Blober | Articles

How to Move Photos from Proton Drive Files to Proton Photos (and Back)

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Move Proton Won't Let You Make

You cannot move photos from My Files into Proton Photos. You are not missing an option or a setting: the two live in separate storage areas of your account - My Files holds folders, Proton Photos is a timeline (plus albums) - and Proton does not offer a way to move a photo from one to the other.

The only way a photo gets from My Files into the Photos timeline is to download it and upload it again into Photos. That is the community workaround: "You can upload them via the web version - not ideal but its a way of doing it"^[1].

This is not user error. The most upvoted answer to exactly this question on Proton's forum says it plainly: "No, you are not doing anything wrong, this is not possible at the moment"^[2]. The thread is full of the same frustration:

"I uploaded all my images in my proton drive, but I want to have them at the photos section. I can't seem to move them. Am I doing something wrong?"^[3]
"The photos section is pretty much reserved for photos backup from phones at the moment. If you manually import, they go to files instead."^[4]
A Proton idea on UserVoice asking for "a way I could import photos from files uploaded to the photo section of drive from already existing directories within proton drive" has gathered dozens of votes^[5].

The Manual Workaround: Download, Then Re-Upload

Proton's supported path for getting photos into Photos is the import flow: download your files locally, then upload them through the Photos tab (or the Windows app's Photos import). For a handful of files that is fine. For a real library it is a chore:

One by one. The web UI has no "select all in this folder and send to Photos," so you are clicking through hundreds of files.
No resume. A browser upload that fails halfway starts over, and nothing tracks which photos you already moved.
Duplicates are silent. Proton Photos does not dedupe on upload - re-uploading a photo that is already in the timeline creates a second copy instead of replacing it.
Cleanup is manual. After the upload you still have to delete the originals from My Files, file by file, or you end up with every photo in two places.

The same problem runs the other way: because Photos is built around phone backup, screenshots, PDFs, and documents you meant to keep as files can end up in the timeline, and there is no UI to send them back to a folder.

Move All Your Photos with One Blober Workflow

Blober connects to Proton Drive and treats both surfaces - My Files and the Photos timeline - as ordinary source and destination folders. It streams files from My Files to Photos.

To move your whole photo library from My Files to Proton Photos:

In Blober, add Proton Drive as the source and browse into My Files.
Add Proton Drive as the destination and choose the Photos surface.
Select all photos with one glob instead of clicking files. In Source Configuration, set the Include Pattern to:
```
**/*.{jpg,jpeg,png,webp,heic,gif}
```

You can also use the built-in Raw Photos extension preset for CR2/NEF/ARW/DNG/RAW.

Run the workflow as a move. Blober copies each photo into Proton Photos and deletes the original from My Files in the same run.

The whole library lands in the Photos timeline in one run. Nothing is left behind in My Files, and there is no local download folder to clean up.

The Reverse: Non-Photos Sitting in Proton Photos

If files that are not photos ended up in your timeline - screenshots, documents, archives, or videos you would rather keep as ordinary files - Blober moves them back just as easily:

Set Proton Photos as the source and My Files (a folder) as the destination.
Use an Include Pattern that targets non-photo files, for example:
```
**/*.{pdf,doc,docx,xls,xlsx,txt,zip}
```
or exclude image extensions with an Exclude Pattern of **/*.{jpg,jpeg,png,webp,heic,gif}.
Run it as a move. The non-photos leave the timeline and land in a real folder tree where you can organize them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I move photos from My Files to Proton Photos in the web app? No. Proton offers no move between the two surfaces. The community answer is "not possible at the moment," and the only manual path is download + re-upload through the Photos import flow.

Why doesn't Proton support this? My Files and the Photos timeline are separate storage areas, and Proton does not offer a move between them. The only way a photo crosses is to download it and upload it again, which is what Blober automates.

Does Blober move the photos for me? Yes. It downloads each photo and uploads it into Photos, because that is the only way a file crosses from My Files to Photos. What Blober automates is the selection, the transfer, the retry, and the cleanup, so you do not do it by hand in a browser.

Will moving my photos create duplicates in Photos? Proton Photos does not dedupe on upload. A Blober move deletes each original from My Files after it is copied, so a re-run of the same workflow finds nothing left to move and does not duplicate anything.

Alternatives to Google Photos: The Full De-Googling Round-Up

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Google Photos Is Not the Only Option, and Not the Private One

Google Photos is convenient, but it has costs people increasingly want to avoid: 15 GB of free storage shared with Gmail and Drive, a default compression mode that downsizes originals, an inactivity policy that can delete your content, and a company that analyzes your photos and has folded Gemini AI into the product^[1]. The r/degoogle community is full of people asking for a way out, like the post "Alternatives to Google Photos?"^[2].

There are five realistic categories of alternatives, and the right one depends on how much you value privacy, whether you are willing to self-host, and whether you want a photo-specific app or just encrypted storage. The thread's consensus: for a managed privacy-first service, Ente Photos; for self-hosting, Immich; for a photo surface tied to a broader encrypted cloud, Proton Photos.

This round-up compares them all with current, sourced numbers, and links to the migration guides at the end.

The Alternatives, Compared

Alternative	Type	Privacy model	Free tier	Price (paid)	Best for
Ente Photos	Managed, E2E encrypted	End-to-end encryption, open source, self-hostable	10 GB free forever	From $2.49/mo^[3]	Privacy-first with a Google-Photos-like app
Proton Photos	Inside Proton Drive	End-to-end, zero-access, Swiss	5 GB free	From $4.99/mo (200 GB)^[4]	Privacy plus a broader encrypted cloud
Immich	Self-hosted, open source	Your server, your keys	Free software; you pay for hardware	No subscription	Full control, face recognition, no monthly fee
iCloud Photos	Apple ecosystem	Encrypted in transit/at rest; Apple holds keys	5 GB shared iCloud	Paid iCloud tiers^[5]	People already in the Apple ecosystem
Amazon Photos	Managed	Encrypted; Amazon holds keys	5 GB, or unlimited photos with Prime	Plans from $1.99/mo^[6]	Prime members with big photo libraries
Flickr	Photography community	Photos are public/private by setting; no E2E	Free tier with upload limits	Pro subscription^[7]	Photographers who want a community and portfolio
Backblaze B2 / S3	Object storage	Standard cloud encryption	None	About $6/TB/mo^[8]	Cold archival, not daily photo browsing

The Privacy-First Options

Ente Photos: the closest Google Photos drop-in that is actually private

Ente is the most common recommendation in the de-Googling community, and the top comment on that thread recommends it for anyone who does not want to self-host^[9]. It offers end-to-end encrypted backups, on-device face recognition, a zero-knowledge AI search, shared albums, memories, and a family plan, all open source with apps for Android, iOS, web, macOS, Linux, and Windows^[10]. The free tier is 10 GB forever, and paid plans start at a few dollars a month^[11].

Proton Photos: private photos inside a private cloud

Proton Photos is the photo surface of Proton Drive: the same end-to-end encryption, automatic mobile backup, albums, favorites, and filters, with a free 5 GB plan and paid Drive Plus tiers^[12]. It is the strongest choice if you also want an encrypted cloud for files, Docs, and Sheets, not just photos. It is younger than Google Photos: no face recognition and no AI search yet, which the community has loudly requested^[13]. See the full comparison in Proton Photos vs Google Photos.

The Self-Hosted Option

Immich: run your own Google Photos

If you do not want to rent storage from anyone, Immich is the leading open-source, self-hosted photo manager. It offers automatic mobile backup, facial recognition, shared albums, and search, running on your own server^[14]. The trade-off is exactly what self-hosting always costs: you provide the hardware, keep it updated, and own the failure domain. For a few gigabytes of phone photos it may be overkill; for a large family archive it gives you total control.

The Big-Tech Alternatives (De-Googling by Switching Silos)

These replace Google Photos without really solving the privacy problem; they just move your photos into a different company's cloud:

iCloud Photos: the natural choice inside the Apple ecosystem, with 5 GB of shared free iCloud storage and paid tiers^[15].
Amazon Photos: "Prime members get unlimited full-resolution photo storage and 5 GB for video," with 5 GB for everyone else and paid storage from $1.99/mo^[16].
OneDrive: Microsoft's storage, with photo backup built into the mobile app; storage is shared with the free OneDrive tier and Microsoft 365 plans^[17].

These are fine if your goal is simply to leave Google, but they do not change the underlying deal: your photos live with a company that holds the keys.

Photography and Archival Options

Flickr: the photography community and portfolio option, with a free tier and a Pro subscription for unlimited uploads^[18]. Great for photographers who want visibility, not a private family archive.
Backblaze B2 and S3-compatible storage: for the 3-2-1 backup mindset, object storage at around $6/TB/mo is the cheap way to keep an independent, cold copy of your library^[19]. It is storage, not a photo app: you pair it with a tool to browse or transfer. Blober supports B2 and the whole S3 family, so this is a natural pairing if you want a private archive you fully control. See How to Backup Google Photos Without Google Takeout for the workflow.

The Hard Part: Getting Your Photos Out of Google

None of this matters until your library is out of Google Photos, and that is the step every alternative expects you to handle yourself:

Google Takeout is the official export, but it is slow, splits into 2 GB zips, and flattens albums (Proton's own import guide even warns about scattered folders)^[20].
Blober connects to Google Photos directly and transfers the library to any supported destination, including Proton Drive, pCloud, Backblaze B2, or a local drive, without Takeout. See How to Move Google Photos to Proton Drive and How to Backup Google Photos to pCloud.
Whichever destination you pick, keep the originals until the transfer finishes and verify a sample before deleting anything from Google.

Which Should You Pick?

Privacy + a managed app, no self-hosting: Ente Photos or Proton Photos.
Total control, no subscription: self-host Immich (or a NAS).
Already on Apple or Prime: iCloud Photos or Amazon Photos are the least-effort swaps.
Photography portfolio: Flickr.
Cheap independent archive: Backblaze B2 / S3 storage.
Also want an encrypted file cloud, Docs, and Sheets: Proton Photos via Proton Drive.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best private alternative to Google Photos? For a managed service, Ente Photos is the community favorite: end-to-end encrypted, open source, 10 GB free, with face recognition and shared albums^[21]^[22]. For a photo surface inside a broader encrypted cloud, Proton Photos.

Is there a free self-hosted Google Photos alternative? Yes. Immich is open source and free; you only pay for the hardware it runs on^[23]. It includes facial recognition and automatic mobile backup.

Does Amazon Photos give you unlimited storage? For Prime members, unlimited full-resolution photo storage plus 5 GB for video. Non-Prime customers get 5 GB total, with paid plans from $1.99/mo^[24].

How do I move my Google Photos library to another service? You can use Google Takeout (slow, zip-based) or a direct transfer tool. Blober connects to Google Photos and transfers to Proton Drive, pCloud, B2, or a local drive without Takeout. See How to Backup Google Photos Without Google Takeout and How to Move Google Photos to Proton Drive.

Will Google delete my photos if I stop using Google Photos? Google's policy states that if you are inactive in Google Photos for 2 years or more, your content may be deleted^[25]. This is one of the strongest reasons to hold an independent copy.

What about Proton Photos specifically? It is the photo surface inside Proton Drive: end-to-end encrypted, 5 GB free, paid tiers start with 200 GB on Drive Plus, with albums and automatic backup but no face recognition yet. See Proton Photos vs Google Photos.

