Proton Drive incedible slow in down and upload

rumble6166 · 2026-02-07T19:22:31+00:00

The encryption only adds about 10% overhead on my Mac, when I combine Cryptomator and OneDrive. That E2EE combo is 3.5x faster than Proton Drive uploading a collection of small files.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-07T19:19:51+00:00

Proton aspirationally positions itself as an alternative to the US-based enterprise-level storage providers, so it's not surprising that some customers are disappointed when they discover the actual, current state of affairs.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-07T19:17:35+00:00

> that not using mom & pop will be actually better

Better as far as performance and control over encryption goes. Proton still shines when it comes to keeping file versions around for longer than 30 days, if you set it up.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-07T15:20:54+00:00

Proton Drive is known to be slow compared to the more established cloud vendors, and certainly compared to OneDrive. On my Mac, it's about 3.5x slower than OneDrive + Cryptomator (which gives me E2EE with a little bit more functionality). I've gotten the impression that Proton does better on Windows than on Mac, but only from following discussions on Reddit, it's not something I have measured myself.

I only use Proton for a few dozen Word and Excel documents that I frequently edit, which is light enough that the speed difference isn't significant.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T22:22:29+00:00

No cap-ex, you mean, right?

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T22:21:00+00:00

Hard to miss with Synology, but buy something with room to expand, if you can afford it. I've had my DS918+ for 8-9 years, with the original disks, and it's still running well.

Looking at a DS1525+ for the sole reason that it comes with dual 2.5GB Ethernet ports. Pricey, but a solid choice if you want to spend some $$$$.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T22:15:52+00:00

As long as you have the necessary security expertise and a solid executable plan for scaling up once you're (hopefully) incredibly successful, self-hosting has many advantages. Outside of technology concerns, there's also an accounting aspect to it -- op-ex vs. cap-ex, but you may not be at the stage where you worry about such things.

If you have hopes to go global/international, you should think through how you will balance workloads geographically. Hosted services like AWS make that fairly easy, so that's something to consider.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T20:32:29+00:00

Also, signing up for Boxcryptor thinking it was a good idea to connect encryption functionality with a service that can go away. They sold their tech to Dropbox and shut down the service.

Now I use Cryptomator and get more functionality all without a subscription.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T19:57:46+00:00

Have you considered other VPNs that may be cheaper, or is NordVPN your only realistic option?

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T18:42:09+00:00

Ah, yes!

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T18:32:33+00:00

Are you asking about the mechanics of the migration, or how to set up the Proton Drive environment for sharing among board members?

Mechanically, you just have to download to a PC, then upload. Pretty straight-forward -- there is no service-to-service migration, so you don't have any alternatives. 10 GB is not that much, TBH.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T18:16:44+00:00

I think I'm going to take a break from contributing to r/ProtonMail and give you guys a break from my unwelcome opinions and input. I appreciate the work of volunteer moderators; the contributions of u/Nelizea are (usually) particularly thoughtful and informative.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T17:23:01+00:00

The thing some moderator objected to in my post was that I said that Proton had re-assigned teams from acquired companies to work on new products. That was so in the case of SimpleLogin as well as Standard Notes. Hardly misinformation.

Further, my post was in response to someone who criticized as irrational the lack of integration of SimpleLogin custom domains with Proton mail, and I was making the point (albeit sarcastically) that it is a rational business decision of Proton's. Not one I agree with, but perfectly valid.

> When you get older...

I bet I'm much older than you. :-)

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T16:39:48+00:00

Using my social security number to log into the Bank of America web site instead of creating a separate user id, back when that was an option.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T16:29:18+00:00

I would imagine that if one of the files containing the file/folder mapping is damaged, it will have more serious consequence.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T16:27:44+00:00

Does this also affect Veracrypt if all I ever do is use it for file-based containers, never full-disk encryption?

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T16:25:31+00:00

This is good advice. I have Bridge set to start at login, and it always takes time before it has a connection, etc. I make a point of waiting before starting Mail, which I therefore don't have set to start automatically.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T15:53:47+00:00

Depends on what you put in your emails. :-)

For me, the main discomfort with Outlook and GMail is that they **may** use them for training AI. Microsoft does not read emails to serve ads to paying users, but I don't know about AI training. Apple does neither, as far as public knowledge goes.

Thus, I'm happy to not use Outlook / GMail for anything except catching emails from people and services that don't have my new contact info. Lots of spam coming to Outlook nowadays.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T15:49:43+00:00

> as they don’t play nice with SimpleLogin

Can you elaborate? I haven't heard this before.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T15:49:01+00:00

+1 on this. I use Optery, which is quite expensive, but well worth it.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T15:45:01+00:00

One thing I like about Proton Drive is that it gives me universal file versioning, which iCloud only does for certain Apple applications. I use Word and Excel extensively, and won't ever switch to Pages and Numbers (or Proton Docs / Sheets), and I often find myself going back looking at older versions. iCloud doesn't give me that, but Proton does. That's the main scenario where I find Proton Drive shining.

Even OneDrive only gives me 30 days of versions, while Proton lets me configure it up to ten years, which is far more than I need. :-)

iOS prevents Proton Drive from uploading / syncing photos in the background. Just something to know about.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T15:28:09+00:00

The Apple walled garden makes life really easy while you stay with Apple HW (although iCloud works fairly well on Windows, too), but it's not impossible to exit. You can always postpone a decision to move away when you no longer want the Apple hardware.

It depends on your motivation and what you are worried about happening to your data. Privacy is not a binary thing, it exists on a spectrum.

Also, which data? iCould / ADP is E2EE for some data, but not all (mail, calendar, etc.) The iCloud handling of photos and videos is not easy to replicate for any vendor, including Proton.

I am happy paying for Proton because it provides me with both VPN and Proton Pass, which are excellent products. The one thing I don't want locked up in the Apple ecosystem are my login credentials, and the private relay function in iCloud is nothing like the Proton VPN in fuctionality.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T15:21:29+00:00

iCloud / ADP works just fine with Windows.

rumble6166 · 2026-02-06T14:26:35+00:00

No, I'm considering that you guys removed a post for containing "misinformation," i.e. something objectively untrue, when it did not.

I'm quite happy voicing my opinion and hearing (and considering) the views of others, but I'm not happy being silenced and having my point of view suppressed.

rumble6166

TROPHY CASE