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It is possible, but it requires installation of protonmail-bridge and some additional configuration of your email client. Theoretically you can use any email client you'd like once you successfully have protonmail-bridge up and working.
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> You can: https://protonmail.com/bridge/
Directly from the page: "The ProtonMail Bridge is an application for paid users". As an unemployed college student, I don't have the kind of budget to pay for email.
> You can also look into Syncthing, it's a serverless peer-to-peer file syncing application.
Personally, I don't know what I would do with a cloud if I had one.
> Why not? incompatible phone i'm assuming?
Yeah, my phone isn't compatible.
Proton mail free gets you 500MB of space, 150 messages a day, and 3 folders and labels. You can set up some desktop clients to work with Proton Mail.
They have a special focus on encrypted communications.
Last I knew they offered a "bridge." The bridge will offer a localhost address to your email client (Thunderbird, Apple Mail, and Outlook 2016 were supported last I checked) and then the bridge handles the data transfer to/from ProtonMail. Seems to be available to paid users.
> Can't access protonmail with thunderbird
You can: https://protonmail.com/bridge/
> I don't have a spare computer I could use to run nextcloud, plus I don't put my own stuff on google drive anyways.
You can also look into Syncthing, it's a serverless peer-to-peer file syncing application.
> I can't run lineageOS or any alternative android version on my phone.
Why not? incompatible phone i'm assuming?
For Protonmail you'll need the Proton Bridge (https://protonmail.com/bridge/) which ensures end-to-end encryption and is only available to paid users. If you install it, you can follow the thunderbird instructions which are pretty similar to vivaldi: https://protonmail.com/bridge/thunderbird#3
You could use a desktop application like Mozilla Thunderbird, and pair it with ProtonMail Bridge
As others have said, it should stay logged in so long as you leave the tab open, and don't restart the computer. If you want a full blown application though, I think Thunderbird is probably the way to go.
Well, you can't do it using only IMAP or SMTP without also forcing the user to manually handle the encryption (which is technically doable in the case of ProtonMail, since ProtonMail uses PGP which has wide support in email clients, but is basically impossible for e.g. TutaNota, since they use AES or something iirc, which doesn't have wide built-in support). The alternative, in the case of ProtonMail, is the Bridge. The bridge basically exposes a local IMAP/SMTP server, which is what you connect your email client to. The bridge handles all automatic encryption and decryption and talks with the ProtonMail servers, so you basically don't have to worry about it at all — it just works.
Seems like POP3 should be easier to keep secure if it is just transferring encrypted blobs for which it has no keys.
A quick web search revealed ProtonMail does provide IMAP access via a bridge as a paid service.
https://protonmail.com/bridge/
Sometimes you have to pay for things which require others’ effort
I just noticed that PM needs a bridge software to be used with an email client like thunderbird, and it's not available for Linux (that I mainly use). It's in beta however so I guess it's coming.
https://protonmail.com/bridge/ Protonmail does support IMAP clients.
As for the services shutting down out of the blue, protonmail is arguably the largest encrypted email service by far. Fear of the service getting shutdown shouldn't be anything your worried about. I'd personally be afraid that yahoo would shutdown before protonmail (this isn't backed by any data just my opinion)
Apart from that, changing email address is by far one of the longest and most tedious task when attempting to become more anonymous online. However, while creating new email you should segregate you "life" into separate email address. For example, I have a personal email which I only give to trusted friends or family members, A work email, a shopping email, subscription email and a "legal/gov" email which I use for any gov form or legal document.
Then, creating temporary email to sign up for services which you aren't 100% sure you will use for a long time will minimize you inbox and contacts size. It's much easier to change your accounts email to your "real" one from a temporary email than it is to get the service/website to delete your account and purge your email from their records (which is most likely impossible).
If you follow these steps and god forbid your email provider informs you that it's shuts down or dirt on the service comes to light which causes you to leavem transitioning to a new provider will be much easier as your very important email are split into their own address so you won't need to manually go through every single email and contact to check if you want/need to give them your new email address.
Obviously this isn't for everyone but a similar modal or system adapted to your life may be something to think about.
I have installed the Protonmail Bridge GUI and paired my mailbox to Geary using the same parameters as describe in this tutorial : https://protonmail.com/bridge/thunderbird#12 . The password required by the STARTTLS protocole are the one given by the Protonmail bridge. I didn't need to generate any gpg key.