How to Move Google Photos to Proton Drive (Without Google Takeout)

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Google Photos to Proton Drive: Two Very Different Paths

Google has no "download all" button, and every official route for moving your library out is slow and manual. If you are switching to Proton Drive for privacy, you have two practical paths.

Proton's official way exports your whole library through Google Takeout, then imports it into Proton Drive; the desktop import is Windows-only. Blober connects to Google Photos directly and transfers your photos to Proton Drive without Takeout, on any platform. This guide walks through both with the trade-offs, so you can pick the one that fits your library.

Path 1: Proton's Official Way (Google Takeout)

Proton's official guide, "How to import from Google Photos into Proton Drive"^[1], has three steps:

Export your Google Photos. Sign in at takeout.google.com, select Google Photos, and create an export. Google prepares the archive in the background and emails you a download link, which is valid for one week.
Download your export. Download all parts, then unzip them.
Import into Proton Drive. Either drag the unzipped folders into the Photos tab in the web app, or use the Windows desktop app: Photos import, then Import from Google Photos.

Proton's own documentation flags the rough edges:

It is Windows-only for the desktop import. The feature announcement says "Google Photos import now supported on Drive for Windows" and notes "Photo import support for macOS is coming soon"^[2].
Takeout scatters albums. "Google Takeout splits large exports into multiple parts, but it may not keep photos from the same year in the same part... This can cause issues if you're using Proton Drive's desktop app, which builds albums based on folder structure"^[3]. Proton's advice is to manually reorganize photos into year folders before importing.

For a small library, this path works. For tens of thousands of photos, it is a multi-day chore: wait for the export, download zips, extract, reorganize, then upload.

Path 2: Blober (Direct Google Photos to Proton Drive)

Blober is a desktop app that connects to Google Photos and to Proton Drive as two endpoints, then transfers the photos you select between them.

Connect Google Photos in Blober (you see your whole library in a file browser).
Connect Proton Drive (a browser window opens to Proton's own login page; your password never touches Blober).
Select the photos you want and start the transfer.

The differences from Takeout:

	Google Takeout + Proton import	Blober
Export wait	Hours to days for the archive email	None
Zips and unzipping	Yes, often 2 GB parts	No
Album structure	Can scatter photos across folders; manual reorganizing advised	Organized by capture date (YYYY-MM-DD folders); albums are not recreated
Platform	Desktop import is Windows-only; web is drag-and-drop	macOS, Windows, Linux
Resume on failure	No	Yes, per-file progress with automatic retry
Direct to Proton	Requires local download and re-upload	Streams directly to Proton Drive
Disk space	Needs free local disk for the whole library	Streams through memory, no full copy staged

Why Skip Takeout for Large Libraries

Takeout is designed for backup, not migration. Its pain points are well documented in the community: the export can take a day or more, downloads split into 2 GB zips, there is no resume, and album metadata often lands in separate JSON files instead of real folders. People build entire tools to work around it. A developer who migrated 354 GB wrote up the script he built, "gphoto2proton," precisely because the official flows are so manual^[4].

Blober removes those steps entirely: no export request, no zips, no reorganizing. It reads the library in place and writes it straight to Proton Drive.

Migration Tips

Check your Proton storage first. The free plan is 5 GB. A large photo library needs Drive Plus (200 GB), Unlimited (500 GB), or Duo (2 TB)^[5].
Keep originals until the transfer finishes. Verify a sample of photos in Proton Drive before deleting anything from Google Photos. Proton's own post-migration advice is to remove them from Google Photos only after they are safely stored^[6].
Re-run for new photos. You can re-run the same workflow later to catch photos added since the last transfer. When the destination is a local folder, Blober's filename deduplication option skips files that are already there so nothing is copied twice.
HEIC and RAW files transfer as-is. Blober copies the original files, so formats and EXIF metadata are preserved.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Proton Drive replace Google Photos? For private, encrypted photo storage, yes. Proton Drive has automatic mobile photo backup, albums, favorites, filters, and a timeline^[7]. It does not have Google's face recognition or unlimited free compression. The move is the hard part, which is what this guide covers.

Can I transfer all of my Google Photos to a hard drive? Yes. Connect Google Photos as the source in Blober and select your local disk as the destination. Blober downloads the whole library without Takeout, and you can use filename deduplication to avoid copies on repeat runs. See the related guide on backing up Google Photos below.

Does Blober use Google Takeout? No. Blober connects to Google Photos directly and transfers photos from the library, so there is no export request, no zip files, and no waiting for an email link. This is the key difference from Proton's official import flow.

Is Proton's Google Photos import available on macOS? Not yet. Proton's desktop import feature is Windows-only as of 2026, with macOS "coming soon"^[8]. Blober runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Will my albums be preserved when moving to Proton Drive? With Takeout, album structure can be scattered across folders, and Proton advises manually reorganizing by year to get clean albums^[9]. With Blober, each photo keeps its capture date and lands in a date-based folder; Blober does not recreate Google Photos albums.

How do I move Google Drive files (not photos) to Proton Drive? Proton offers a manual import guide for Google Drive files that uses drag-and-drop^[10]. Blober also handles Google Drive to Proton Drive transfers directly, alongside photos. See Migrating To or From Proton Drive.

Proton Drive Is Hard to Migrate To or From. Blober Makes It Easy.

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Privacy-First Cloud That Is Awkward to Move Files Into

Proton Drive is one of the most privacy-respecting cloud storage services you can pick. End-to-end PGP encryption, Swiss jurisdiction, open-source clients, and a zero-access architecture: not even Proton can read your files. Over 100 million accounts trust it^[1]. If privacy comes first, Proton Drive is a strong choice.

The catch is that Proton built sync clients, not transfer tools. The apps sync a folder between your device and Proton Drive, which works fine while Proton is your only cloud. The moment you want to pull files in from Google Drive, Dropbox, or S3, or move a Proton library out to cold storage, you are on your own. The official path is to download everything locally and re-upload it. That is fine for a few gigabytes. For 500 GB of photos spread across three Google accounts, it is a weekend you do not get back.

This guide runs through the pain points one by one, with sources, then shows what Blober does about each. It is also honest about when rclone is still the better tool.

Where Proton Drive Is Officially Supported

Proton offers native clients on four platforms, plus web access:

Platform	Client	Sync	File Browser	Bulk Transfer From Other Clouds
Windows	Desktop app	Folder sync	Via web	No
macOS	Desktop app	Folder sync	Via web	No
iOS	Mobile app	Photo backup	In-app	No
Android	Mobile app	Photo backup	In-app	No
Linux	No client	No	Web only	No
Web	Browser	No	Yes	No

Look at the last column. Across every platform, on every client, there is no built-in way to transfer files from another cloud into Proton Drive. You download to your machine first, then let the sync client pick the files up, which means you need enough free local storage to hold everything in transit.

If you are on Linux it is worse: there is no desktop client at all. You get the web interface, which works, but it does not support drag-and-drop bulk uploads from other services either.

The Pain Points, One by One

1. The official apps are sync clients, not migration tools

Proton ships folder-sync apps for Windows and macOS, and photo backup on mobile. None of them can pull files from another cloud. If you want 200 GB of photos from Google Drive inside Proton Drive, the official path is: download everything to your machine, then let the sync client upload it. That needs free local disk equal to your whole library, and it sends every byte over the network twice.

The feature requests confirm the gap. Proton's own UserVoice has long-running requests for exactly this, including "Easy Switch for Google Photos" and a post titled "To switch from Google Photos, Proton drive is not the deal"^[2].

2. Google Photos import means Takeout, and the desktop import is Windows-only

Proton's official "How to import from Google Photos into Proton Drive" guide^[3] is a Takeout pipeline: export from Google Takeout, wait for the email link, download the zips, unzip them, then import the folder in the web app or the Windows desktop app.

Three things make this painful:

It depends on Takeout. Google prepares the archive in the background, which "may take a while," and the download link expires after a week^[4].
The desktop import is Windows-only. The September 2025 announcement that "Google Photos import now supported on Drive for Windows" notes "Photo import support for macOS is coming soon"^[5]. On a Mac you are left with the web drag-and-drop path.
Takeout scatters albums. Proton's own guide warns: "Google Takeout splits large exports into multiple parts, but it may not keep photos from the same year in the same part. As a result, photos from the same time period may end up scattered across different folders"^[6]. Users then reorganize by year by hand to get clean albums.

3. rclone's Proton Drive support is Tier 4

rclone is the standard open-source answer, and its Proton Drive backend works, with caveats worth knowing before you trust a library to it. The rclone docs are explicit:

The backend "is currently in Beta" and is rated Tier 4, rclone's lowest support tier^[7].
Modification times are not preserved: "Proton Drive Bridge does not support updating modification times yet"^[8].
Setup puts your password in a config file. Config asks for username, password, 2FA, and optionally your OTP secret and mailbox password^[9].
The underlying library is honest about risk: "There are likely quite a few errors in this library, as there isn't official documentation available"^[10].
Caching goes stale with concurrent clients: "if there are concurrent clients accessing the same mount point, then we might have a problem with caching the stale data"^[11].

4. There is no full Linux desktop client

As of 2026 Proton has no full-featured Linux desktop sync client. The June 2026 Proton Drive CLI announcement says a "full-featured desktop client with sync is on its way"^[12], and the engine-rebuild post confirms Proton is "actively building one of the community's most-requested features: the Proton Drive client for Linux"^[13]. Until then, Linux users get the CLI, which is not a drop-in replacement. Proton's own words: "only the applications include a full synchronization engine that runs in the background"^[14].

5. The iOS Files integration is temporarily gone

Proton removed its iOS Files (File Provider) integration and is rebuilding it. A June 2026 post by Proton's iOS lead explains the constraint: the extension runs in a sandboxed process capped at roughly 20 MB of memory, and Proton is reworking its SDK to fit. Proton says "we'd be surprised if this isn't resolved within the year"^[15]. In the meantime, iOS users cannot browse their whole Proton Drive from the Files app.

6. Docs and Sheets are rough for power users

Proton Docs and Sheets are improving, but community feedback is candid. A top r/ProtonDrive post is titled "As Always Proton Sheet is Buggy and Proton Docs is slow to add feature!" and reports Sheets freezing on large datasets and missing document features like shapes^[16]. Other recent complaints include spreadsheet tab ordering reverting on reopen and no PDF export from Sheets. This matters if you are planning to move a heavy Google Workspace workflow over to Proton.

What About rclone?

rclone is the canonical open-source tool for cloud storage. It supports 70+ backends and is genuinely excellent at what it does, and its Proton Drive backend works, with the caveats listed above. If you are already in the rclone ecosystem and those tradeoffs fit, rclone is a perfectly good option. Blober is a different style of tool for a different style of user, and the rest of this article is about that.

How Blober Handles Proton Drive Differently

Blober takes a different approach: instead of asking for your credentials in a config file, it asks Proton for them.

You just log in. Normally.

When you connect Proton Drive in Blober, a browser window opens to Proton's own login page. You sign in with your email, password, and 2FA exactly as you would in any browser. There is no config file with credentials on disk, and nothing to type into a CLI. The provider guide covers how Proton Drive login works in Blober.

