# Blober vs rclone for Proton Drive and Proton Photos > rclone syncs files into Proton Drive, but photos arrive as generic icons in a folder, with no previews, capture dates, or Photos timeline entry. Blober uploads the thumbnails and metadata Proton needs. Here is the difference and when each tool fits. ## Two tools, one common surprise If rclone already moves your other clouds around, adding Proton Drive looks like the obvious next step. It is a real rclone backend, open source, and for scheduled jobs and mounts it does a genuinely good job. The catch only shows up when the job involves **photos or videos**. You use rclone to backup a camera roll, then open Proton expecting the Photos tab to be full. The files are there, just not where or what you expected: a folder in My Files full of generic file icons, and nothing in the Photos timeline. People describe it plainly: > Uploading images via rclone results in generic file icons instead of visual thumbnails inside the Proton Drive interface. That line comes from a thread where a NAS owner set up rclone with Proton Drive and asked why nothing looked like a photo[\[1\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/UgreenNASync/comments/1vf5y9u/ugreen_nas_proton_drive_docker_rclone_it_works/ "Source: www.reddit.com/r/UgreenNASync/comments/1vf5y9u/ugreen_nas_proton_drive_docker_rclone_it_works/"). It is not a Proton bug. It is what happens when a general file mover uploads into a service whose photo features depend on extra data the mover never sends. Bot blober and rclone use Proton's own encryption, so privacy is identical either way. The difference is what survives the upload: thumbnails, capture dates, and which surface the media ends up on. For a photo library, those decide whether the result is usable. ## Why the previews and thumbnails go missing Proton Drive is end to end encrypted, so Proton's servers never see the inside of your files. They cannot generate a preview from the original, because nothing is decrypted until it reaches your device. That means the uploader has to make the thumbnails. Proton's own apps decode each image or video on your device, build the small preview images, encrypt them, and store them beside the original[\[2\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonDrive/comments/104yuo6/photos_previews_not_showing_when_browsing/ "Source: www.reddit.com/r/ProtonDrive/comments/104yuo6/photos_previews_not_showing_when_browsing/"). Those extra blocks are what the interface renders as a tile or a preview. rclone's Proton backend only speaks the file side of the API. It uploads the original and stops there, with no thumbnail blocks and no preview. On the rclone issue tracker this shows up as a known missing feature: the client would have to generate the preview and upload it for the file to display one[\[3\]](https://github.com/rclone/rclone/issues/6072 "Source: github.com/rclone/rclone/issues/6072"). Proton then has nothing to render but a generic icon. There is also no fix later. Proton Drive has no option to set or replace a thumbnail on a file that is already uploaded, and its servers cannot generate one after the fact. To get a preview you have to upload the file again with a client that sends thumbnails. So the tool you choose on day one decides what your library looks like from then on. Blober uploads the same thumbnail data Proton's own clients do. Before an upload it decodes the media, produces Proton's standard preview sizes, and sends them alongside the original. Images and videos both show real previews in My Files, and photos get a proper tile in the Photos timeline. Audio gets the same care, and here Blober goes further than rclone could: a music file's embedded album art (the cover on an mp3 or m4a) is read straight off the file and uploaded as its thumbnail, so audio shows a real cover tile instead of a generic icon. ## Capture dates do not survive Proton Photos organizes the timeline by each photo's capture time. That value comes from the photo's EXIF data and is set when the file is uploaded. When it is missing, a photo has no real capture date, so it lands wherever upload time puts it. The rclone backend documentation is direct about the underlying gap: the backend does not support updating modification times yet[\[4\]](https://rclone.org/protondrive/ "Source: rclone.org/protondrive/"). rclone treats photos as files. Migrate a few years of pictures that way and you get a timeline that groups by upload date, not by when anything was taken. Blober reads the EXIF capture time and hands it to Proton with the upload, and it carries over the file's own dates from the source. Photos group under the day they were actually taken. ## The files land in the wrong surface Proton keeps two surfaces under one login: My Files, a folder tree, and Photos, a timeline with albums. Where a photo lands decides how you see it later. rclone is a file backend, and it only ever sees the file side. Its remote maps to the My Files tree, and rclone forum threads describe