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I've been considering leaving Gmail for a privacy focused email service but it seems so difficult to switch. So many accounts and services have my Gmail regist

by Timpy 7y ago

I've been considering leaving Gmail for a privacy focused email service but it seems so difficult to switch. So many accounts and services have my Gmail registered, I don't think I could collect them all. Can anybody using ProtonMail (or any other privacy focused email) recommend it? I feel like choosing an email provider these days is as serious as choosing a bank.

johnpowell 7y ago
When I switched from gmail to Fastmail I just slowly switched everything over. It took a few years before I was comfortable killing the gmail account. But I got there.
- Lucasoato 7y ago
  Is fastmail as reliable as Proton mail?
  - peatmoss 7y ago
    I don’t know how reliable Proton Mail is, but Fastmail has been rock solid for me. That said, Russia banning Proton Mail is one hell of an endorsement for Proton Mail, in my estimation. I want to believe in the dream of ubiquitous end-to-end encrypted email. I don’t know if Proton is the right manifestation of that, but it certainly doesn’t hurt in terms of keeping the dream alive. So, I wouldn’t want to wave anyone off Proton, even though Fastmail is a great service. I think the major problem with any PGP Mail system is that nobody else uses it. I have a semi-technical friend who, for ideological reasons, decided to switch to Proton Mail. I dusted off a GPG-capable email client and provided him with my public key. After some technical headaches we exchanged a couple of emails and promptly went back to organizing the occasional happy hour or movie outing via Signal.
rapnie 7y ago
Proton user and content with it overall. Note that you don't need to switch. Make Proton your primary email and keep Gmail alongside. You can do the switching at your own leisure and reconfigure accounts as needed. Can keep Gmail for low-value subscriptions and spamcatcher. Also could automatically forward from Gmail to Proton (or other privacy-aware provider).
RustyBucket 7y ago
I am using both Proton Mail and VPN and am quite happy with it. In your case deeper problem is that so much of you digital life depends on a single point of failure - your Gmail account and it can go in a blink of an eye. Trick for a switch is to do one a time. Next time you visit a site, go to setting and set email to your new provider, like timpy+nytimes@protonmail.com or whatever. Also can advise you password manager, like 1Password, that will make switch and maintenance much easier.
CallMeMarc 7y ago
Buy a domain and use an email provider which supports custom domains (and maybe catch alls) and use this domain from now on. Makes switching providers way more easy as you don't use their domain in your email everywhere.
kuroguro 7y ago
One "downside" is having to run the local bridge application that proxies / decrypts your emails if you want a regular desktop client (say thunderbird) connect to it. Other than that haven't had any problems. Also the android app is really nice and so is the web client. Been running gmail and proton side by side for over a year, slowly moving all accounts and redirecting contacts to my proton address. Really suggest getting a custom domain so moving providers is as easy as changing MX records in the future.
- samstave 7y ago
  Same, and also +1 to custom domain. However - the local bridge has been crashing over the last several days for unknown reasons. And, there are many sites which will not recognize @protonmail addresses as valid when signing up. I am in the process of weaning off gmail completely - but expect it to take a lot longer than expected. Ive already given up chrome completely on desktop - and run brave and ff. I wish there were a way to just delete my entire online presence and start a new one.
ashamsjo 7y ago
I use ProtonMail as my primary email address, I kept my Gmail account (auto-forwarding to Proton), and little by little I've been updating all my newsletters and accounts. Very little mail now passes through my Gmail, but I probably won't ever delete the account just in case.
privateprofile 7y ago
I'm moving away from gmail in favour of protonmail, so far I've experienced no issues. I've emailed my contacts informing of the switch, and I'm passively migrating important accounts/services; in fact, this forced me to consider which services are actually important and worth receiving e-mail from. If I go a couple of months without getting e-mails from some service and nothing bad comes from it, then I probably won't ever read it anyway and it's not important. As soon as their mobile app is better, I'll likely switch to their paid service, although a private calendar and a corresponding quality app would make the 5€/month seem like better value for money.
kubav 7y ago
It is quite good but I have found several issues which are annoying and solved by competition. Protonmail bridge on linux has problem with attachments bigger than 2 MB and it disconnects a lot. Android app is mediocre at best: - feels really slow - shows notifications for emails already read on web - deleting or moving email to different folder waits for confirmation from backend which is really confusing (you can still see deleted emails but you can't delete them again) I hope they will work on those UX issues otherwise I really like it.
pablooliva 7y ago
Can you not forward email from Gmail to ProtonMail? Regardless, use them in tandem and start moving every service over one by one. That is what I did and after a few months, no more Gmail.. and I am very happy that I made the move.
- Vaslo 7y ago
  Doesn't gmail though still get to see your emails even with the forward?
  - vcavallo 7y ago
    it’s temporary until you’re fully switched over.
clnhlzmn 7y ago
I set up auto forwarding from my Gmail to my Protonmail and an auto reply from my Gmail that informs the sender that I have a new address (not including the new address). After a few months of this I had everything switched. I still maintain my Gmail account, but no new mail is going through it.