What Blober supports with Proton Drive

Operation	Supported	Details
Browse	Yes	Navigate your full folder tree
Download	Yes	Parallel, resumable downloads
Upload	Yes	Parallel uploads, auto-creates folders
Delete	Yes	Moves to Proton Trash (recoverable)
Metadata	Yes	Filename, size, created and modified dates
Multiple accounts	Yes	Each account gets its own session; run transfers in parallel

What Blober does that Proton's client can't

Transfer from any supported provider directly to Proton Drive. Google Drive, Dropbox, AWS S3, Azure Blob, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces, Wasabi, Rabata, GoPro Cloud, local disk. No intermediate downloads.
Transfer from Proton Drive to any other provider. Moving away from Proton, or shifting a subset to cold storage on Backblaze? Blober handles it.
Selective file transfer. Browse the source, pick exactly the files you want, transfer only those. Not a full sync of everything.
Saved workflows. Set up "Dropbox to Proton Drive" once and run it whenever you want. The workflow remembers source path, destination path, filters, and file naming templates.
Runs on Linux. Blober works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Since Proton does not ship a Linux desktop client, Blober is one of the few ways to get a desktop-native Proton Drive experience on Linux without a browser.
Resumable transfers. If your session expires mid-transfer, Blober prompts you to sign in again and picks up where it left off. No files are lost or duplicated.

One detail matters for Google Photos specifically. Blober lists your library chronologically and keeps each photo's capture date, so a transfer lands in date-based folders. It does not recreate Google Photos albums as Proton albums, because Google provides no API for that kind of access. See How to Move Google Photos to Proton Drive.

The Migration Scenario

Here is the situation Blober is built for.

You are on Google Drive or Dropbox, you have decided to move to Proton Drive for privacy, and you have 200 GB of documents and photos spread across folders. Today your options are:

Option A: Manual download and re-upload

Download 200 GB from Google Drive to your machine (hours, needs free disk space)
Wait for the Proton Drive sync client to upload it all (hours more; encryption is CPU-heavy)
Repeat for Dropbox
Hope nothing failed silently

Option B: Google Takeout plus manual upload

Request a Takeout archive (can take days)
Download the archive(s)
Extract, organize, upload to Proton Drive
Storage used: 3x (source cloud + local archive + Proton)

Option C: rclone

Run rclone config and set up your Google/Dropbox and Proton remotes
Provide your Proton credentials when prompted
Run rclone copy gdrive: protondrive: with the flags that fit your scenario
Drive everything from the CLI, including monitoring and restarts

Option D: Blober

Sign in to Google Drive (OAuth) or Dropbox (OAuth)
Sign in to Proton Drive (browser login)
Select the files you want
Start the transfer, then re-run the same workflow whenever you need to

Blober vs rclone for Proton Drive: Side by Side

	Blober	rclone
Auth method	Browser login on Proton's own page	Credentials in `rclone config`
Interface	Native desktop GUI	CLI
Resume on failure	Automatic	Manual restart
Linux	Native desktop app	CLI
Cross-provider transfer	Built-in (pick source and destination)	`rclone copy source: dest:`
Multiple Proton accounts	Each one its own session	Separate config remotes
Scriptable automation	Saved workflows	Cron-friendly CLI
Mount as filesystem	Not supported	Supported (FUSE)

A note on modification times, because rclone's Proton backend does not preserve them at all. Blober reads source timestamps for metadata and naming. If preserving exact modification times on Proton is a hard requirement for you, verify it on your own transfer before committing a large library.

Who Should Use Which

Blober is a good fit if:

You are migrating into Proton Drive from Google Drive, Dropbox, or another cloud
You are moving out of Proton Drive, or shifting a subset to cold storage
You are on Linux and want a desktop-native way to manage Proton Drive files
You would rather log in through a browser than configure credentials in a file
You want a repeatable, named workflow you can re-run later

rclone is a good fit if:

You are already in the rclone ecosystem and want one tool for everything
You need scriptable, cron-based automation
You want to mount Proton Drive as a filesystem (FUSE)
You prefer CLI control over a GUI

Frequently Asked Questions

Is rclone safe to use with Proton Drive? It works, but treat it as experimental. rclone rates the backend Tier 4, calls it "in Beta," and notes the bridge library "likely" has errors^[17]. Modification times are not preserved, and setup stores your Proton password and 2FA secret in the rclone config file.

Why can't I import Google Photos to Proton Drive on my Mac? Proton's Google Photos import is Windows-only as of 2026; the announcement says macOS support "is coming soon"^[18]. On macOS you are limited to the web drag-and-drop path, which still needs a Takeout export first.

Does Proton Drive work on Linux? Partially. Proton ships a CLI for Linux and is building a full desktop client^[19]. There is no official GUI sync client for Linux today. Blober runs natively on Linux and provides one.

Does Blober store my Proton password? No. Blober opens Proton's own login page in a browser window. You sign in there, exactly as you would on drive.proton.me, and your password never passes through Blober.

Is Blober a sync tool? No. Blober is a transfer tool. It moves a selected set of files from one provider to another and stops. Nothing runs in the background and overwrites files, unlike a sync client.

Where do my Google Photos land when I move them with Blober? In Proton Drive's folder tree, organized by each photo's capture date. Blober lists Google Photos chronologically and does not recreate Google Photos albums. If you want the Proton Photos timeline and album view instead, Proton's official Google Photos import (Windows-only) is the supported route, and it sorts imported photos into albums from the folder structure. See How to Move Google Photos to Proton Drive.

Get Blober

Move a Proton Drive library in or out without filling your disk. Blober signs you into Proton through Proton's own login page, then transfers to or from 20+ providers with parallel, resumable transfers. Runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Download Blober at blober.io

Proton Drive vs Proton Photos: What's the Difference?

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Proton Drive and Proton Photos Are the Same Product, Two Surfaces

Proton markets both "Proton Drive" and "Proton Photos," and the two names trip people up when they are deciding where their photos should go, or where their photos end up after a migration.

Proton Photos is not a separate product. It is the photo-and-album surface inside Proton Drive. Proton Drive is the general-purpose file storage product: folders, sync, sharing, Docs, Sheets. Proton Photos is the media surface built on top of it: timeline, albums, favorites, filters, EXIF-based organization, automatic mobile backup. Both share the same end-to-end encryption, the same storage quota, and one login.

If you upload a JPEG through the Photos tab, it appears in your photo timeline. If you drop the same file into a folder in My Files, it lives in the file tree. Knowing which surface holds your photos matters more than it sounds, because it decides how they are organized after a Google Photos migration.

The Two Surfaces

Proton's web app has two main views:

	Proton Drive	Proton Photos
URL	drive.proton.me	drive.proton.me/u/0/photos
What it is	General file storage	Photo and video surface
Organized by	Folders, subfolders, file names	Timeline (date), albums, favorites, filters
Typical content	Documents, downloads, work files, archives	Camera roll, photos, videos, albums
Key features	Folder sync (Windows/macOS), sharing, Proton Docs and Sheets	Automatic mobile backup, albums, favorites, filters^[1]
Sharing	Files and folders with password and expiry^[2]	Albums shared by email invite, with view or contribute roles^[3]
Encryption	End-to-end, zero-access	Same end-to-end encryption, including album names and photo locations^[4]
Storage quota	Your Proton Drive quota	Same quota, shared with Proton Drive

What Lives Where

The rule of thumb: Photos surface is for things you want in a timeline and albums; Drive surface is for everything else.

Camera-roll backups from the iOS and Android apps land in Proton Photos, because automatic photo backup uploads to the Photos surface^[5].
When you use the Windows app's "Photos import" feature, imported pictures are sorted into albums automatically^[6].
Files you drag into My Files in the web app go to the Drive surface as ordinary files, even if they are images.

The practical difference is organization: Photos gives you a date timeline, albums, favorites, and filters. Drive gives you a folder tree. A photo sitting in a Drive folder is still encrypted and safe, but it will not show up in your Photos timeline unless it is in the Photos surface.

Why the Distinction Matters for a Migration

When you move a library out of Google Photos, the destination determines the result:

Into Proton Photos: your photos are organized into a timeline and albums, which is the closest to how Google Photos worked. Proton's official Google Photos import does exactly this: it takes your Takeout folder and "automatically upload your photos and then sort them into albums"^[7].
Into Proton Drive folders: your photos are files in a folder tree. This is fine for archiving, but you lose the timeline and album view unless you then move them into Photos.

There is a catch with the official Google Photos import that also matters here: it builds albums from folder structure, and Google Takeout can scatter photos from the same year across different parts, so Proton's own guide recommends manually reorganizing by year first^[8]. For a cleaner path, see How to Move Google Photos to Proton Drive, which compares the Takeout route with a direct transfer.

Which One Do You Actually Need?

Choose Proton Drive if you want a general encrypted file store: documents, downloads, work files, synced folders, shared files with password protection, and Docs/Sheets.

Use Proton Photos for your personal media: automatic camera-roll backup, a date timeline, albums for trips and events, favorites, and filters.

In practice you get both with the same account. The question is only which surface your media ends up in, and that is decided by where you upload it. For anything photo-like, put it in Photos if you want the timeline and albums. For everything else, use Drive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Proton Photos a separate subscription? No. Proton Photos is part of Proton Drive. It uses the same storage quota and the same plan, so 200 GB of Drive Plus covers both your files and your photos^[9].

Are my photos in Proton Photos encrypted? Yes. Everything in Proton Photos uses the same end-to-end encryption as Proton Drive, and Proton says album names and photo metadata like locations are encrypted too^[10].

If I upload photos to Proton Drive folders, will they appear in Proton Photos? Not automatically. Files in the Drive surface live in the folder tree; the Photos surface has its own timeline and albums. Import through the Photos flow (or the Windows app's Photos import) to get photos into the Photos surface.

Which surface should I use to migrate Google Photos? Proton Photos, if you want the timeline and albums to match how Google Photos worked. See Proton Photos vs Google Photos for the comparison and How to Move Google Photos to Proton Drive for the mechanics.

Can I move files between the Drive and Photos surfaces? Proton's import flow is the supported path for getting photos into the Photos surface. For moving the other direction, the general file-transfer story for Proton Drive is covered in Migrating To or From Proton Drive.

Proton Photos vs Google Photos: The Honest Comparison

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Proton Photos vs Google Photos: Two Different Deals

Google Photos is the default home for most people's photo library, and it has real costs: only 15 GB of free storage shared with Gmail and Drive, a compression option that downsizes originals, an inactivity policy that can delete your content, and a business model built on analyzing your photos. Proton positions its Photos feature as the private alternative, and the demand is real: a top r/ProtonDrive post titled "Make Proton Photos more like a real alternative to Google Photos" collects a long list of the gaps users hit^[1].

Proton Photos is the photo surface inside Proton Drive. It beats Google Photos on privacy: every photo is end-to-end encrypted before upload, nothing is compressed unless you choose it, and Proton says it does not scan your photos or train AI on them. Google Photos still wins on convenience: mature face recognition, AI-powered search, and a far larger feature set. If your priority is keeping photos private and unmodified, Proton wins. If you rely on Google's AI search and automatic face grouping day to day, you will feel the difference.

This article is the honest feature-by-feature comparison. For the actual move, see How to Move Google Photos to Proton Drive.

What Proton Photos Actually Is

Proton Photos is not a separate app with its own login. It is the photo and album surface of Proton Drive, at drive.proton.me/u/0/photos. Your photo quota is your Proton Drive quota (5 GB free, 200 GB on Drive Plus), and the photos share the same end-to-end encryption as every other file in Proton Drive^[2]. Proton's own framing is direct: "Unlike Google Photos, Proton Drive empowers you to control your pictures, videos, and albums with uncompromising privacy and security"^[3].

