Contact-assisted data recovery

Contact-assisted data recovery is a data recovery method. It allows you to set 1-5 trusted contacts who can help you restore encrypted data (like emails, contacts, passwords, documents) on your account after a password reset.

To fully secure your account against password loss, you should also enable at least one password reset method.

In this article

• How it works
• How to use contact-assisted data recovery
  • Add a recovery contact
  • Restore your data
  • After recovering your data
  • View your recovery contacts
  • Delete a recovery contact
  • Remove yourself from someone’s recovery contacts
• If you received an email saying you’ve been added to someone’s recovery contacts

How it works

If your account data is locked following a password reset, you can ask us to send an email request to one of your data recovery contacts. We’ll ask them to confirm that it’s you trying to unlock your data.

Recovery contacts must be

• Proton users: you can only add email addresses linked to a Proton Account.
• People you know, trust, and can contact easily: even if you don’t have access to Proton.

Contact-assisted data recovery unlocks your account data, but it can’t reset your password. Learn how Proton account recovery works

How to use contact-assisted data recovery

Add a recovery contact

1. Sign in to account.proton.me and open your account settings.
2. In the sidebar, select Recovery and scroll to Recovery contacts. Select Add recovery contact.

3. Enter your contact’s email address. The email address must be linked to a Proton Account.

4. You’ll be asked to authenticate. Enter your password and click Continue.

All done. You’ll see your new recovery contact under Recovery contacts. You’ll both get a confirmation email.

Restore your data

If you’re locked out of your account, you’ll need to reset your password before you can recover data. How to reset your Proton Account password

1. After a password reset, you’ll see that your data is locked.

• You might see a pop-up or notification prompting you to recover your account data. If so, click recover data.
• Alternatively, open your recovery settings (Settings ⚙️ → All settings → Recovery) and click Unlock data.

2. In the Contacts tab, you’ll see a list of your data recovery contacts. Select one or more contacts and click Start recovery.

3. If you haven’t already, get in touch with your contact and let them know that it’s really you asking for help.

4. Once your contact confirms that your request is genuine, we’ll send you a confirmation email. Open the email and click Recover data now.

5. In the Contacts tab, click Recover data again.

That’s it. Your data is recovered.

After recovering your data

The recovery contacts you used will be disabled. Update them to make sure they can be contacted if you need to recover your data in the future.

1. Go back to your recovery settings and re-enable the contacts you used.
2. Check your other recovery methods and update them if needed.

View your recovery contacts

1. Sign in to account.proton.me and open your account settings.
2. In the sidebar, select Recovery and scroll to Recovery contacts.

• Your recovery contacts are the people who can help you recover your data.
• People who have you as a recovery contact is a list of people who you are a recovery contact for.

Delete a recovery contact

1. Sign in at account.proton.me and open your account settings.
2. In the sidebar, select Recovery and scroll to Data recovery contacts → Your recovery contacts.
3. Find the contact you want to delete and click Remove.

4. Read the warning carefully. If you’re sure you want to continue, click Remove again.

5. Enter your password to confirm.

All done. You’ve removed the contact from your list.

Remove yourself from someone’s recovery contacts

1. Sign in at account.proton.me and open your account settings.
2. In the sidebar, select Recovery and scroll to Recovery contacts → People who have you as a recovery contact.
3. Find the contact and click Remove.

4. Read the warning carefully. If you’re sure you want to continue, click Opt out.

All done. You’ll no longer be contacted if this person needs help with data recovery. We’ll send you both a confirmation email.

I got an email saying I was added as a recovery contact. What does this mean?

If a Proton user adds you as a recovery contact, it means that they’ve nominated you to help them restore their account data if they get locked out of their account. Here’s an article that explains more about why this might happen.

You don’t have to do anything for now. And if they get locked out, the steps to help them are quick and simple.

But you should only be a recovery contact for someone who:

• Knows and trusts you
• Can get in touch with you easily (even if they don’t have access to Proton)

If you don’t want to be someone’s recovery contact, you can remove yourself from their contact list.