I moved years of Gmail messages to Proton. It was surprisingly easy.
I was surprised how easy it was.
I’m not quitting Gmail. Yet. But this experiment showed me what it could be like if moving our digital lives were as easy as ordering a pizza.
Right now, the relative simplicity of my Gmail-to-Proton transfer isn’t typical.
If you have an iPhone, it’s difficult or impossible to save your photos to anything other than Apple’s cloud. On an Android phone, Google will steer you to use Gmail, Google Maps and Google’s cloud. If you want to ditch Spotify or Amazon, you might be reluctant to leave behind your playlists or wishlists.
(Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post. Interim CEO Patty Stonesifer sits on Amazon’s board.)
Corporate tech giants make some great products. But we also have little choice but to stay in a Big Tech marriage, whether we’re in love or not.
I’ll explain how I moved my Gmail messages, why you might want to, and how my email swap was enabled by European bureaucrats who want to make it easier for you to get a Big Tech divorce.
I’m not trying to persuade you to quit Gmail or Apple Photos. But you deserve real freedom to pick up your digital memories and move to something better. And there are too many barriers in your way.
How I took the exit ramp from Gmail
Proton pitches itself as a more secure and private email service. It’s free to start using. Proton offers an “Easy Switch” feature with instructions to move your inbox messages from Google’s Gmail, Yahoo or Microsoft’s Outlook.
There’s not yet an easy way to transfer messages from another email provider, such as Apple or your internet service provider.
I checked a box asking whether I wanted to copy just my Gmail messages or also my Google calendar entries and phone contacts.
Next I entered my Gmail account password. The whole process took me just a few minutes. (Check out the One Tiny Win section below for more detailed instructions.)
After about three hours of Proton processing in the…