Head-to-Head Comparison

Feature	Proton Photos	Google Photos
Free storage	5 GB (shared with Proton Drive)	15 GB (shared with Gmail and Drive)
End-to-end encryption	Yes, zero-access. Proton says "no one, not even Proton, can access your files"^[4]	No. Google holds the keys and can read your photos
Compression	Originals stored as-is, no forced downscaling	"Storage saver" (previously "High quality") compresses photos^[5]
Face recognition	Not available	Yes, mature, automatic
AI search	No (search by date, type, favorites, filters)	Yes, natural-language and object search, Gemini integration
Albums	Yes, shared albums with email invites, favorites^[6]	Yes, shared albums
Auto mobile backup	Yes, iOS and Android^[7]	Yes, iOS and Android
Metadata / EXIF	Preserved; album names and photo locations are encrypted^[8]	Preserved, but readable by Google
Scanning / AI training	Proton states it does not scan photos or use them to train AI^[9]	Google analyzes photos (faces, objects, locations) and has folded Gemini into Photos
Inactivity deletion	No such policy documented	Google may delete content after 2+ years of inactivity^[10]
Jurisdiction	Switzerland, open source, audited	US-based, subject to US law
Price (paid)	Drive Plus: 200 GB, see pricing	Google One paid tiers (see plans)

Where Proton Photos Wins

End-to-end encryption. This is the entire point. Proton encrypts photos, album names, and metadata like locations on your device before upload, so even Proton cannot read them^[11]. Google Photos is not encrypted this way; Google can see your photos, and Proton's marketing presses the point that Google "scans and analyzes the faces" in them^[12].

No forced compression. Google's "Storage saver" mode downsizes originals to fit more in your quota, and it is the default that most people have been running for years. Proton stores originals as-is. If you care about keeping full-resolution files, that is a meaningful difference for a large library.

No AI-training or advertising pipeline. Proton's position is that your photos are "too personal to be scanned by surveillance systems or analyzed by algorithms"^[13]. Google, by contrast, has integrated Gemini into Google Photos and uses the data for its own models.

You are not renting against a deletion policy. Google's own support page states: "If you're inactive in Google Photos for 2 years or more, your content may be deleted"^[14]. Proton does not have an equivalent inactivity-deletion policy for stored photos.

Where Google Photos Still Wins

Be honest about the gaps before switching, because they are real:

Face recognition. Google automatically groups photos by person and lets you search by face. Proton Photos has no face recognition today.
AI search. Google's natural-language search ("photos of my dog at the beach") is best-in-class. Proton searches by date, type, favorite, and filter, not by content.
Mature editor and ecosystem. Google Photos has editing tools, shared libraries, partner sharing, and deep Android integration. Proton's Photos surface is younger.
Bigger free tier. 15 GB vs 5 GB, both shared with the rest of the account.

What Proton Photos Still Lacks (Per the Community)

The r/ProtonDrive thread that calls for Proton Photos to be "more like a real alternative" lists the specific gaps users hit^[15]:

Viewing on-device photos alongside cloud photos in one interface.
iCloud-style storage optimization (full original in the cloud, small preview on the device).
A dedicated duplicates view to find and remove duplicate files.
Editing tools (the post suggests Lumo image editing).
Editing the captured date of a photo to correct wrong timestamps.
A standalone Proton Photos app.

None of these are dealbreakers for a private archive, but they matter if you treat Proton Photos as a full Google Photos replacement for daily browsing.

Pricing: What You Actually Pay

	Proton	Google
Free	5 GB	15 GB
200 GB	Drive Plus (see pricing)	Google One paid tiers, see plans
500 GB	Proton Unlimited (VPN + Mail + Calendar + Pass)	Google One paid tiers

Proton's paid tier is a flat storage subscription. Google One bundles other Google benefits, but the storage is the part that matters for photos. Prices drift, so check the Proton Drive pricing page and Google One plans before deciding.

The Switch Decision

Choose Proton Photos if you want originals kept unmodified, end-to-end encrypted, in a zero-access service you are not renting against a deletion policy. Choose Google Photos if you rely on face recognition, AI search, and editing day to day and are comfortable with Google reading your library.

If you switch, the mechanics are covered in depth in How to Move Google Photos to Proton Drive, which compares Proton's official Takeout-based import with a direct transfer, and Migrating To or From Proton Drive covers the general Proton Drive migration story.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Proton Photos free? Yes. It is the photo surface of Proton Drive, and the free plan includes 5 GB of storage for photos and files. Proton says that is "enough space to store more than 1000 photos" at an average size of 4 MB^[16]. Paid plans start with 200 GB on Drive Plus^[17].

Does Proton Photos compress my photos? No. Originals are stored as-is. Google's "Storage saver" mode, by contrast, compresses photos to save space^[18].

Does Proton Photos have face recognition? Not yet. Google Photos has automatic face grouping; Proton Photos does not. It is one of the most-requested gaps in the community^[19].

Can Proton Photos replace Google Photos? For private, encrypted photo storage: yes. For a drop-in with Google's AI search, face recognition, and editing: not fully yet. This article walks through exactly what you gain and what you give up.

Is Proton Photos the same as Proton Drive? No. Proton Drive is the general file-storage product (folders, sync, sharing, Docs and Sheets). Proton Photos is the photo-and-album surface inside it, optimized for media. See How is Proton Drive different to Proton Photos? for the full explanation.

How do I get my existing photos out of Google Photos? Google has no bulk "download all" button, and Takeout is slow and Windows-only for Proton's import. See How to Move Google Photos to Proton Drive and How to Backup Google Photos Without Google Takeout for the options.

What Is Proton Drive? Features, Plans, and What It's Used For

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Proton Drive Is the Privacy-First Cloud Storage Service

Mainstream cloud storage, meaning Google Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud, can read your files, scan your photos, and use them for ad profiles or AI training. If you do not want a storage company looking at your data, most standard options are a poor fit^[1].

Proton Drive is the encrypted alternative from the makers of Proton Mail. Files are encrypted on your device before upload, so not even Proton can read them. It covers the same basics as Google Drive or Dropbox: file storage, folder sync, sharing, photo backup, Docs and Sheets, plus a free 5 GB plan. This guide covers what Proton Drive is used for, how the security works, what it costs, and where it falls short.

What Proton Drive Is Used For

Proton Drive is general-purpose file storage, but in practice it is most used for:

Private file storage and sync. Back up documents, photos, and work files, and keep a folder synced between your computer and the cloud with the Windows and macOS desktop apps.
Photo and video backup. The iOS and Android apps back up your camera roll automatically, and Proton Drive organizes photos into albums and a searchable timeline. Proton states the free 5 GB plan is "enough space to store more than 1000 photos," based on an average file size of 4 MB^[2].
Private documents and spreadsheets. Proton Docs and Proton Sheets are online editors bundled with Drive, positioned as a private alternative to Google Docs and Google Sheets.
Secure file sharing. You can share files and folders with password protection and expiry dates, and revoke access at any time. Proton says it does "not impose file-size limits or restrict the number of times your contacts can download them"^[3].
Sensitive records. Passwords, passports, contracts, and tax files are a natural fit because of the encryption.
A destination when leaving Google, Dropbox, or iCloud. Privacy-conscious users migrating away from Big Tech often land here.

The Security Model: End-to-End and Zero-Access

Proton's own description of how it works: "We encrypt your files, their names, and more right on your device before they're uploaded to the cloud, so only you hold the keys to unlock them"^[4].

This is the zero-access model: the encryption keys never leave your device, so Proton cannot read your data even if asked. The main security points:

End-to-end encryption. Files, folder names, and filenames are encrypted client-side using the open-source OpenPGP standard with Curve25519 encryption^[5].
Zero-access. "No one, not even Proton, can access your files and folders or see their names without your permission"^[6].
Swiss jurisdiction. Proton is based in Switzerland. Under Article 271 of the Swiss Criminal Code, Proton is prohibited from sharing data with foreign authorities^[7].
Open source and audited. The clients and encryption libraries are public, and Proton Drive has been audited by Securitum, an independent European security auditor^[8].
Scale. Proton says it is "trusted by over 100 million users and organizations"^[9].

Feature Overview

Feature	Details
File storage	Store any file type; files are split into 4 MB blocks for high-performance encryption
Desktop sync	Windows and macOS apps sync a local folder with the cloud
Photo backup	Automatic camera-roll backup on iOS and Android, with albums and a timeline
Proton Docs	Private online document editor
Proton Sheets	Private online spreadsheet editor with formulas and charts
Secure sharing	Password-protected links with expiry dates and revocable access
File versioning	Recover previous file versions (10 years on paid plans)
Encrypted sharing links	Shared content is end-to-end encrypted
Linux	CLI available; full desktop client announced as in progress

Plans and Pricing

Proton's consumer plans are the ones most people choose between. Exact prices change, so check the Proton Drive pricing page before deciding^[10]:

Plan	Storage	Includes
Free	5 GB	Photos, documents, Docs and Sheets
Drive Plus	200 GB	10 years of file version recovery
Proton Unlimited	500 GB	Plus Proton VPN, Mail, Calendar, and Pass
Proton Duo	2 TB	Up to 2 users, everything in Unlimited

All paid plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, and higher tiers are available through business plans.

Platforms

Proton Drive runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and the web^[11]. There is no full-featured Linux desktop sync client yet: Proton released a Proton Drive CLI for Windows, macOS, and Linux in June 2026, and states a "full-featured desktop client with sync is on its way"^[12].

How Fast Is Proton Drive in 2026?

Proton has been investing heavily in performance. In June 2026 Proton announced it "rebuilt Proton Drive's engine" on a shared SDK, with uploads up to 3x faster and downloads up to 2x faster across platforms^[13]. A companion cryptography update made file encryption up to 4x faster: encrypting a 4 MB file dropped from 97 ms to 32 ms on mobile and from 12 ms to 3 ms on desktop^[14]. For heavy transfers this matters, because Proton encrypts every block locally, which is CPU work no other storage provider does.

Where Proton Drive Falls Short

The trade-off for the privacy is that getting files in and out of Proton Drive, at scale, is not a first-class experience. The official clients are sync tools, not migration tools: there is no built-in way to pull files directly from Google Drive, Dropbox, or S3, and the official Google Photos import runs through Google Takeout and is currently Windows-only. Linux users have a CLI but no full sync client, and the iOS Files integration is temporarily unavailable while Proton rebuilds it. Each of these pain points is covered in detail in Migrating To or From Proton Drive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Proton Drive really private? Yes, for what it claims. Files are encrypted on your device before upload using OpenPGP with Curve25519, and Proton runs a zero-access model where it does not hold the decryption keys. Proton says "no one, not even Proton, can access your files"^[15]. The code is open source and audited by Securitum.

Is Proton Drive free? Yes. The free plan includes 5 GB of storage for files and photos, plus Proton Docs and Sheets, all end-to-end encrypted^[16]. Paid plans start with 200 GB on Drive Plus^[17].

Can Proton Drive replace Google Photos? For secure, private photo storage, yes: it has automatic camera-roll backup, albums, favorites, filters, and a timeline. It does not offer Google's unlimited free compression, AI search, or face recognition. See How to Move Google Photos to Proton Drive for the migration path.

How much storage do I get on the free plan? 5 GB, which Proton says holds more than 1000 photos at an average size of 4 MB^[18].

