How to migrate to Proton using Easy Switch
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- Easy switch
Easy Switch is a tool that safely transfers your emails, calendars, and contacts from an external email account to Proton Mail. Your email messages and other data are encrypted the moment they arrive in your Proton Mail inbox, making the transition to a secure email provider easy and risk free.
Transferring your personal data to Proton Mail and Proton Calendar is an important first step towards transitioning away from privacy-invasive companies. If you need more help making the switch, see our dedicated migration guides for Yahoo and Outlook.
Easy Switch is fully integrated into Proton Mail, and you can import emails from any email service provider that uses IMAP. Depending on the provider, you can also import your calendars and contacts.
- Gmail
- Yahoo Mail
- Microsoft Outlook
- Other email providers
- Review and customize your import
- Start your import
To launch Easy Switch, sign in to mail.proton.me(nova janela) and go to Settings → All settings → Import via Easy Switch → select which service you want to import from.
Once configured, Easy Switch works in the background so that you can use your computer as normal while your emails are transferred from your old account to Proton Mail.
Easy Switch can transfer data from up to two different email accounts at the same time, but you can only run one transfer at a time from the same account. If you want to run two imports from the same account, you’ll need to wait until the first import is completed before initiating a second import.
To start importing your files from Google, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, or Other email providers, click the appropriate button and follow the steps.
Gmail
If you’re migrating from Gmail, Easy Switch can import your data and also connect your Gmail account to Proton Mail so you can send and receive emails from your Gmail address without leaving Proton Mail.
When your friends and family use Proton Mail too, messages exchanged between Gmail addresses connected to Proton Mail become end-to-end encrypted. This means Google can no longer read those conversations.
Yahoo Mail
- Select which files you want to import: emails, contacts, or calendars.
Before you can import your emails from Yahoo Mail, you will need to generate an app password that Easy Switch can use.
Once you have generated the app password, enter your email address and the newly generated app password.
This allows Proton Mail to access your data so that we can import it into your Proton Mail account.
We delete your login details once the import is complete. See our privacy policy for more details.
Learn how to review and customize your import
Microsoft Outlook
1. Select which files you want to import: emails or calendars.
2. Log in to the Outlook account you’d like to import from. We delete your login details once the import is complete. See our privacy policy for more details.
3. You’ll see a screen requesting access to your Outlook account, along with the different types of data Easy Switch requires to complete the import. Scroll down and click Yes.
4. You’ll be taken to the Customize and confirm import page.
Note: If you’re using a School or Organization Outlook account, you may be asked for administrator approval to use Easy Switch.
Learn how to review and customize your import
Other email providers (IMAP)
Before you begin your import, you will need to follow our guide on allowing IMAP access and adjusting settings before import for popular email services.
Once you have allowed IMAP access, return to the Import via Easy Switch settings menu and select Import from other. Next, select which data you want to import first.
You’ll be asked to enter the email address and password for the external email account you are exporting from. This allows Proton Mail to access your data so that we can import it into your Proton Mail account. We delete your login details once the import is complete. See our privacy policy for more details.
Review and customize your import
Easy Switch will display a summary of the files it expects to import. It also gives you an opportunity to customize which files you import and how they are labeled.
This summary includes:
- Folders found – the number of folders found in your external email account, including default system folders such as Inbox, Archive, Sent, and Drafts.
- Time range of the imported messages.
- Label of the imported messages in your Proton Mail account.
When importing messages from other email services, the custom folders from that account will be created as custom folders in your Proton Mail account.
Note that editing a folder name only changes its name in your Proton account — not in your external email account.
- If you import a folder that has the same name as a folder that already exists in Proton Mail, Easy Switch will merge the two folders in your Proton Mail account.
- If the folder you are importing has subfolders that don’t exist in Proton Mail’s corresponding folder, Easy Switch will create the subfolders.
- All the messages from your external account’s system folders (such as Inbox, Sent, and Drafts) will show up in the respective system folders in your Proton Mail account, so you can’t edit these names.
- If your system folder has more than one subfolder, the first subfolder will become the root custom folder for the rest.
- Deselecting a parent folder automatically deselects all its subfolders, and Easy Switch won’t import them.
- Proton Mail supports three levels of hierarchy, including the parent folder. If the mailbox you are importing has deeper levels of hierarchy, Easy Switch will reorganize your subfolders based on the following logic:
How to customize your email import
You can change the default email import settings by clicking Customize under Email. This will take you to the Customize import screen for email.
Click Edit label to change the label that is applied to all imported messages, making it even easier to find your old data.
The Import interval setting allows you to change the time range of your import. You can choose between:
- Import all messages
- Last 12 months only
- Last 3 months only
- Last month only
Your import will always start with the most recent email messages.
Click Import to email address to change which of your Proton Mail email addresses to import your old emails to. By default, Easy Switch will import emails and associate them with your default Proton Mail address. You can change this to a different Proton Mail address.
For example, if you migrate your custom domain, you can configure your custom domain on your Proton Mail account, create a custom domain address, and select this address before initiating the import.
In the Manage folders/labels section, click Show folders/labels to choose the folders you want to import into your Proton Mail account and edit their names.
In some cases, Easy Switch may require you to customize your import options to address issues it has discovered. These issues include:
- Folders in your old account have names that exceed 100 characters, including spaces. We recommend using short folder names to ensure they are properly displayed on your screen
- You are trying to import more than 2,000 folders
Once you have customized your import, click Save.
Start your import
Once you are happy with the import settings (either the default settings or your customized settings), click Start import.
The import process can take days to complete if you have used your old email service for a long time. However, it is handled entirely by our servers, so no additional input is required from you.