You try to use which email client ?
ProtonMail has a bridge app for Outlook users.
https://protonmail.com/bridge/clients
Microsoft doesn't scan your private emails and cannot see inside ProtonMail servers.
Scanning emails is a very specific thing. If you're using the free version of Outlook, then yes ads are how they monetize it, so they want to show you contextual ads based on your emails same as Yahoo, Gmail and all the others.
If you're using company email, those emails are not private, they belong to the company.
If you're using your own domain, on your own ProtonMail account your emails are your own and MS is not scanning them.
However, your ProtonMail emails are only secure and encrypted when you send to other users of ProtonMail. Emails sent to users using free email services or any of the things mentioned above have the same privacy and security risks as the receiver. Not to mention being sent in plain text through relays.
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. ProtonMail cannot account for a weak link in the chain using shit email services.
Hope this helps.
I think you mean email "client" as you've already identified the providers you want to use.
Forwarding features are up to the services you're using. If you want to forward a Gmail inbox to another email address, you set that up in Gmail. They all work this way.
What you may be looking for is an email client like Outlook for which you can import all of your email accounts, and send or respond from which ever you want. You can only respond from an email address if it's imported into the client you're using...then you have all the basic features of sending and receiving.
What you could do is
- Set up your ProtonMail account. You'll likely need a pro account.
- Use the ProtonMail bridge to configure a Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Apple Mail client. https://protonmail.com/bridge/
- Set up that client to also receive your Gmail emails so that you can send from that address
- OR, just forward the Gmail emails to your ProtonMail address, but you will not be able to send from that address. It's only a forward.
You can you ProtonBridge on Desktop with Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird and some other clients. ProtonMail has its own app for mobile phone.
But all of this written and available on the ProtonMail page:
For example https://protonmail.com/bridge/
So I am sure why are you asking here?
I think you are asking if you can use ProtonMail with the built-in mail client. The answer is no.
On desktop computers you have the option of using ProtonMail Bridge to access protonmail messages with your preferred e-mail client.
The only way to access messages on your iphone would be the ProtonMail app or the web interface. I think there are a few unofficial clients as well, YMMV.
> replace Google Services
if this can be replaced then imagine hackers doing it. So in some ways it is better that in a OEM ROM these are not replacable.
Ideally, you debloat your device. use this
https://gitlab.com/W1nst0n/universal-android-debloater
Install k9mail from Fdroid. Then configure https://protonmail.com/bridge/
(I am not a proton mail user so no idea if it works but k9mail is imap)
> like I said I don't want to use
Sorry and sadly, then you need to kiss bye to privacy. Ideally go for r/grapheneos or r/lineageos
You can't do that the way you normally would, because of all the encryption. To use Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever you need to use the Protonmail Bridge program. It runs on your PC and does all the communication with the email server and then your email program talks to the bridge.
"When you add an account to the Bridge it will initially be in combined addresses mode, in which emails from all addresses in the account will be received in the same mailboxes and by default sent with your primary address. If you would like to keep emails associated with each of your addresses separate, then you can switch to split addresses mode. In split addresses mode, you will need to add each of your addresses to your client separately, and emails will be segregated by address in different mailboxes. Unfortunately, if you are using Outlook, it is not possible to add additional sending addresses when in combined address mode, so split addresses mode is required if you would like to send from email addresses other than your primary email address."
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Does this help?
You can use a standard IMAP client like Thunderbird, Apple Mail or Outlook with Proton if you are a paid user. You have to install the Proton Bridge on your computer, which essentially handles the encryption and decryption transparently. It's how I mainly use Proton (with Thunderbird) and it works well.
As u/7pH7 has said, there are official support for Outlook and Thunderbird. You can see there instructions here: https://protonmail.com/bridge/clients
The default Windows e-mail app may or may not work.
Don't know what OS you use https://protonmail.com/bridge/clients
Select the guide for your OS and Client, it explains how to handle the certificate exception.
This depends.. If you have a paid account you can install the ProtonMail Bridge on your computer and as long as its running you can connect via IMAP & SMTP applications.
Nope. You need to go via a ProtonMail Bridge to get SMTP/IMAP access, and it is not really useful for such cloud services.