Does Proton Drive have a desktop app for Linux? Not a full sync client yet. Proton ships a CLI for Linux and is building a full-featured Linux desktop client on its shared SDK^[19]^[20]. Third-party tools like Blober fill the gap today.

Can I move my files from Google Drive or Dropbox into Proton Drive? Proton offers manual import flows (Takeout for Google Photos, drag-and-drop for Google Drive). There is no direct cross-cloud transfer in the official apps. Blober connects to Proton Drive and can transfer in from Google Drive, Dropbox, S3, Backblaze B2, and 20+ other sources directly. See Migrating To or From Proton Drive for the full comparison.

Blober vs RcloneView

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Overview

RcloneView and Blober are both desktop apps that move files between cloud storage providers and your own drives without routing data through a middleman server. That is where the similarity ends.

RcloneView is a GUI over rclone, made by Bdrive, the company behind NetDrive^[1]. It wraps rclone's command line in a visual file manager, so it inherits rclone's strengths (70+ providers, client-side encryption, cloud mounting)^[2] and its limits (whatever rclone cannot do, RcloneView cannot do either).

Blober is a purpose-built transfer app with a one-time license, saved workflows, resumable task history, and two capabilities no rclone-based tool has: native GoPro Cloud support and full Google Photos downloads.

Where They Overlap

For everyday transfers between mainstream providers, both tools cover the same ground:

Desktop GUI, no terminal required
Cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-local transfers that run on your machine
Local credential control, with no SaaS dashboard holding your tokens
Drag-and-drop, job tracking, and transfer monitoring

If you only move files between Google Drive, Dropbox, and an S3 bucket, either app will do the job. The decision comes down to provider coverage, pricing model, and the edge cases below.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Blober	RcloneView
Interface	Native desktop GUI	rclone GUI
Provider count	18 shipped, growing	70+ (inherits rclone)
GoPro Cloud	✅ Yes (exclusive)	❌ No
Google Photos (full library)	✅ Yes	❌ No
Cloud-to-cloud transfer	✅ Yes	Yes
Local filesystem	✅ Yes	Yes
Mount cloud as a local drive	No	Yes (free)
Client-side encryption	Planned	Yes (free, rclone Crypt)
Two-way sync	Planned	Yes
Job scheduling	No	Yes (subscription)
Metadata path templates	✅ Yes	No
Workflow persistence	✅ Yes, resumable state	Job saving only
Background after closing window	Partial (macOS only)	✅ Yes (system tray)
Prevent OS sleep during transfers	✅ Yes (while app runs)	Not documented
Mobile photo backup	No	Yes (subscription)
Pricing model	✅ One-time license	Free core + annual subscription
Data path	✅ Direct	Direct

GoPro Cloud: Only Blober

rclone has no GoPro Cloud backend, so RcloneView cannot connect to GoPro Cloud either. If you shoot with a GoPro and want to move your media from GoPro Cloud to Backblaze B2, AWS S3, Wasabi, or a local NAS, neither rclone nor RcloneView can help.

Blober is the only transfer tool with native GoPro Cloud integration. That makes it the choice for photographers, videographers, and agencies that manage GoPro media libraries.

Google Photos: rclone's Limits Apply to RcloneView

RcloneView lists Google Photos among its providers, but it relies on rclone's Google Photos backend. That backend carries real limits, documented by rclone^[3]:

Since March 31, 2025, rclone can only download photos it uploaded itself. Your pre-existing Google Photos library is off limits.
rclone's shared Google Photos client ID is being retired during 2026, so users must create and maintain their own Google Cloud app to keep it working.
Downloading full-resolution originals requires a separate headless-browser proxy tool.

Blober connects directly to Google Photos and downloads your entire library at original quality, no Takeout export required. For anyone moving years of photos out of Google Photos, this is the deciding factor.

Workflow Persistence and Resume

This is where the two differ most in daily use. RcloneView saves jobs, a real improvement over raw rclone, and by default it keeps running in the system tray when you close its window, so transfers continue in the background.

Blober has jobs and tasks too, but it also saves the whole transfer as a reusable workflow: source, destination, filters, and path templates, all in one configuration you rerun with a single click. Rerun it any time. An interrupted transfer resumes from stored state, skipping files it already finished, instead of starting over. Blober also keeps the operating system from sleeping while the app runs, so a long transfer is not cut off when the machine would otherwise doze off.

For long-running moves over unreliable connections, or media archives with tens of thousands of files, that is the difference between babysitting a transfer and walking away.

Metadata Path Templates

Blober can organize files as it copies them. Path templates build the destination folder from file metadata: created date, file name, size, or extension. A year of camera uploads can land in /2026/08/GOPRxxxx.mp4 automatically, instead of one flat folder.

RcloneView writes to the folder you choose, and building that structure means scripting it yourself in every job.

Where RcloneView Fits Better

To be fair, RcloneView wins in several areas. Choose it if you:

Need a provider Blober has not shipped yet (rclone covers 70+)
Want to mount cloud storage as a local drive
Want transfers to keep running in the system tray after you close the window
Need two-way sync, scheduling, or a mobile photo backup app
Prefer a free tool for occasional transfers
Already rely on rclone configs, daemons, or the rclone ecosystem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is RcloneView just a GUI for rclone?

Yes. RcloneView is a GUI front-end built around rclone, so it inherits what rclone supports and what it lacks^[4]. It can mount cloud storage and apply rclone's encryption, but it cannot add providers rclone has no backend for, such as GoPro Cloud.

Can RcloneView download my Google Photos?

Only photos rclone uploaded itself. Since March 31, 2025, rclone's Google Photos backend cannot download media it did not upload, so a pre-existing library is out of reach without Google Takeout. Blober connects directly to Google Photos and downloads the whole library at original quality.

Is RcloneView free?

RcloneView is freemium. The free tier covers browsing, transfers, mounting, and encryption, and a paid subscription unlocks scheduling, mobile backup, and multi-window support^[5]. Blober is a one-time purchase with no subscription.

Does RcloneView keep running when I close the window?

Yes. Closing the window hides RcloneView to the system tray and transfers keep running in the background. Blober handles that differently: instead of hiding in the tray, it keeps the operating system from sleeping while the app runs and resumes an interrupted transfer from stored state.

Can either tool move GoPro Cloud footage?

No rclone-based tool can, because rclone has no GoPro Cloud backend. Blober is the only transfer tool with native GoPro Cloud integration.

What is a Blober workflow?

A workflow is the whole transfer saved as one reusable configuration: source, destination, filters, and path templates. Rerun it with one click, reuse it after an interruption, and pick up from stored state.

When Blober Makes More Sense

Choose Blober if you:

Need GoPro Cloud support (only Blober has it)
Want to download your full Google Photos library without Takeout
Transfer large volumes on a one-time license, not a recurring subscription
Value resumable workflows and metadata-based organization
Care about data sovereignty, with no third-party servers touching your files

For a closer look at the same tradeoffs against the raw CLI, read Blober vs rclone.

Download Blober at blober.io

Back Up Google Photos to pCloud Without Takeout

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The move comes up more than any other: get a Google Photos library out of Google and into a pCloud lifetime plan. The transfer breaks in the same place almost every time, and it is never the archive part.

The manual route

The manual route starts with Google Takeout. You request an export and wait hours, sometimes days, for a pile of zip files. Each item arrives next to a JSON sidecar that holds Google's metadata, and you extract the zips. For the minority of files that need it, you merge that sidecar back into the files with an EXIF tool. Then you upload the result to pCloud, and when the upload breaks partway, you figure out what happened and try again.

For a big library, that takes days. It is why so many pCloud lifetime plans sit mostly empty.

What happens to the dates

Takeout does not break dates for most photos. Files uploaded at original quality keep their own EXIF, including the capture date, and a plain copy preserves it. The JSON sidecar is extra.

The metadata fix applies only to a subset: photos edited in Google Photos, which download as re-encoded files, and files that never had an embedded capture date, which covers screenshots, downloaded images, and forwards.^[1] For those, the reliable date lives in Google's JSON. Most libraries are mostly original files, so the fix is a minority concern.

What that means for a transfer tool: the file should pass through unchanged. Whatever date is embedded in the file comes with it, no merge step and nothing stripped. That is the rule Blober follows. It reads each file as Google serves it and writes it to pCloud.

What the other tools do

rclone used to list and download a Google Photos library. Google changed its API policy in March 2025, and since then rclone can only download photos it uploaded itself.^[2] That leaves an existing library out of reach. Transfer services that run on your behalf face the same limit, or they meter how much data you can move per month.

For a library you built through the Google Photos app or the web, the direct path to pCloud needs a tool that reads Google Photos the way the service exposes it, plus pCloud support on the other side.

Blober sends Google Photos to pCloud directly

Blober is a desktop app with a Google Photos provider and a pCloud provider, so the Takeout step drops out of the job:

connect Google Photos as the source and pCloud as the destination in one workflow;
Blober reads the library through the provider and writes each photo and video to pCloud, passing the files through unchanged;
no Takeout archive, no zip extraction, no sidecar step;
transfers resume on their own if the connection drops, and files already copied stay done;
you can organize during the move with a path template if you want folders by year or by month instead of one flat folder.

If your pCloud account is on the EU data center, Blober picks that up during authorization and uses it for the transfer. There is nothing to configure.

To start, connect Google Photos and pCloud, then create a workflow with Google Photos as the source and pCloud as the destination. Select the library (or an album), select the pCloud folder, and run it.

For the general case of downloading Google Photos without Takeout, see how to backup Google Photos without Google Takeout.

Frequently asked questions

Will the photo dates survive the move?

For the files that have a date embedded, yes. Blober passes each file through unchanged, so the capture date in the file comes along. It does not strip or rewrite anything.

Do I still need exiftool or a script?

Not through Blober. A metadata fix applies only to edited photos and files without an embedded date, which is a minority of most libraries. Blober transfers each file as it is, so the files that already carry their date come through unchanged and need nothing extra.

What happens if my connection drops halfway?

Blober keeps per-file progress. When you resume the task, the files that already transferred stay done and the rest continue. You do not redo the library.

Does this work with a pCloud lifetime plan?

Yes. Blober connects to the account the same way regardless of how you pay for it.

My pCloud account is on the EU servers. Do I need to do anything?

No. The data center is detected when you authorize, and Blober uses the right API host from then on.

Do I need to create my own pCloud app?

No. Blober pre-fills the public pCloud app keys, so you authorize in seconds without creating an app or waiting for a review. If you prefer your own app, the pCloud guide covers that too.

I still want to use Takeout as a fallback. Does that work?

It works, but you are back to the manual route: batches, zip extraction, and a metadata fix for the files that need one. Blober is the direct route, and it does not reintroduce the exact problem you were trying to avoid.

Get Blober

Blober is a one-time purchase with a lifetime license. No subscription, no transfer fees, no per-GB cap. It runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Download Blober at blober.io

Download All Your Box Files Without the ZIP-and-Time-Out Trap

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Client deliveries over Box run into the same problem every time. The web downloader handles a single file fine, and the trouble starts the moment you select a folder.

Select more than one file in Box and it builds a server-side zip before it gives you anything. For a folder of video files that zip takes a long time to prepare, the browser download can stall or time out, and when it fails you start the whole batch again.^[1] People who keep a Box account because a client or a school requires it hit this every time they need their own files back.

