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Unfortunately Protonmail is not good for long term mail storage. Their web mail app has hardly improved in years, and it is abysmal in terms of search and hand

by blunte 6y ago

Unfortunately Protonmail is not good for long term mail storage. Their web mail app has hardly improved in years, and it is abysmal in terms of search and handling thousands of emails. If you depend on PM, you may find some years later that your emails are trapped and incredibly difficult to access except painfully individually, with much manual effort.

dleslie 6y ago
The bridge is open source and works on Linux, there are AUR packages for Arch. It's fairly easy to extract your data.
- blunte 6y ago
  Yes, you can extract to local files, but if you just want to keep your data on PM and try to access it, it's a very unpleasant experience.
  - dleslie 6y ago
    Er, not really? I use Outlook to access it on my work PC, the Android app on my phone, and the web interface elsewhere. Seems quite usable and painless, to me; even search. But then, I fastidiously organize my email and so I don't need to rely on "smart" , privacy violating, deeply intrusive search.
dredmorbius 6y ago
Multi-year mostly-satisfied Protonmail user and ... can confirm this. My gold standard is mutt with its powerful and fast search filters (gmail is a serious downgrade). Protonmail's lack of search is crippling. Email export ... I don't even want to think about.
eindiran 6y ago
I’ve been using Protonmail for years, with many tens of thousands of emails, and this does not match my experience at all. It is far, far easier for me to find old emails sent to my Protonmail account than to my old Gmail account, which seems to randomly decide that some emails shouldn’t be searchable. With a paid account it is trivial to export your emails as well: https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/export-import-emails/ https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/export-import-...
- blunte 6y ago
  Interesting, because I had exactly the opposite experience. My 70,000+ gmail account from 2004 is still easier to find things in than my 10k email account on PM was before I gave up.
cft 6y ago
I use my own domain and gmail for phone access, but I download all my emails to Outlook via imap. I have about 20GB of emails in outlook (my entire life's emails basically) which are instantly searchable.
- blunte 6y ago
  Indeed if you are willing to have all your emails downloaded to local disk, but that's really inconvenient if you want to live with disposable hardware and cloud-based storage.
  - cft 6y ago
    when i upgrade my laptop i just transfer the 20GB file via external hard drive (where I keep a backup anyway).
CorruptedArc 6y ago
I agree 100%. Used ProtonMail for a while and this is an issue that's made me think about looking to migrate elsewhere. Tutanota had similar problems when I messed around with it last year. It is hard to find one with good UI, my needed functions, while still having a solid security reputation.
windthrown 6y ago
Have you tried the beta web app [1] recently? I have seen steady, albeit slow, progress and welcomed improvements in recent months. [1] https://beta.protonmail.com https://beta.protonmail.com

by blunte 6y ago

dleslie 6y ago

The bridge is open source and works on Linux, there are AUR packages for Arch. It's fairly easy to extract your data.

blunte 6y ago
Yes, you can extract to local files, but if you just want to keep your data on PM and try to access it, it's a very unpleasant experience.
- dleslie 6y ago
  Er, not really? I use Outlook to access it on my work PC, the Android app on my phone, and the web interface elsewhere. Seems quite usable and painless, to me; even search. But then, I fastidiously organize my email and so I don't need to rely on "smart" , privacy violating, deeply intrusive search.

dredmorbius 6y ago

Multi-year mostly-satisfied Protonmail user and ... can confirm this. My gold standard is mutt with its powerful and fast search filters (gmail is a serious downgrade). Protonmail's lack of search is crippling. Email export ... I don't even want to think about.

eindiran 6y ago

I’ve been using Protonmail for years, with many tens of thousands of emails, and this does not match my experience at all. It is far, far easier for me to find old emails sent to my Protonmail account than to my old Gmail account, which seems to randomly decide that some emails shouldn’t be searchable. With a paid account it is trivial to export your emails as well: https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/export-import-emails/ https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/export-import-...

blunte 6y ago
Interesting, because I had exactly the opposite experience. My 70,000+ gmail account from 2004 is still easier to find things in than my 10k email account on PM was before I gave up.

cft 6y ago

I use my own domain and gmail for phone access, but I download all my emails to Outlook via imap. I have about 20GB of emails in outlook (my entire life's emails basically) which are instantly searchable.

blunte 6y ago
Indeed if you are willing to have all your emails downloaded to local disk, but that's really inconvenient if you want to live with disposable hardware and cloud-based storage.
- cft 6y ago
  when i upgrade my laptop i just transfer the 20GB file via external hard drive (where I keep a backup anyway).

CorruptedArc 6y ago

I agree 100%. Used ProtonMail for a while and this is an issue that's made me think about looking to migrate elsewhere. Tutanota had similar problems when I messed around with it last year. It is hard to find one with good UI, my needed functions, while still having a solid security reputation.

windthrown 6y ago

Have you tried the beta web app [1] recently? I have seen steady, albeit slow, progress and welcomed improvements in recent months. [1] https://beta.protonmail.com https://beta.protonmail.com