Since you're already into the AWS universe, they do have some SMTP service you can use that way. Just remember to update the proper SPF records on your sending domain with the AWS servers sending mails.
At the moment, mass deleting emails from the web client isn't possible. You can only select up to 50 messages in a page, since that's how many are shown.
Users on our Plus, Professional and Visionary plans can use ProtonMail Bridge in combination with an email client to do this.
I don't use it myself yet but I was looking into it as I want to switch to ProtonMail.
There seems to be Proton mail Bridge which allows this with any client that supports IMAP and SMTP which would include Thunderbird.
https://protonmail.com/bridge/thunderbird
Not sure if you need plus though to make it work.
If you want IMAP/SMTP and encrypted email, ProtonMail is where it's at. They provide a bridge for customers on paid plans. I've used it for a while now without too many issues, and it's really convenient.
No issues setting up ProtonMail account with Canary either. Sounds like OP did not install the bridge client on the ProtonMail side? Couple months too late here, but happen to have it handy in a tab - https://protonmail.com/bridge/install
Eh, the bridge is available for all paid users (and works decently, at least in my experience). That's also one reason I don't really experience many of the pain points that usually come with an encrypted provider: I simply use my email client to download all of my emails and do searching and such locally. I don't really care how the webapp behaves because I use my email client.
There's also the option to use the ProtonMail Bridge to use it locally with Thunderbird or Outlook. I haven't noticed any issues searching through messages, but that's probably because it's decrypting on a local mail server prior to being access by the client.
Edit: Guess I should have kept scrolling, /u/DragonSided-D had the same suggestion.
Thank you for your suggestion. Currently, selecting all emails can be done using ProtonMail Bridge with a popular email client of your choice. However, this is something we might consider for our web app in the future as well.
On the ProtonMail web app, you can only select up to 50 messages since that's how many are shown per page. However, as a paid user, you can use Bridge in combination with an email client to do this.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-gmail
It takes less than a few minutes to setup, by the way, you can also add multiple mail accounts from various providers and have all of them at one place. I have 4 different accounts setup like this, and its so much easier than crawl all of them via a browser.
Only exception is protonmail, because they require a special client which can end to end encrypt, you have to run this bridge for decryption: https://protonmail.com/bridge/thunderbird
>cant login with thuderbird
There is a software called Bridge involved. Once the Brigge is set up to sync with your ProtonMail inbox, you can use any regular imap mail client to fetch messages from the bridge.
So you log on with the Bridge, which then acts lile a local server on your machine.
>Edit: is there a way to roll back to previous version of the bridge ? I can't find any place to download it.
Not that I would know. I guess I'll make it a habit to download the Bridge installer package every time a new version comes out ...
Couple of thoughts:
- As I've recommended elsewhere on this sub, I'll recommend that you purchase a custom domain. Custom domain addresses are far more flexible in that you can delete them if necessary (unlike regular ProtonMail addresses, which normally cannot be deleted) and disabled custom domain address do not count towards your total address limit (unlike ProtonMail address, which count whether they are enabled or disabled). As an additional perk, you won't have to change your email address(es) any more, since you can simply edit the DNS records to point to your new mail host if or when you decide to switch again.
- Use the Bridge and a customizable email client (e.g. Thunderbird or Mutt or whatever). This should solve a few of the pain-points that you've brought up.
- An external mail client (rather than the ProtonMail web interface) also means you might be able to better manage folders and labels on the client side rather than waiting for the web interface to support nested folders and whatnot.
So, one way to do this is the following is to use the Proton Bridge (only available for paid accounts) to send and receive emails using a local email client (like Thunderbird) instead of using the website. If your email client is configurable enough, you can configure it to do stuff like what you want. For example, in Mutt, I'd be able to configure it to change the from address based on the to address. In fact, I already do this so that emails to the mailing lists I'm subscribed to come from the right address (I subscribe to mailing lists using a separate address, so I can't just send emails to them from my main account and have to use the mailing list-specific address).
If I understand you correctly, you just want to send e-mails from you nextcloud instance and you don't want to receive any messages. Your VPS provider is blocking port 25 (smpt) for relaying e-mails, like many providers do.
- No, it will not affect the protonmail setup.
- The reverse DNS should match an A-record which is pointing to the ip of the VPS. So "mycloud.mydomain.com" would be the best choice in this case.