The bandwidth cap makes it worse

Box's Fair Use Policy caps bandwidth at about 1 TB per user per month. Exceed it and Box emails you, throttles the account for the rest of the month, and warns that it may permanently reduce your bandwidth or suspend the account.^[2] For someone who only holds a Box account to receive client footage, a couple of large deliveries can use up the cap in one month.

The download method matters here. Pulling the same set of files twice because a zip timed out is double the bandwidth. So is downloading to your machine and then uploading again to the cloud where you actually want the files.

Box Drive does not fix it

The desktop app that mounts Box as a drive has its own problems. Slowness that appears for no reason,^[3] files that refuse to upload after an OS update, folders that will not open.^[4] Relying on Box Drive to copy a large folder out can stall exactly when you need the data most.

Blober downloads files one at a time, over the API

Blober connects to Box through the API, not the web client and not Box Drive. That changes the download in a few concrete ways:

each file downloads on its own, so there is no server-side zip to wait for or retry;
progress is per file, and an interrupted task resumes without redoing what is already done;
you pick where the files land, which can be a local folder, an external drive, a NAS, or another cloud like Google Drive or pCloud, so you do not download once to your machine and upload again;
nothing depends on the state of the Box Drive app on your computer.

Connect Box as the source, choose a destination, select the folder, and run the workflow. A whole client's project is where the difference shows up immediately.

Frequently asked questions

Why does Box zip my downloads?

The web interface batches multiple selected files into a server-side zip. It is convenient for a few documents and painful for a folder of large media files, because the zip preparation is slow and the download can time out.

What is the Box bandwidth cap?

Box's Fair Use Policy limits users to about 1 TB of bandwidth per month. Exceed it and Box can throttle the account for the remainder of the month and warn of further limits.^[5] Downloading files once, deliberately, instead of retrying failed browser batches, keeps you inside it.

Do I need Box Drive to download my files?

No. Blober uses the Box API directly, so a slow or broken Box Drive does not block the transfer.

My Box account is free. Are there file size limits?

Free accounts cap individual files low (around 250 MB), and paid plans raise it, with Business listing 5 GB per file.^[6] The limit that matters for a bulk download is on your plan's terms, not on Blober's side. Blober transfers the files your account can hold.

Can I download Box files straight to another cloud?

Yes. Pick any supported provider as the destination and Blober streams each file there, so the data does not stage as a full second copy on your disk.

What happens if the download drops halfway?

Resume the task. Completed files stay completed and the rest continue.

Get Blober

Blober is a one-time purchase with a lifetime license. No subscription, no transfer fees, no per-GB cap. It runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Download Blober at blober.io

Moving Out of Box: Graduation, Job Change, or a Closing Account

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Box accounts disappear more often than people expect. A university closes graduating students' accounts.^[1] A job hands you a departure date. A business stops paying for Box and the admin deletes the account on a schedule. One day the files are there, the next they are a support ticket.

The shape is consistent. Someone with a few hundred gigabytes in Box gets the deadline, asks around for the easiest way out, and the advice comes back as sign up for Google Drive or buy an external drive.^[2] Both answers assume a manual download and re-upload, and neither one moves a folder tree. The tooling for the actual job is missing, and that is the job Blober is built for.

The manual route is a download-and-reupload chore

To move a Box account by hand you download each folder from the web client, then upload it to the new home. Box's web downloads are the hard part: select several files and Box builds a zip that takes a long time to prepare and can time out.^[3] Then you are re-uploading the same data, which doubles the bandwidth you spend and the time you lose.

An external drive only helps if you have one, if it is big enough, and if you do not mind the data passing through it before it reaches its real destination.

Blober moves the folder tree, not a flat pile

Blober reads Box through the API and writes each file to the destination you choose, so the structure you see in Box is recreated where the files land:

pick Box as the source and pick the destination, which can be Google Drive, pCloud, a local disk, an external drive, a NAS, or an S3-compatible bucket;
the folder tree is rebuilt at the destination, so you are not left with one flat pile of files;
you can preview the selection and the destination paths before you run anything;
transfers resume on their own, so a dropout does not restart the account;
no browser zips, no temporary external drive, no script.

Connect Box, connect the destination, and run a workflow with Box as the source.

If your account has a deletion date

Give yourself room to check the result. The practical sequence is:

run the transfer with the account still open;
open a sample of files at the destination, especially the folders that matter most, and compare file counts between the two sides;
only then close or forget the Box account.

Keep the old account until you have confirmed the copy. A deadline is exactly the situation where a resumable, per-file transfer beats a browser session.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an external drive to move out of Box?

No. Blober sends files from Box to the destination directly. A local or external drive is just one of the destination options, not a required stop.

Does the folder structure survive the move?

Yes. The folders you select in Box are recreated at the destination.

Can I go from Box to Google Drive, pCloud, or a NAS?

Yes. Any of those can be the destination in the same workflow.

What about Box file size limits?

You can transfer the files your Box account can hold. The limits that apply are your plan's terms, not a Blober restriction.

What if the transfer drops partway through?

Resume the task. Files already transferred stay done and the rest continue.

How do I verify the move before the account closes?

Open a sample of files at the destination and compare file counts for the folders you care about. Keep the Box account until you are satisfied.

Is there a subscription or per-GB fee?

No. Blober is a one-time purchase with a lifetime license.

Get Blober

Blober runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. No subscription, no transfer fees, no per-GB cap.

Download Blober at blober.io

pCloud Uploads Are Slow. The Client, Not the Service, Is Usually Why.

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Slow pCloud uploads are routinely blamed on pCloud. The bottleneck is usually the desktop client, not the service. There are two paths into pCloud, and they behave very differently.

Where the slowness usually comes from

The pCloud desktop client, the thing that mounts a P: drive and syncs folders, does a lot of work per file. It stages uploads through a local cache, so the final stage of an upload touches disk on your machine.^[1] It serializes work, so small files queue up and take a long time.^[2] And it does not always recover cleanly, so people end up reinstalling it and testing their connection while the real cause sits in the app.^[3]

The same account and the same connection produce two very different results depending on which path the bytes take. The client path crawls. The API path runs at the speed your connection allows.^[4]

That split is why the common workaround is to zip a folder first, upload the one big file, then unzip it in the cloud. It is a workaround for the client's behavior with many small files, not for the service.

The API path is the fast path

pCloud exposes a normal API. Files upload over it with a single request, and the API does not carry the client's cache or serialization. Terabyte-scale libraries move over that path at full connection speed. It is the same route Blober takes.

What Blober does differently

Blober is a desktop app, but it does not use the pCloud client or the P: drive mount. It talks to the pCloud API directly, without the command line:

you pick the source and destination in a file browser instead of typing rclone flags;
each file uploads as its own request with progress shown;
a file that fails on a transient error (pCloud returns 4xxx for throttling and 5xxx for temporary failures)^[5] is retried automatically;
completed files stay done when a task is interrupted, so a dropped connection does not restart the whole job.

The guide on connecting pCloud covers the authorization, which takes seconds because Blober ships the public app keys.

What Blober does not change

Two limits stay honest. If pCloud is throttling a specific account or a busy network path, no tool changes that, and Blober does not pretend otherwise. And pCloud has no resumable upload for a single large file, so a multi-gigabyte file that fails retries from the start of that file.^[6] The difference is that the rest of the task is untouched and the same file does not fail silently in a queue while you wait.

If uploads from the pCloud client have been the problem, try a Blober workflow before you abandon the plan. The files you are trying to upload will tell you whether the service or the client was the slow part.

Frequently asked questions

Does Blober make pCloud upload faster?

It removes the desktop client's cache and serialization, which is the reported bottleneck. It does not override server-side throttling, so results depend on the account and the connection.

Do I still need to zip folders before uploading?

No. Zipping was a workaround for the client. Blober sends the files as they are.

What happens if a file fails mid-upload?

Blober retries the file and keeps the task going. Files already uploaded stay uploaded. A single large file that fails starts over because pCloud has no resumable upload, but nothing else in the job is redone.

Does Blober use the pCloud Drive cache on my disk?

No. It streams through the API, so it does not fill the local cache the desktop client uses.

I have a lifetime plan. Does that matter for uploads?

No. Blober connects to the account either way.

Is this the same as rclone?

The upload path is the same idea. Blober is the part rclone is not: a visual app where you browse both sides, build the workflow, and watch progress without editing a config file.

Get Blober

Blober is a one-time purchase with a lifetime license. No subscription, no transfer fees, no per-GB cap. It runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Download Blober at blober.io

Treat pCloud Like an Archive, Not a Sync Drive

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

pCloud is good at one thing and risky at another. The split matters more than the product marketing does, and it is worth being clear about which side you are on.

The good part is the archive. The use that works is treating pCloud like a cloud external drive: keep RAW photos, music libraries, documents, and other files off the laptop's SSD, upload them, and leave them there. It is a sensible use, and a lifetime plan makes it a good deal.

The risky part is sync. The failure reports people file follow a consistent pattern. Someone edits a file on one device while another device still holds the old version. The stale version syncs back and overwrites the newer work, and the person does not find out until it is gone. pCloud's own support tells people not to edit application-specific files directly on the pCloud Drive (P:) and to keep them in a local working folder instead.^[1]

The danger is not pCloud the archive. It is treating the sync drive as a place to edit live files. pCloud sync does not always flag a conflict, name a conflicted copy, or tell you it happened. You only find out after the old version has overwritten the new one.^[2]

Use pCloud as an archive, and back up to it deliberately

The safe pattern is to keep pCloud as a destination you write to, not a drive you edit on. You decide what goes up, you see it go up, and you can verify the result. That is a copy operation, not a sync operation.

Blober fits that pattern exactly. It is a transfer tool, not a sync client. You pick a source folder, pick a pCloud folder, run the workflow, and the files land in pCloud with per-file progress and resume. Nothing syncs in the background, and nothing overwrites a file you did not ask to touch.

The pCloud guide shows the setup, which takes seconds because the app ships the public app keys.

Keep a second copy

There are two reasons a single pCloud account should not be your only copy.

The first is traffic. pCloud ties download traffic to plan size, so a large account can hit the limit fast if you pull data back down repeatedly.^[3] If pCloud holds the only copy of your photos, every restore is a download against that cap. A second copy somewhere else means you only download from pCloud when you actually need to.

The second is the account itself. Accounts get revoked, plans lapse, support tickets sit for days, and pCloud has publicly handled account cancellations for policy reasons.^[4] None of that has to be fatal if the files also live somewhere you control.

Blober mirrors an archive to another place in the same kind of workflow. Copy a pCloud folder to a local disk, a NAS, or a second cloud, and the pCloud copy stops being a single point of failure. The 3-2-1 rule of thumb applies here the same way it does everywhere else: one cloud account is one copy.

What Blober is not

Blober does not do two-way sync, and it does not claim to. If you want live multi-device editing with conflict handling, you want a product built for that. Blober is for the deliberate jobs: fill the archive, organize it while it moves, keep a second copy, and leave pCloud as the safe archive it was bought to be.

Frequently asked questions

Can I edit files directly on the pCloud drive?

pCloud's own guidance is to edit in a local working folder and sync after. Editing application or database files on the P: drive is where the data loss cases come from.^[5]

What is the pCloud download traffic cap?

pCloud ties monthly download traffic to plan size on many plans. Blober cannot change that limit, which is why the practical answer is a second copy so you rarely need to download from pCloud at all.

Is my pCloud lifetime plan enough as my only copy?

A single account is a single point of failure, no matter how it is billed. Blober can keep a second copy on local storage, a NAS, or another cloud.

