# Proton Drive Proton Drive is [[Proton]]'s end-to-end encrypted cloud storage: file contents, names, folder structure, and metadata are all encrypted on your device before upload, so the server holds nothing readable. It's the Google Drive replacement in the suite, and since 2024 it also carries the office layer (Proton Docs, then Proton Sheets in 2025). ## Features - **Files and folders** with client-side encryption of names and contents; version history (up to 10 years on paid tiers) - **Sharing**: links with password and expiry, sharing with other Proton users by invitation, and access revocation - **Photos**: automatic mobile backup, albums, collaborative albums - **Proton Docs**: collaborative document editing, encrypted, with real-time cursors and comments - **Proton Sheets**: encrypted spreadsheets with formulas and charts - **Desktop sync** on Windows and macOS: a sync folder plus on-demand files - Native apps on iOS and Android, and a web app ## The 2026 SDK rebuild In 2026 Proton rebuilt Drive on a single shared SDK (MIT-licensed, TypeScript and C# with Kotlin and Swift bindings, on GitHub as `ProtonDriveApps/sdk`) that now powers every official client. Their numbers: uploads up to 3× faster, downloads 2×, encryption 4×. The SDK isn't yet meant for third parties, but it's what makes the two things below possible. ## Linux The honest status as of September 2026: **no GUI sync client yet**. Proton confirmed in June 2026 that a native Linux desktop client is being built on the new SDK and said they aim to ship it before the end of 2026. Treat that as a goal, not a date. What exists today: ### The official CLI (June 2026) `proton-drive` is a standalone binary (x64 and arm64) for Linux, macOS, and Windows, written in TypeScript and packaged with Bun, open source in the SDK repo. On [[Arch Linux]] it's in the AUR as `proton-drive-cli-bin`. ```bash proton-drive version proton-drive auth login # browser-based; session stored via libsecret on Linux proton-drive auth logout proton-drive ls ... # browse proton-drive upload / download # files and folders proton-drive trash ... proton-drive share ... # sharing and invitations proton-drive <cmd> --json # machine-readable output for scripts ``` What it is for: scheduled backups (a systemd timer that pushes `~/Documents` nightly), post-build uploads, pre-audit snapshots, scripted access revocation. What it is not: there's no daemon watching a folder, no mount, no Photos support yet (planned, along with public links and multi-account). ### rclone rclone has a `protondrive` backend, marked experimental (tier 4). It works through a reverse-engineered API wrapper, can't update modification times, and gets confused if another client is writing to the same account at the same time. Fine for a one-way backup job; I wouldn't use it as a sync engine. ### What I actually do Until the Linux client lands, Drive is the off-site encrypted copy, not the working sync. Working sync between machines is [[Syncthing]] (peer-to-peer, no cloud copy at all) and the [[Synology NAS]] holds the local backups. Drive gets a nightly CLI push of the folders I'd want back if the house burned down. That division also matches the [[Data Ownership]] ladder: self-hosted for the hot copy, end-to-end encrypted cloud for the cold one. ## References - Website: https://proton.me/drive - CLI announcement: https://proton.me/blog/proton-drive-cli - Drive SDK (CLI source included): https://github.com/ProtonDriveApps/sdk - Linux client announcement coverage: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/proton-drive-linux-client - rclone backend: https://rclone.org/protondrive/ - AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/proton-drive-cli-bin ## Related - [[Proton]] - [[Proton Mail]] - [[Proton Pass]] - [[Proton VPN]] - [[Syncthing]] - [[Synology NAS]] - [[Network Attached Storage (NAS)]] - [[Data Ownership]] - [[Arch Linux]] - [[Omarchy]]