- The easiest way would be to use the smpt server of your e-mail provider and sending e-mails over authenticated smpt (often port 587). Then you can ignore answer 1 and 2 and don't need to handle anything on your VPS. But this is a little bit tricky when you are using ProtonMail because of their "special" encryption I guess. I think you need to setup an ProtonMail Bridge for that.
I don't like logging in through the UI either, but the service they offer is so good, otherwise. They have a bridge client you can use if you prefer something like Thunderbird and are only running off of your own machines.
ProtonMail Bridge is actually an application that enables the integration of your ProtonMail account with popular email clients, but is not an actual email client. It currently officially supports Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Apple Mail. Bridge runs in the background and seamlessly encrypts and decrypts messages as they enter and leave your computer.
How about programs which are not from AUR?
Protonmail Bridge as example: https://protonmail.com/bridge/install
Should I just wipe old download folder of that PKGBUILD file and simply just reinstall with new file? No need to delete older version etc?
> Protonmail ne me permettait pas de l'utiliser en mode client lourd avec Thunderbird (IMAPS + SMTPS), dans mes souvenirs ce n'est possible qu'avec leur propre client.
Il y a une solution : https://protonmail.com/bridge/
At the moment, mass deleting emails from the web client isn't possible. You can only select up to 50 messages in a page, since that's how many are shown.
Users on our Plus, Professional and Visionary plans can use ProtonMail Bridge in combination with an email client to do this.
Yes, a native desktop client for ProtonMail is on our roadmap! For now, paid users can use Bridge to integrate their ProtonMail account with popular email clients, such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Apple Mail. Bridge runs in the background, and seamlessly encrypts and decrypts messages as they enter and leave your computer.
Hi u/Akemi486, welcome to your new secure, end-to-end encrypted email! As others have mentioned, ProtonMail Bridge is available to users on our Plus plan. All you have to do is install it and configure your email client once you become a paid user. We'd love to hear your feedback when you get a chance to test it out.
Hi, thank you for your questions!
Your ProtonMail account can be officially integrated with email clients such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Apple Mail at the moment using Bridge. However, we are looking into supporting more clients in the future, and we shared your suggestion with our team.
Having ProtonMail native desktop apps is something we are also considering for the future (including for Linux), but we don't have an ETA for this yet.
As for publishing the ProtonMail app on F-Droid — this process has already started but we need to take some steps before doing so. Your patience is greatly appreciated.
We're sorry to hear this. Could you try downloading it again, and see if the installation issue persists? If it does, please contact our Bridge team at [email protected] so they can help you troubleshoot. Thank you for your patience.
It is possible for paid users to integrate their ProtonMail account with email clients such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Apple Mail via Bridge. Bridge is an application that runs in the background and seamlessly encrypts and decrypts messages as they enter and leave your computer.
Configuring your ProtonMail account with another email service (like Gmail) is not possible, however.
With protonmail bridge (https://protonmail.com/bridge/) you can send and receive your proton-mails in Thunderbird (or Outlook) and also configure your edu-mail. All mails in one place.
Have you double checked all the steps here, including the port numbers and security exception?
https://protonmail.com/bridge/thunderbird
I don’t remember the specifics, but I believe I had an issue the first time I tried this with the security exception. If it’s still not working, delete the profile in Thunderbird and try it from scratch to see if it triggers the prompt asking you about the certificate.
The bridge is a background app that runs on your desktop and connects to the proton mail servers. You point your email client to a proxy server the bridge creates on your system. All the bridge does is decrypt the payload from the proton mail server and deliver it to your email client inbox. Once the payload is decrypted, it never leaves your desktop system. When you send mail from your client, it just reverses the process.
Protonmail is available for Linux, I have used it one fedora, Ubuntu and openSUSE
https://protonmail.com/bridge/install
Here is the link to the iOS app
ProtonMail provides IMAP access and macOS support with Protonmail Bridge. It can integrate with Apple Mail.
> I looked at their git and I don't see any telemetry.
You clearly don't understand how emails work, do you? Emails are not a P2P service; your email provider will always be the middleman.
> They host the backend to receive mails and store them locally. Have you wondered why you receive no mails after you disconnect all your devices?
Exactly, those SMTP emails go through regular email servers. Unencrypted.
> +protonmail is far more shady.
Because they want money? You understand that if you aren't paying for a product, you are the product, right?