trying to reach Proton's separate Photos area and failing, because that library sits outside the folder tree the backend exposes[\[5\]](https://forum.rclone.org/t/proton-drive-photos-folder-not-visible/49393 "Source: forum.rclone.org/t/proton-drive-photos-folder-not-visible/49393"). Sync a camera roll this way and every picture lands in a folder, none of them appear in the Photos tab, and there is no album step to put them there. Blober is built around the destination you choose. Pick the Photos surface and each upload becomes a timeline photo. Pick My Files and it is a regular file. [Because Proton Photos is a flat timeline without folders](/kb/articles/proton-drive-vs-proton-photos/), Blober automatically keeps the path rules you set sensible on either destination. ## What the setup actually looks like Most of the rclone column below comes from rclone's own Proton Drive documentation[\[6\]](https://rclone.org/protondrive/ "Source: rclone.org/protondrive/"). | | **Blober** | **rclone (Proton Drive)** | | ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Interface | Desktop app | Terminal commands and config files | | Proton login | Sign in inside the app | Username and password prompts plus 2FA or OTP, with an optional mailbox password for two-password accounts | | Keys | Handled for you | Encryption keys must already exist from a normal browser login, and there is no official Proton API documentation to lean on when something breaks | | Status | [GA product](/kb/docs/providers/proton-drive/) | Community backend, still marked Beta and classed as Tier 4 | | Thumbnails | Generated for images, videos, and audio (album art) | Not generated | | Capture time | Read from EXIF | Not set | | Modification times | Preserved | Not supported by the backend | | Photos surface | A real destination | Files and folders only | | Fits best | Photo migrations, people who do not live in a terminal | Scripted sync, mounts, headless servers | That last row is the honest summary. rclone is the right tool when the job is moving files on a schedule or mounting Proton as a drive and you do not care about Proton's photo features. It is the wrong tool when the point of the move is getting a photo library to look right inside Proton. ## Bottom line If you are migrating a photo library, especially out of Google Photos, you want the uploader to behave like Proton's own client: generate previews, carry the capture dates, and put media where the Photos tab can show it. That is what Blober does. If you are a terminal user syncing folders, running backups on a schedule, or mounting Proton on a server, rclone is a strong, established choice and you already know whether its tradeoffs matter to you. For a photo library, that choice is the difference between files in a folder and a Photos tab that works the way Proton intends. ## Frequently Asked Questions **Why do my rclone-uploaded photos have no thumbnails in Proton Drive?** Proton is end to end encrypted, so its servers cannot create previews; the uploading client has to. rclone's backend only moves files and sends no thumbnail data, so Proton shows a generic icon. **Can I add a thumbnail to a file I already uploaded with rclone?** No. Proton Drive does not let you set or replace a thumbnail on an existing file, and its servers cannot generate one later. You would have to upload the file again with a client that produces thumbnails, which is what Blober does. **Does rclone upload into Proton Photos albums or the timeline?** No. Its Proton backend works with files and folders in My Files only. Photos uploaded that way do not appear in the Photos timeline and are not added to albums. **Does Blober make thumbnails for audio files?** Yes, and rclone cannot. Blober reads a music file's embedded album art (the cover on an mp3 or m4a) and uploads it as a Type1 thumbnail, so audio gets a real cover tile instead of a generic icon. rclone generates no thumbnails at all. **How stable is rclone's Proton Drive backend?** It is a community backend. rclone ships it as Beta and Tier 4, Proton publishes no official API documentation, and rclone's own docs warn that Proton's protocol changes may leave some accounts incompatible. **For Proton Drive, is Blober better than rclone?** For scripted file sync into folders, rclone is the established terminal option. For a photo library, where previews, capture dates, and the Photos timeline matter, Blober is the better fit because it uploads the thumbnail and metadata Proton needs. Both encrypt your data the same way. ## Related Guides * [How to Move Google Photos to Proton Drive](/kb/articles/move-google-photos-to-proton-drive/) * [Proton Drive vs Proton Photos: What's the Difference?](/kb/articles/proton-drive-vs-proton-photos/) * [Proton Photos vs Google Photos](/kb/articles/proton-photos-vs-google-photos/) * [Migrating To or From Proton Drive](/kb/articles/migrate-to-or-from-proton-drive/) * [What Is Proton Drive? Features, Plans, and What It's Used For](/kb/articles/proton-drive-complete-guide/)