos exports while correctly respecting the photo/video timeline.

🛠️ Issue

When importing videos from a Google Photos Takeout archive (photos are mostly ok), Proton Drive currently sets the file’s date based on the filesystem timestamp (e.g., when the .mp4 file was downloaded), rather than using the actual creation date stored in the accompanying .json metadata files.

This leads to incorrect chronological ordering and loss of accurate historical context—especially for older media and large libraries.

✅ Suggested Solution

Introduce a Google Takeout Import Tool in Proton Drive that:

• Detects and parses .json metadata files included with Google Photos exports
• Extracts photoTakenTime or creationTime values
• Applies the correct created timestamp to the corresponding media file (photo or video)

This ensures accurate and consistent date metadata across all imported files.

📦 Example

Let’s say I have these two files in my Takeout folder:

• VID_20170621_122134.mp4
• VID_20170621_122134.json

With the json file having the following content:

{
  "title": "VID_20170621_122134.mp4",
  "creationTime": {
    "timestamp": "1498044094",
    "formatted": "2017-06-21T12:21:34.000Z"
  },
  "photoTakenTime": {
    "timestamp": "1498044094",
    "formatted": "2017-06-21T12:21:34.000Z"
  }
}

When I upload a video to Proton Drive, it should use the PhotoTakenTime from the accompanying JSON file as the creation date. Without proper handling of these JSON files, the file download date (e.g., July 2, 2025) is used instead—resulting in an inaccurate and cluttered timeline. This mainly affects videos, as photos generally retain metadata better. A dedicated import tool is especially important for users migrating years of content from Google Photos.

🎯 Benefit

Adding this import tool would:

• Preserve the original timeline of a user's photo/video history
• Improve sorting and searching by date
• Offer a smoother transition for users migrating from Google services

Thanks for your continued focus on privacy and usability. I hope this feature can be considered for a future update so I can fully switch my Google Photo library to Proton Drive.