> They limit you heavily on the free plan,
Stop being cheap and pay for the pro plan, it's not expensive by any means.
> don't let you sync with pop3 or smtp
Clearly you don't have a clue what you're talking about. Educate yourself.
> mail encryption is shit since tou rely on their services as opposed to gpg.
Again, you haven’t done your homework and it shows.
Not to mention that protonmail natively supports sending encrypted emails to none-protonmail accounts. Cryptext does no such thing. In fact, they readily admit that all emails to non-criptext accounts are not encrypted.
Bro, one service is fully fleshed out with solid support and a massive user base. The other is still in its infancy and has given shady answers in the past in regards to how they do business.
Ultimately, the choice is yours, but stop spreading disinformation. Protonmail is better in every single way, except money. But if you can afford 50 bucks, you've got a rock solid email provider based in Sweden.
I wrote the Protonmail support and they sent me this instructions. I had to add the entry manually to get it to work.
Can you click on the search bar on your taskbar and search for Credentials Manager and click on it.
Then click on Windows Credentials, and scroll down a bit and look for Generic Credentials.
Once you find it, search for “protonmail/... ” and click on the dropdown arrow on the left and when on the detail page of the credential entry, click remove to remove the credential from the manager.
If there isn't a "protonmail/..." entry in the Credentials Manager, can you try uninstalling the Bridge app, rebooting your device, and install the Bridge app anew?
https://protonmail.com/bridge/install
We are investigating this issue and we've discerned that for some reason the Bridge app has trouble accessing the Windows Credentials manager and is unable to add your ProtonMail credentials in it.
If your issue still persists, as a test, could you manually create a generic credential and input any details in the Credentials Manager (it doesn't have to be your ProtonMail credentials or any credentials for that matter) and then start Bridge and try to add your ProtonMail account?
> 0x800CCC0E
That's a pretty generic error basically means that there's a configuration problem with Outlook. My best suggestion is to go back through PM's documentation for configuring your client and verify that all settings are correct. https://protonmail.com/bridge/clients
Only if you’re a paid user. Use the Import/Export tool. Alternatively, use the bridge to connect to an email client and create a backup from there
Good to hear! Can recommend using the beta version of the browser version and when migrating your contacts and emails using the Proton Bridge feature - makes the migration pretty painless and super fast!
I just updated, and right off the bat it's slowing down my computer and telling me it needs to re-download basically everything in my Inbox. In the meantime, I can't read anything. This is not off to a good start.
Moreover, the bridge website still says simply "beta" for the linux version. Can you please give me some kind of timeline as to when I will be able to just download a .deb file without having to make a special request by email? It's been more than two years now.
No, they don't support standard protocols like IMAP and SMTP, they use their own encryption module to ensure privacy on web. They do provide an IMAP bridge in the paid subscription though. But you may check out one of the several other webmail providers if you need IMAP.
The only available Bridge version on your site is v1.2.3: https://protonmail.com/bridge/download. And that's what I was using, or rather was trying to use.
Anyway, thanks for trying to help. A bit too late for me though, since I already canceled my Pro subscription and moved to a different service. But I'll be monitoring the situation with Bridge and hopefully will switch back to ProtonMail someday.
v1.2.4.
It is better than it was before. Still though:
Why do paying customers using Linux still need to email and request permission to try the beta? Why isn't there a .deb that can just be downloaded from the site?
That s what i thought too.
ProtonMail would be able to integrate into outlook and we are only 5 or 6 users through this https://protonmail.com/bridge/
However, i ll definitely look into the obvious popular choices too.
Thanks!
You needa Plus subscription
1- Either use the import tool
https://protonmail.com/blog/import-export-beta/
2- Or Bridge
Setup your gmail on an email client compatible with Bridge ( https://protonmail.com/bridge/) Let it sync
Download Bridge, setup your PM account on the same client.
Drag and drop your messages from Gmail to PM inbox.
I did the import tool on a Mac and from Gmail without any trouble
If you are subscribed to one of our paid ProtonMail plans, you can install our Bridge app and configure your ProtonMail account with Apple Mail. You can read more about in detail about it on the following link: https://protonmail.com/bridge/
Hey!
I found way to get around ProtonMail's "poor" search tool, by upgrading to a paid account (plus) you can install the ProtonBridge which in turn will allow you to send/receive emails on a lot of native email clients (Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird etc…); as the emails are fully decrypted locally (on your computer), you can search through them like you would with any other email service.
