How to download all files from Proton Drive, step by step

Proton Drive has no single "export everything" button, but it has five documented ways to get your files onto your own disk. The fastest one depends on how much you store and which device you are on, and two of the five have a catch worth knowing first.

How do you download all your files from Proton Drive?

Sign in at drive.proton.me, open My files, select every file and folder, and click Download. Proton says multiple items download as one ZIP archive. Then repeat for the Computers, Shared with me and Photos tabs, and download any Proton Docs or Sheets in a standard format such as .docx or .xlsx.

Pick your route

Route	Best for	What you get	Proton's own page
Web app	Most people, any computer	One ZIP when you select several items	Drive for web
Windows app	Large drives, Windows 10 or 11	A local Proton Drive folder in File Explorer	Windows app
macOS app	Large drives, macOS 13 or later	A Proton Drive folder in Finder	macOS app
iPhone, iPad, Android	A few files at a time	Single files saved to the device	Mobile apps
Proton Drive CLI	Scripts and Linux	Folders downloaded from the command line	Drive CLI

Download everything from the web app

This is the route with the fewest moving parts.

Go to drive.proton.me and sign in with your Proton Account. You can also open Drive from any other Proton app through the app selector.
Open My files.
Select the files and folders you want. To take everything, select every item in the list.
Click Download. Proton's web guide says that when you select several items, "they will be downloaded as a ZIP archive."
Depending on your browser settings, you can choose where the ZIP is saved and rename it.

Keep the tab open until the download finishes. If you store a lot, it is easier to download a few top-level folders one at a time than everything at once, because a smaller ZIP is quicker to check and quicker to retry.

Download everything with the desktop app

The desktop apps put a Proton Drive folder on your computer. That sounds like a full copy, but it is not one by default. Both apps use on-demand sync: files that live only in the cloud show up as placeholders, with their name and size but not their content. They download when you open them.

To turn the folder into a real local copy, you mark it to stay on the device.

Windows

Download the app from Proton's Drive download page, pick x64 or ARM64, run the .EXE and sign in.
Open File Explorer and find Proton Drive under Quick access. Your files are in My files.
Right-click My files (or any folder) and choose Always keep on this device.
Wait for the cloud icons to turn into "available" icons. Proton's on-demand sync page explains the three statuses.

Proton notes that files marked only "Available on this device" can be removed by Windows Storage Sense when disk space runs low. "Always keep on this device" files are not. If you plan to copy the folder somewhere else afterwards, use the stronger setting first.

macOS

Download the DMG, drag Proton Drive to Applications and launch it. Proton says the app needs macOS 13 or later.
Open Finder and go to Locations, then Proton Drive.
Right-click a folder and choose Make Available Offline.
Items that are fully downloaded show a check mark icon. Items still in the cloud show a cloud icon.

Proton's macOS on-demand page adds that macOS may remove local copies when storage is low, and that "Make available offline" stops this.

Once everything is local, copy the folder to an external drive or another location. That copy is yours, independent of the app.

The files a plain download misses

My files is only one part of Proton Drive. Three other areas hold content you may want, and one file type needs special handling.

Proton Docs and Sheets. On the Windows and macOS apps, Proton says a Doc or Sheet is "represented locally only as a small placeholder file." Moving or copying it out of the synced folder leaves an empty 0 byte file, and the actual document is moved to Trash in Proton Drive. Download them properly instead:

Docs: open the document, click the Docs icon in the top left, choose Download and pick .docx, .html, .txt, .md or .pdf (Docs export).
Sheets: open the spreadsheet, go to File, then Download, and pick XLSX, CSV or TSV (Sheets export).

Computers. Folders you synced from a Windows or Mac computer appear under the Computers tab on the web, not in My files. Open that tab and download them separately.

Shared with me. Files other people shared with you sit in the Shared with me tab. On the web, select an item to download it, or make a copy in your own Drive first. In the Windows app, accept the share in the browser or from the email notification, then switch the item's Sync toggle to On. Proton says shared items are not downloaded automatically.

Photos. Photos backed up from your phone live in the Photos tab. Proton's gallery page says that on Android you can tap a photo and download it. On iPhone, Proton's steps cover image files in Drive: open one, tap the share icon and choose Save Image to put it in your Photos app.

Download from your phone

Phones are fine for a few files and slow for a whole drive, but here are Proton's steps.

iPhone and iPad

Tap the file to open it.
Tap the share icon.
Choose Save to Files, pick a location and tap Save. For images, Save Image puts it in Photos.

Android

Tap the three vertical dots next to the file.
Choose Download.
Tap Save.

"Make available offline" on either platform keeps a copy inside the Drive app, which is handy on a flight but is not the same as a file you can move elsewhere.

Download with the command line

The Proton Drive CLI runs on macOS, Windows and Linux. After downloading it, run ./proton-drive auth login to sign in through your browser, then ./proton-drive filesystem list /my-files to see your folders. Proton's example for downloading a folder is ./proton-drive filesystem download /my-files/Documents ./. Run ./proton-drive --help to see every command. This is the only route Proton documents for Linux.

Check the download before you rely on it

A copy you never opened is a guess. Before you delete anything from Drive or close the account:

Unzip every archive. A ZIP that will not open is a failed download. Download that folder again.
Compare sizes. The Windows app shows your current storage use at the bottom left of its window. Your local copy should be in the same range.
Open a sample. Pick a few files from different folders, including large videos and old files, and open them.
Check your Docs and Sheets. Each should be a .docx, .pdf, .xlsx or similar, not a tiny placeholder.
Tick off each area. My files, Computers, Shared with me, Photos.

If you are leaving Proton completely, do this before you follow our guides to cancel a Proton subscription or delete a Proton account. Deleting the account deletes the files with it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I download a whole folder from Proton Drive? Yes. On the web, select the folder and click Download. On Windows, right-click it and choose Always keep on this device. On macOS, right-click it and choose Make Available Offline. The CLI also downloads folders.

What format does Proton Drive download in? Your files come out in their original formats. Selecting several items on the web gives you a ZIP archive. Proton Docs and Sheets are the exception: download them as .docx, .pdf, .xlsx or another listed format.

Why are files in my Proton Drive folder not on my computer? The desktop apps sync on demand, so cloud-only files appear as placeholders until you open them. Mark the folder to stay on the device to download all of it.

Does downloading delete files from Proton Drive? No. Downloading makes a copy. Your files stay in Drive until you move them to Trash yourself.

Can I download Proton Drive on Linux? Proton documents the Proton Drive CLI for Linux, as well as macOS and Windows. You can also use the web app at drive.proton.me.

Moving your email too

If your files are leaving Proton, your inbox may be next. Secria Mail has a guided Import from Proton under Settings, then Import & export, then "Bring mail in." You drop in the EML files from Proton's free Mail Export Tool, and mail is read and encrypted in your browser before upload, with original dates kept. Import works on every plan, free included, and every plan gets post-quantum encryption (ML-KEM-1024 with X25519), on by default. Our Proton Mail export guide covers the export side, and the Proton Mail alternative page shows how the two compare. Sign-up asks for a name, an address and a password, with no phone number and no card: create an account.

Whatever you do next, keep the downloaded copy in two places until you are sure you have everything.