Does Blober sync my folders both ways?

No. Blober does deliberate copy and move workflows with visible progress and resume. It does not watch folders and reconcile changes in the background.

Can Blober copy from pCloud to a local drive or NAS?

Yes. pCloud works as a source in the same way it works as a destination. Select the folder, pick the local or NAS destination, and run it.

Get Blober

Blober is a one-time purchase with a lifetime license. No subscription, no transfer fees, no per-GB cap. It runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Download Blober at blober.io

Transferring GoPro Footage to iCloud Drive on a Mac

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Copying GoPro footage to iCloud Drive

You can transfer GoPro footage into the iCloud Drive folder on a Mac, and blober will mark the task complete with every file written. It is a reasonable option when you want the footage available across your Apple devices or viewable from iCloud.com. The main thing to understand is that iCloud Drive is a cloud folder, not an ordinary local one, so a few behaviors are worth knowing before you start.

What to expect

When you choose iCloud Drive as the destination, blober writes the files to a folder at a hidden path (~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs). Finder shows that folder in the sidebar as iCloud Drive. The files are real and appear on iCloud.com, but they do not show up in Home, Documents, or Downloads. Depending on your storage settings, macOS may keep only a cloud copy and download the file to the disk only when you open it.

How Optimize Mac Storage works

macOS can remove the local copy of an iCloud Drive file and keep only the version in iCloud. With the Optimize Mac Storage setting on, it does this automatically when the internal disk runs low, starting with the files you have not opened recently.^[1] The file is not deleted, it is re-downloaded the next time you open it.

You control this per file or folder in iCloud Drive. Choose Keep Downloaded to pin an item so macOS does not remove its local copy. It applies per device, and choosing it on a folder keeps the whole folder and anything you add to it local.^[2] Choose Remove Download to free space on purpose, deleting only the local copy while the file stays in iCloud.

This is separate from the iCloud Photos optimize setting, which keeps smaller versions of photos and videos on the device and the originals in the cloud.

Finding the files after the transfer

Open iCloud Drive in Finder and look for the folder that mirrors your source. For a GoPro copy that is usually a date folder (such as 2025-12-01) containing HERO12 Black/videos/ and HERO12 Black/photos/.
Check iCloud.com while signed in, under iCloud Drive.

Search from the terminal to confirm the files exist and locate them:

find "$HOME/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs" \( -iname "*.MP4" -o -iname "*.JPG" \) 2>/dev/null

To keep real local copies, right-click a file or folder and choose Download Now or Keep Downloaded.

Not sure the transfer worked? Test with a normal local folder

If you want to check that blober transferred everything correctly, run the task again to a normal local folder such as Desktop or Downloads, then look for the files there:

find "$HOME/Desktop" \( -iname "*.MP4" -o -iname "*.JPG" \) 2>/dev/null

If the files show up on the Desktop, the transfer is fine and the earlier confusion was just iCloud Drive hiding the files, not a failed copy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can't I find my files after the transfer? iCloud Drive is a cloud folder, so files you just transferred do not appear in the usual local spots. They are still there. Open iCloud Drive in Finder, or sign in at iCloud.com and look under iCloud Drive.

The files show a small cloud icon. What does that mean? The file is in iCloud but not downloaded to the disk yet. macOS offloads local copies to save space, usually only when the internal drive runs low. To keep a local copy, right-click and choose Keep Downloaded or Download Now.^[3]

How do I stop macOS from offloading my footage? Right-click the folder or files in iCloud Drive in Finder and choose Keep Downloaded. This pins them so the local copies stay even when the disk is low. It applies per device, and pinning a folder keeps everything in it, including files you add later.^[4]

I removed the local copy. Are the files gone? No. The Remove Download option deletes only the downloaded copy and keeps the file in iCloud. Choose Download Now to bring it back to the disk.^[5]

The task finished, but one file is missing on iCloud.com. Uploading can lag. Large files upload over time, and a photo can trail a video even though blober wrote both at the same time. Watch the small info icon next to iCloud Drive in Finder for progress and give it a few minutes.

Will my GoPro footage fit in iCloud storage? You get 5 GB free, and GoPro files are large, so the account can fill up and syncing stalls.^[6] Check used space in System Settings under Apple Account, then iCloud, before a big transfer, and free room or upgrade if needed.

If I save to Desktop or Documents, is that a local copy? Not always. macOS can sync your Desktop and Documents folders into iCloud Drive. If that toggle is on, a file saved there lives in iCloud and can be offloaded. Check System Settings under Apple Account, then iCloud, then Drive, for the Desktop & Documents Folders switch.

Will my photos go into the Photos app? No. iCloud Photos keeps media in the Photos library, while files in iCloud Drive stay as files. Your JPGs stay in the Drive folder and do not join the Photos app on their own.

Does iCloud support all GoPro formats? Apple's published list covers HEVC, MP4, and JPEG, but not GoPro's GPR RAW or 360 project formats.^[7] If your camera uses an unusual format, test a real sample before moving a whole library.

Other folders to use for a local copy

If you want the footage stored physically on the Mac, pick a folder that is not synced to iCloud. Turn off the Desktop & Documents Folders switch in System Settings under Apple Account, then iCloud, then Drive, or use a folder outside those two. Desktop, Documents, and Downloads work well once they are not synced. Otherwise, move the files out of iCloud Drive after the transfer.

Get Blober

Blober is the only desktop app that connects to GoPro Cloud and moves your footage where you want it. One-time purchase, no subscription, no per-GB fees.

Download Blober at blober.io

How to back up OneDrive to Backblaze B2

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

OneDrive is good at keeping files available across your devices. It is not a separate backup. A deleted folder, a compromised account, or a bad sync can reach every device connected to the same account.

Backblaze B2 gives you a copy outside Microsoft's ecosystem. Blober can now read OneDrive through Microsoft Graph and write those files directly to B2, so you do not need to download the whole library first.

Why the desktop folder is a poor backup source

OneDrive Files On-Demand keeps online-only files as placeholders on your disk. They look like ordinary files in Finder or File Explorer, but the content stays in Microsoft's cloud until something opens the file.

That saves disk space. It also means a backup tool that reads only the local OneDrive folder may see a placeholder instead of the file itself. The usual workaround is to select "Always keep on this device" and wait for OneDrive to download everything. For a large account, that can take hours and may not fit on the computer at all.

Blober avoids the local folder. It requests each file from OneDrive through Microsoft Graph, then streams it to Backblaze B2 through your computer. Files On-Demand does not enter the path.

Why use B2 for a OneDrive backup

The useful part is separation. Your working files stay in OneDrive, while the backup lives under a different provider and account. B2 also uses S3-compatible object storage, which suits archives that you expect to keep longer than you actively edit them.

This transfer copies files and folders. It does not reproduce Microsoft sharing permissions, version history, comments, or recycle-bin contents.

How to copy OneDrive to Backblaze B2

Connect Microsoft OneDrive in Blober.
Connect Backblaze B2 with your key ID, application key, and bucket.
Create a workflow with OneDrive as the source and B2 as the destination.
Choose the OneDrive folder and the destination path in your bucket.
Start the workflow and keep Blober open until it finishes.

Blober recreates the folder structure in B2. The data passes through the computer running Blober, but it is not staged as a second full copy on disk.

What the OneDrive connection can see

Blober reads the signed-in user's default OneDrive. That includes ordinary files and folders in "My files." It does not include "Shared with me," SharePoint or Teams libraries, OneNote notebooks, Personal Vault, or shortcuts to another drive.

If a shared file must be part of the backup, first download it and upload it to your own OneDrive as an ordinary file. An "Add shortcut to My files" shortcut is still a reference to another drive, so Blober skips it.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to mark every OneDrive file "Always keep on this device"?

No. Blober reads the cloud copy through Microsoft Graph rather than backing up the local OneDrive sync folder.

Does the transfer need free disk space equal to my OneDrive library?

No. Files stream through the computer running Blober and are not stored there as a complete intermediate copy.

Is Backblaze B2 a full OneDrive clone?

No. It receives the files and folder structure. OneDrive permissions, links, comments, version history, and deleted items do not transfer.

Can Blober include files shared with me?

Not from OneDrive. Microsoft's old "Shared with me" Graph endpoint is deprecated, requires broader access to read remote items, and will stop returning data after November 2026. Blober keeps the narrower Files.ReadWrite permission and reads only the signed-in user's drive.

Get Blober

Move your OneDrive files to Backblaze B2 without first filling your disk.

Download Blober at blober.io

OneDrive or Google Drive: moving between Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Changing cloud storage is usually part of a bigger move. A company adopts Google Workspace, a school issues Microsoft 365 accounts, or a family decides it no longer wants to pay for two storage plans. The files are only one part of that decision, but they are the part that has to come with you.

Blober transfers files in either direction between OneDrive and Google Drive. It streams them through your computer, so you do not need enough free disk space to download the entire account first.

When OneDrive to Google Drive makes sense

Google Drive fits best when most work already happens in Gmail, Google Docs, Meet, and Calendar. A move from OneDrive can make sense when:

your company or school has standardized on Google Workspace;
people collaborate mainly in Docs, Sheets, and Slides;
Chromebooks or browser-based work have replaced Windows desktops;
you want storage billed under an existing Google One or Workspace plan.

Office files do not have to be converted during the transfer. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files arrive in Google Drive as .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx files. Google can open and edit them, and you can choose later whether to convert them to native Google formats.

When Google Drive to OneDrive makes sense

OneDrive is the more natural home when work revolves around Windows, Microsoft 365, Teams, and the desktop versions of Office. People commonly move in this direction because:

their organization has moved to Microsoft 365;
Office formatting needs to survive round trips without surprises;
Teams and SharePoint are now the main places where people collaborate;
OneDrive storage is already included in a Microsoft 365 plan.

The main catch is Google's native file formats. A Google Doc is not a normal .docx file sitting in Drive. When Blober moves native Google files out of Drive, it exports Docs to .docx, Sheets to .xlsx, and Slides to .pptx. Those copies open in Microsoft Office, but Google comments, revision history, sharing rules, and some format-specific features do not come with them.

What moves in each direction

Source	Destination	File behavior
OneDrive	Google Drive	Office files and other regular files keep their existing formats
Google Drive	OneDrive	Native Docs, Sheets, and Slides export to Microsoft Office formats
Either service	The other service	Folder structure is recreated; sharing rules, links, comments, and version history are not

There is one difference around shared files. Blober exposes Google Drive's "Shared with me" list as a read-only source. OneDrive does not offer an equivalent usable root through the narrow permission Blober requests, so its shared items and cross-drive shortcuts are not shown.

How to move from OneDrive to Google Drive

Connect OneDrive with a Microsoft app client ID.
Connect Google Drive.
Create a workflow with OneDrive as the source and Google Drive as the destination.
Select the source folder and destination folder.
Run the workflow and keep Blober open until it finishes.

After the transfer, open a sample of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in Google Drive before closing the old account. Decide whether to leave them in Office format or convert the files you still edit.

How to move from Google Drive to OneDrive

Use the same process in reverse: choose Google Drive as the source and OneDrive as the destination. Include "Shared with me" only for files you are allowed to copy and want to keep. Native Google files are exported during the transfer.

Check a few converted documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in Microsoft Office afterward. Complex layouts, formulas, fonts, and embedded Google-only features deserve a manual look.