- vcavallo 7y ago
  the autoreply is a great addition! i’ll have to add that to my switching process. thanks.
Vaslo 7y ago
I use ProtonMail and I still use my Gmail. I put the really important stuff like bank info etc with ProtonMail and keep things like Blog Subscription emails with Gmail.
vcavallo 7y ago
i’m doing it. forward all gmail to proton, reply from proton mail only. unsubscribe or more all junk over. eventually you’ll be fully switched over. takes time. definitely use a custom domain so you never have to do this again.
AdmiralGinge 7y ago
I use it for my primary email, absolutely no complaints about it. The web interface is nice and clean, the app is pretty good too. I migrated from Gmail about five years ago (after an invite from a friend) and I've not looked back.
brianzelip 7y ago
It's been great. Only downside has been some small hiccups with saving drafts via iOS app. The web app seems to be the source of truth and always reliable.
everdrive 7y ago
The approach is a lot more flawed than people necessarily realize. If I move my health insurance, my credit cards, banks, and utilities to protonmail, I'm not sure it's changing much. My credit card company is directly selling my information, and it doesn't matter if they emailed me some information or not. The same goes for the utilities. Gmail can't get at the information, which is a bonus, but they might simply be buying the information about you instead of scraping it from your inbox. Everyone else (the financial companies, the utilities, etc) are already selling your information.
turk73 7y ago
It's not difficult at all. First, you get the Protonmail account. Second, you set your Gmail acct to auto forward to your new account. Third, over a year or so, you taper off of Gmail or whatever. I also exported all my old Gmail to my computer. I have never once opened that export other than to check it was legit.
mackrevinack 7y ago
I switched a few years back. forwarded all mail from gmail then set up a filter that adds a label "GMAIL" in red text. anytime you see that label, go to the site and switch to protonmail. I'm at the point now where I only get see that label every one in a blue moon. I'll probably switch over for good soon enough but I'm not in a rush either
eatbitseveryday 7y ago
> so difficult to switch. So many accounts and services have my Gmail registered, I don't think I could collect them all. Register a domain (e.g. something23423.de for 15USD/year) and use that as your primary email address (e.g., name@something23423.de), then connect it to any provider you wish underneath via editing the MX records at the registrar. Many email providers support this and have instructions [1,2,3]. You can have Gmail then forward all emails to your new address, and then each email that arrives from Gmail, you know needs updating to the new address. You do not need to change your email address when switching providers. [1] https://www.fastmail.com/help/receive/domains.html https://www.fastmail.com/help/receive/domains.html [2] https://kb.mailbox.org/display/BMBOKBEN/Using+e-mail+addresses+of+your+domain https://kb.mailbox.org/display/BMBOKBEN/Using+e-mail+address... [3] https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/set-up-a-custom-domain/ https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/set-up-a-custo...
- outworlder 7y ago
  Note that there's often an additional cost charged on the email provider's side to use custom DNS.
npteljes 7y ago
As part of my degoogling plan, I opted for Posteo. Upsides are that they are recommended by the FSF [0], and they run on an open source software stack [1], and were in the business for a good number of years. Changing my old address wasn't as much of a pain as I thought it would be, I personally needed to update around 30 services. After all this was done, I felt better, and still do after 2 years. Not sure of the other aftereffects regarding privacy and such. But I voted with my wallet, that's for sure. [0] https://www.fsf.org/resources/webmail-systems https://www.fsf.org/resources/webmail-systems [1] https://posteo.de/en/site/about_posteo https://posteo.de/en/site/about_posteo
eino 7y ago
I've been using protonmail for the last 3 years, and I've been satisfied with it. For the switch, you don't have to do it at once. I've been migrating services one by one (but I'm quite the procrastinator), and still receive some mail on the gmail account. But I use PM as the primary email for new contacts and new services.
leshenka 7y ago
> it seems so difficult to switch I had an experience changing email address in the past and it's not that difficult, it's just time consuming. What I did is said to myself "that's it, I'm using this new address from now on". Then over the course of a year I monitored old email and evaluated each message. If I needed it (online shopping account, banking, etc), I went to whatever service sent it and changed my email. Some services don't support changing emails, in that case I would accept the loss and create a new account. > Can anybody using ProtonMail recommend it? Privacy concerns aside, to me it's not better nor worse than any other email provider. There is a caveat though. On Android (and web app) you can't search through messages' bodies, only by subject/sender/etc. This is because they don't index them. You can do this on desktop if you're using Bridge app with, say, Thunderbird. Thunderbird then will do the indexing.
- desktop-app 7y ago
  > You can do this on desktop if you're using Bridge app with, say, Thunderbird. Thunderbird then will do the indexing. Bridge is for paid users only, and it's not open source thing. https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail enables full-text search support for free accounts if the "local store" enabled, described in https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail/wiki/FAQ https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail/wiki/FAQ.

