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photo management

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

Move photos from My Files to Proton Photos with Blober - select all photos with one glob and move them in a single workflow, or send non-photos back to Files

The Move Proton Won't Let You Make

Section titled "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

Section titled "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

Section titled "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:

  1. In Blober, add Proton Drive as the source and browse into My Files.

  2. Add Proton Drive as the destination and choose the Photos surface.

  3. 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.

  1. 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

Section titled "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:

  1. Set Proton Photos as the source and My Files (a folder) as the destination.

  2. 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}.

  3. 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

Section titled "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.

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