Before you cancel the old account

Compare file counts and inspect the folders that matter most. Keep the old account available until you have checked converted documents and confirmed that other people can reach the new location.

Then recreate sharing permissions in the destination. File ownership, organization policies, public links, and team memberships belong to the old service and cannot be carried over as ordinary files.

Frequently asked questions

Can I move between OneDrive and Google Drive without downloading everything?

Yes. Blober streams each file through the computer running the app instead of staging the whole library on disk.

Will Google Docs work in OneDrive?

Blober exports Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats. Check complex files after conversion because the two editors do not support every feature in exactly the same way.

Will Office files become Google Docs automatically?

No. They arrive in Google Drive as Office files. Google Drive can edit them in that format, or you can convert selected files later.

Does the migration copy shared files?

Google Drive's "Shared with me" items can be selected as a read-only source. OneDrive's "Shared with me" items and shortcuts to other drives are not available in Blober.

Get Blober

Move the files once, check the result, and finish the ecosystem switch without renting a permanent sync service.

Download Blober at blober.io

AzCopy S3 to Azure: How It Works and the Limits to Check

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

AzCopy does not download S3 data through your computer

AzCopy's documented AWS S3 transfer uses Azure's Put Block From URL operation. AWS S3 and Azure Storage exchange the object data without using your computer's network bandwidth.^[1]

That makes AzCopy a strong option for teams comfortable with a command line. It can copy one object, a directory, a bucket, or broader groups of AWS buckets.

The migration still needs planning. Server-to-server describes the data route. It does not solve naming, metadata, authentication, or destination-tier decisions.

Authentication is different on each side

The Azure side can use Microsoft Entra ID or a SAS token. The documented AWS flow uses an AWS access key and secret access key supplied through environment variables.

Protect shell history, scripts, logs, and CI output from credentials. Use the narrowest permissions that cover the source and destination.

Bucket names may change

AWS S3 bucket names and Azure container names allow different characters. AzCopy rewrites names that Azure cannot accept.

Periods can become hyphens. Consecutive hyphens can also be rewritten. Two distinct S3 bucket names may therefore map to the same Azure container name, forcing another rename.

Create a bucket-to-container map before a large migration. Do not discover the naming plan from the destination after the copy is complete.

Invalid metadata needs an explicit choice

S3 and Azure also allow different metadata-key characters. AzCopy provides --s2s-handle-invalid-metadata with three behaviors:

ExcludeIfInvalid omits incompatible metadata and logs a warning.
FailIfInvalid fails that object.
RenameIfInvalid changes the metadata key.

The default exclusion behavior can produce a successful object copy with missing metadata. If metadata affects retention, compliance, processing, or ownership, review this flag before running the job.

AWS S3 is not every S3-compatible service

Microsoft's documented S3 flow uses AWS S3 URL formats. Do not assume the same command accepts every Wasabi, Cloudflare R2, MinIO, DigitalOcean Spaces, or private S3-compatible endpoint.

Test the exact provider and endpoint. A tool that supports generic S3 endpoint URLs may be a better fit for non-AWS sources.

When a desktop workflow fits better

Use AzCopy when server-to-server speed, scripting, automation, and repeatable command lines suit the team.

Use a desktop tool when the operator needs visual file selection, browsing, previews, and fewer command flags. Blober connects AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, and generic S3-compatible endpoints in one local interface. Its data path is different from AzCopy's server-side AWS path, so choose based on network, security, and operational needs rather than calling either design universally better.

AzCopy also supports job resume and restart. Its source code and current release details are published on GitHub.^[2]

Get Blober

AzCopy is a good command-line tool for AWS S3. When you want visual browsing, previews, destination tier selection, and generic S3-compatible endpoints, Blober covers the same move from a desktop app.

Download Blober at blober.io

Dropbox to Google Drive Without Downloading: What That Really Means

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The file bytes still have to move

"Transfer without downloading" usually means "do not make me save the whole library to my disk and upload it again by hand."

It does not mean the file jumps from Dropbox into Google Drive without any computer reading and uploading the bytes.

The Google Drive API supports simple, multipart, and resumable uploads. Each method sends file data to Google in the request body. Google does not provide a Drive endpoint where a migration tool submits a Dropbox URL and asks Drive to fetch it.^[1]

Some computer must read the Dropbox file and push those bytes to Drive.

Three routes

Full local download and upload

The manual method stores a full local copy first:

Dropbox -> local disk -> Google Drive

It is easy to understand and uses no migration service. It also needs free disk space for the library and creates two separate jobs to monitor.

Stream through your computer

A desktop transfer can read part of a Dropbox file and upload that part to Drive while the rest is still arriving:

Dropbox -> your computer's memory -> Google Drive

The data uses your internet connection, but the app does not need to stage the entire library on disk. Blober uses this model.

Stream through a hosted relay

A hosted migration service can run the same read-and-upload work on its own server:

Dropbox -> migration provider -> Google Drive

Your laptop does not need to stay online. The provider's server, credentials, transfer limits, and retention practices become part of the route.

Do not assume every hosted service stores a full second copy. Ask the provider. The relevant question is where the bytes and credentials pass, not whether the marketing page uses the phrase "cloud to cloud."

Streaming does not remove provider limits

A streamed transfer still follows both APIs. Dropbox must allow the download. Google Drive must accept the upload. Rate limits, large-file rules, name conflicts, and provider-native records can still affect the result.

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides need special handling in the reverse direction because they are not ordinary downloadable files in the same way as a PDF or JPEG.

Migration is not sync

A migration copies or moves a selected set. Two-way sync watches both providers and reconciles later changes.

If you need a one-time provider switch, use a migration workflow and keep the source until the destination is verified. If you need both accounts to mirror every future edit, choose a sync product and define conflict rules before enabling it.

A safer migration sequence

Transfer one representative folder.
Check nested folders and filenames.
Open small documents and large media files.
Review failures and provider-native records.
Copy the rest.
Keep Dropbox unchanged until the Drive copy is trusted.

"Without downloading" can describe a useful convenience. The honest version should always say where the transfer runs and whether a full local copy is stored.

Get Blober

Blober streams each file from Dropbox through your computer to Google Drive without staging the whole library on disk. Your credentials stay local and no Blober server sits in the path.

Download Blober at blober.io

GoPro Cloud Auto Upload Not Working: A Practical Checklist

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Start with the two requirements

GoPro auto upload is not a background cellular upload. The normal camera workflow starts when the camera is charging and connected to a Wi-Fi network it knows.

GoPro's subscription terms confirm the Wi-Fi requirement.^[1] If either power or Wi-Fi is missing, waiting longer will not fix the upload.

Check these first:

Connect the camera to power.
Confirm that the camera is using a saved Wi-Fi network.
Leave the camera connected while it finds and uploads new media.
Confirm that the GoPro subscription on the account is active.

Do not treat a phone's cellular connection as proof that the camera has internet access. The camera needs its own working Wi-Fi connection.

Confirm that the network is the one the camera expects

A camera can be beside a working router and still fail to upload. The saved network name or password may have changed. Guest networks and sign-in pages can also block devices that cannot complete a browser login.

Test with the same ordinary home or office network that previously worked. If that succeeds, the problem is probably the other network rather than the camera or cloud library.

Avoid changing several settings at once. One controlled test tells you more than resetting the camera, app, router, and account together.

Check whether the footage is already in the library

Open Quik and check the cloud library before restarting the upload. A clip may have uploaded even if the camera or app did not show the progress you expected.

Compare a small, recent recording with the cloud library. A one-minute test clip is easier to trace than a full card from a weekend shoot.

Separate camera upload problems from library download problems

Auto upload sends new camera media into GoPro Cloud. Downloading an existing cloud library is a different job.

If the footage is already in GoPro Cloud, reconnecting the camera will not help you copy it to a computer, NAS, Google Drive, or another storage provider. For that job, use the GoPro web download in small batches or a transfer tool that connects to the existing cloud library.

Blober connects to GoPro Cloud as a source. It streams the selected files through your computer to a local drive, NAS, or another provider. The files do not need to be downloaded as ZIP archives first.

Do not use one cloud copy as the test

An auto-upload feature is convenient, but it should not be the only place where years of footage live. Once the upload starts working again, copy important media to storage you control and open a sample from the destination.

A useful backup check is simple:

The expected number of files arrived.
Recent and old clips both open.
Large videos play past the first few seconds.
The destination is not tied to the same subscription.

Fix the upload first. Then make sure the next camera or account problem cannot take the archive with it.

Get Blober

Once the upload works again, keep a copy that does not depend on the subscription. Blober connects to GoPro Cloud and writes your library to a local drive, a NAS, or another cloud provider.

Download Blober at blober.io

GoPro Cloud vs iCloud, OneDrive, and an External Drive

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

These storage options solve different jobs

GoPro Cloud, iCloud, OneDrive, and an external drive can all hold video. That does not make them interchangeable.

GoPro Cloud is built around camera upload and Quik. iCloud is built around Apple devices and photo libraries. OneDrive is built around ordinary files, Windows, and Microsoft 365. An external drive is local storage that you own and manage.

The useful comparison is not "which one is best?" It is "which one should capture, share, and archive the footage?"

GoPro Cloud: easiest camera workflow

GoPro Cloud has the cleanest path from a compatible GoPro camera into an online library. When the camera charges on a saved Wi-Fi network, it can upload new footage for use in Quik.

The tradeoff is account dependence. The cloud benefit follows the subscription. Unlimited storage also applies to compatible GoPro-captured footage, not every file from every camera.^[1]

Use it when automatic camera ingestion and Quik editing matter. Keep another copy when the footage matters beyond the current subscription.

iCloud: strong inside the Apple photo library

iCloud Photos keeps full-resolution originals in the cloud and can leave smaller device copies when Optimize Storage is enabled. Apple documents support for HEIF, JPEG, RAW, PNG, GIF, TIFF, HEVC, and MP4.^[2]

That covers common GoPro MP4 and HEVC video, but Apple's published list does not include GoPro's GPR RAW format or 360 project formats. Check a real sample before moving an unusual camera library.

iCloud is a good fit when the footage belongs in an Apple Photos workflow. It is less useful when editors, clients, or archive machines work outside that ecosystem.

OneDrive treats footage as files inside folders. That makes it easier to place video beside project documents and share it through Microsoft 365.

Microsoft currently documents a 250 GB maximum per file. It also recommends keeping normal sync workloads below 300,000 items for best performance, with a newer Windows-only preview raising the supported count for qualifying systems.^[3]

OneDrive is practical for active projects and familiar Windows folders. A large archive may need more planning around capacity, item counts, and sync behavior.

External drive: simple ownership, single-device risk

An external drive has no cloud subscription and works without internet access. It is often the fastest place to edit large video files.

One drive is not a complete backup. Drives fail, cables are pulled, and portable disks are easy to lose. Keep at least one more copy in another physical location or cloud account.

A practical split

For many GoPro users, the clean setup uses more than one destination:

GoPro Cloud receives footage from the camera.
A computer or fast external SSD handles editing.
OneDrive or iCloud holds active shared work when it fits the team.
A second drive, NAS, or object-storage account holds the long-term archive.

Blober can move the GoPro Cloud library into local storage or another provider. That lets the camera workflow stay convenient without making the subscription the archive's only home.

Get Blober

Let each service do the job it is good at, then keep the archive somewhere you control. Blober moves your GoPro Cloud library to local storage, a NAS, or another cloud provider.

Download Blober at blober.io

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