by Timpy 7y ago

johnpowell 7y ago

When I switched from gmail to Fastmail I just slowly switched everything over. It took a few years before I was comfortable killing the gmail account. But I got there.

Lucasoato 7y ago
Is fastmail as reliable as Proton mail?
- peatmoss 7y ago
  I don’t know how reliable Proton Mail is, but Fastmail has been rock solid for me. That said, Russia banning Proton Mail is one hell of an endorsement for Proton Mail, in my estimation. I want to believe in the dream of ubiquitous end-to-end encrypted email. I don’t know if Proton is the right manifestation of that, but it certainly doesn’t hurt in terms of keeping the dream alive. So, I wouldn’t want to wave anyone off Proton, even though Fastmail is a great service. I think the major problem with any PGP Mail system is that nobody else uses it. I have a semi-technical friend who, for ideological reasons, decided to switch to Proton Mail. I dusted off a GPG-capable email client and provided him with my public key. After some technical headaches we exchanged a couple of emails and promptly went back to organizing the occasional happy hour or movie outing via Signal.

rapnie 7y ago

Proton user and content with it overall. Note that you don't need to switch. Make Proton your primary email and keep Gmail alongside. You can do the switching at your own leisure and reconfigure accounts as needed. Can keep Gmail for low-value subscriptions and spamcatcher. Also could automatically forward from Gmail to Proton (or other privacy-aware provider).

RustyBucket 7y ago

I am using both Proton Mail and VPN and am quite happy with it. In your case deeper problem is that so much of you digital life depends on a single point of failure - your Gmail account and it can go in a blink of an eye. Trick for a switch is to do one a time. Next time you visit a site, go to setting and set email to your new provider, like timpy+nytimes@protonmail.com or whatever. Also can advise you password manager, like 1Password, that will make switch and maintenance much easier.

CallMeMarc 7y ago

Buy a domain and use an email provider which supports custom domains (and maybe catch alls) and use this domain from now on. Makes switching providers way more easy as you don't use their domain in your email everywhere.

kuroguro 7y ago

One "downside" is having to run the local bridge application that proxies / decrypts your emails if you want a regular desktop client (say thunderbird) connect to it. Other than that haven't had any problems. Also the android app is really nice and so is the web client. Been running gmail and proton side by side for over a year, slowly moving all accounts and redirecting contacts to my proton address. Really suggest getting a custom domain so moving providers is as easy as changing MX records in the future.

samstave 7y ago
Same, and also +1 to custom domain. However - the local bridge has been crashing over the last several days for unknown reasons. And, there are many sites which will not recognize @protonmail addresses as valid when signing up. I am in the process of weaning off gmail completely - but expect it to take a lot longer than expected. Ive already given up chrome completely on desktop - and run brave and ff. I wish there were a way to just delete my entire online presence and start a new one.

ashamsjo 7y ago

I use ProtonMail as my primary email address, I kept my Gmail account (auto-forwarding to Proton), and little by little I've been updating all my newsletters and accounts. Very little mail now passes through my Gmail, but I probably won't ever delete the account just in case.

privateprofile 7y ago

I'm moving away from gmail in favour of protonmail, so far I've experienced no issues. I've emailed my contacts informing of the switch, and I'm passively migrating important accounts/services; in fact, this forced me to consider which services are actually important and worth receiving e-mail from. If I go a couple of months without getting e-mails from some service and nothing bad comes from it, then I probably won't ever read it anyway and it's not important. As soon as their mobile app is better, I'll likely switch to their paid service, although a private calendar and a corresponding quality app would make the 5€/month seem like better value for money.

kubav 7y ago

It is quite good but I have found several issues which are annoying and solved by competition. Protonmail bridge on linux has problem with attachments bigger than 2 MB and it disconnects a lot. Android app is mediocre at best: - feels really slow - shows notifications for emails already read on web - deleting or moving email to different folder waits for confirmation from backend which is really confusing (you can still see deleted emails but you can't delete them again) I hope they will work on those UX issues otherwise I really like it.

pablooliva 7y ago

Can you not forward email from Gmail to ProtonMail? Regardless, use them in tandem and start moving every service over one by one. That is what I did and after a few months, no more Gmail.. and I am very happy that I made the move.

Vaslo 7y ago
Doesn't gmail though still get to see your emails even with the forward?
- vcavallo 7y ago
  it’s temporary until you’re fully switched over.

clnhlzmn 7y ago

I set up auto forwarding from my Gmail to my Protonmail and an auto reply from my Gmail that informs the sender that I have a new address (not including the new address). After a few months of this I had everything switched. I still maintain my Gmail account, but no new mail is going through it.

vcavallo 7y ago
the autoreply is a great addition! i’ll have to add that to my switching process. thanks.

Vaslo 7y ago

I use ProtonMail and I still use my Gmail. I put the really important stuff like bank info etc with ProtonMail and keep things like Blog Subscription emails with Gmail.

vcavallo 7y ago

i’m doing it. forward all gmail to proton, reply from proton mail only. unsubscribe or more all junk over. eventually you’ll be fully switched over. takes time. definitely use a custom domain so you never have to do this again.

AdmiralGinge 7y ago

I use it for my primary email, absolutely no complaints about it. The web interface is nice and clean, the app is pretty good too. I migrated from Gmail about five years ago (after an invite from a friend) and I've not looked back.

brianzelip 7y ago

It's been great. Only downside has been some small hiccups with saving drafts via iOS app. The web app seems to be the source of truth and always reliable.

everdrive 7y ago

The approach is a lot more flawed than people necessarily realize. If I move my health insurance, my credit cards, banks, and utilities to protonmail, I'm not sure it's changing much. My credit card company is directly selling my information, and it doesn't matter if they emailed me some information or not. The same goes for the utilities. Gmail can't get at the information, which is a bonus, but they might simply be buying the information about you instead of scraping it from your inbox. Everyone else (the financial companies, the utilities, etc) are already selling your information.

turk73 7y ago

It's not difficult at all. First, you get the Protonmail account. Second, you set your Gmail acct to auto forward to your new account. Third, over a year or so, you taper off of Gmail or whatever. I also exported all my old Gmail to my computer. I have never once opened that export other than to check it was legit.

mackrevinack 7y ago

I switched a few years back. forwarded all mail from gmail then set up a filter that adds a label "GMAIL" in red text. anytime you see that label, go to the site and switch to protonmail. I'm at the point now where I only get see that label every one in a blue moon. I'll probably switch over for good soon enough but I'm not in a rush either

eatbitseveryday 7y ago

> so difficult to switch. So many accounts and services have my Gmail registered, I don't think I could collect them all. Register a domain (e.g. something23423.de for 15USD/year) and use that as your primary email address (e.g., name@something23423.de), then connect it to any provider you wish underneath via editing the MX records at the registrar. Many email providers support this and have instructions [1,2,3]. You can have Gmail then forward all emails to your new address, and then each email that arrives from Gmail, you know needs updating to the new address. You do not need to change your email address when switching providers. [1] https://www.fastmail.com/help/receive/domains.html https://www.fastmail.com/help/receive/domains.html [2] https://kb.mailbox.org/display/BMBOKBEN/Using+e-mail+addresses+of+your+domain https://kb.mailbox.org/display/BMBOKBEN/Using+e-mail+address... [3] https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/set-up-a-custom-domain/ https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/set-up-a-custo...

outworlder 7y ago
Note that there's often an additional cost charged on the email provider's side to use custom DNS.

npteljes 7y ago

As part of my degoogling plan, I opted for Posteo. Upsides are that they are recommended by the FSF [0], and they run on an open source software stack [1], and were in the business for a good number of years. Changing my old address wasn't as much of a pain as I thought it would be, I personally needed to update around 30 services. After all this was done, I felt better, and still do after 2 years. Not sure of the other aftereffects regarding privacy and such. But I voted with my wallet, that's for sure. [0] https://www.fsf.org/resources/webmail-systems https://www.fsf.org/resources/webmail-systems [1] https://posteo.de/en/site/about_posteo https://posteo.de/en/site/about_posteo

eino 7y ago

I've been using protonmail for the last 3 years, and I've been satisfied with it. For the switch, you don't have to do it at once. I've been migrating services one by one (but I'm quite the procrastinator), and still receive some mail on the gmail account. But I use PM as the primary email for new contacts and new services.

leshenka 7y ago

> it seems so difficult to switch I had an experience changing email address in the past and it's not that difficult, it's just time consuming. What I did is said to myself "that's it, I'm using this new address from now on". Then over the course of a year I monitored old email and evaluated each message. If I needed it (online shopping account, banking, etc), I went to whatever service sent it and changed my email. Some services don't support changing emails, in that case I would accept the loss and create a new account. > Can anybody using ProtonMail recommend it? Privacy concerns aside, to me it's not better nor worse than any other email provider. There is a caveat though. On Android (and web app) you can't search through messages' bodies, only by subject/sender/etc. This is because they don't index them. You can do this on desktop if you're using Bridge app with, say, Thunderbird. Thunderbird then will do the indexing.

desktop-app 7y ago
> You can do this on desktop if you're using Bridge app with, say, Thunderbird. Thunderbird then will do the indexing. Bridge is for paid users only, and it's not open source thing. https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail enables full-text search support for free accounts if the "local store" enabled, described in https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail/wiki/FAQ https://github.com/vladimiry/ElectronMail/wiki/FAQ.