Hope that helps,
Rbduak
>I just don't get why you have the impression that anything has changed suddenly
I don't have that impression at all; on the contrary, I was hoping that there would be changes, where changes are needed.
Look: the browser interface is fine. It was fine before, and it's fine now. It never needed to be changed.
The thing that has urgently needed changing is the persistent, productivity-devouring problems in bridge. The linux version is still in beta, I was told more than two years ago that it was "coming soon", and apparently you're still not working on it. If it has been completely abandoned because you guys want to spend all your time on new features, then you need to be honest with people about that.
The browser version is available to everyone, so the only thing that I'm supposed to be getting for becoming a paying customer is IMAP support... the functionality of which has serious problems.
I don't mean to cause conflict with you, I know you're just doing your job and you probably got a lot of stress, but I've got my own stress, and a big source of my stress right now is my current email provider. This simply cannot go on any longer, and I need to know if and when bridge is going to be finished.
Android: K9 email client
Linux/Win/Mac: Thunderbird
Both should sync to your MS account.
Protonmail needs app/browser access unless you pay for the account and get the "Bridge" function.
Thank you. This was more help than I've received anywhere else. I don't understand why these links aren't publicized more prominently. The bridge install site just has a greyed-out box, and the support page for linux just says to "email the team and wait for instructions". The instructions were completely useless.
Why didn't they put the comment you just wrote onto one of the above two sites? Is there some reason I'm not seeing?
Don't be sorry, I'm terrible at explaining things.
The ProtonMail Bridge is an application for paid users that runs on your computer in the background and seamlessly encrypts and decrypts your mail as it enters and leaves your computer. It allows for full integration of your ProtonMail account with any program that supports IMAP and SMTP such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird and Apple Mail.
If you normally use the web to read your mail, like gmail. It's not a problem.
Protonmail bridge: https://protonmail.com/bridge/
Download the bridge: https://protonmail.com/bridge/install
Pros:
- Privacy policy
- Zero-knowledge encryption (aside from subject line)
- Outside of US and EU jurisdiction
- Multiple addresses with one (paid) account
Cons:
- No SMTP support. This means you cannot use a third-party client, unless you install a proprietary bridge (which is still in beta on GNU/Linux)
- Proprietary Android and iOS apps (in particular, the Android app depends on GCM for push notifications, which is something for example Telegram has solved by implementing their own push notification system)
- Webmail not keeping sessions alive (once the browser tab is closed, you have to log in again, which is quite frustrating when you use a complex password + 2FA)
There are some sites that block PM on account creation. E.g. Twitter and deviantart. Changing the mail of an existing account should work fine, though.
Yes, with the ProtonMail Bridge: https://protonmail.com/bridge
You can configure your ProtonMail account with an email client on a desktop device through our Bridge app, you can read about it more on the link below: https://protonmail.com/bridge/ At this time you’re unable to configure your ProtonMail account with the default mail app on mobile devices, you will need to use our ProtonMail app which is available from the Apple Store or Play Store in order to log in with your account.
As /u/Lahjit has pointed out, there is the unofficial electron wrapper for the ProtonMail site. ProtonMail themselves have developed ProtonMail Bridge for paid users which enables integration with any program that supports IMAP and SMTP (like Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, etc.). So they have no incentive to develop any other official desktop app.
Yeah, you would've been fine with protonmail. Since their emails are encrypted on their end you won't have access to export on the free account.
Their bridge is still in beta and currently only available for paid accounts. The bridge is what decrypts the emails from your account into whatever platform you may use. It's their application that allows IMAP and SMTP otherwise, you'd need to access your mail through mail.protonmail.com and no exporting (unless you fwd all your mail).
The bridge is an application that you run locally. It connects to protonmail and provides a local IMAP server. This is needed because protonmail cannot provide IMAP directly as this would require them to have access to the contents of your emails.
So you run your own bridge instance locally. https://protonmail.com/bridge/
/u/ReadRIT is absolutely right. But just to follow up on that, there is a page for this on ProtonMail's website.
It's on the Apple Mail ProtonMail Bridge instructions, under section 3, "Certificate."
Just out of pure curiosity, has anyone looked into configuring Emacs to be a client for ProtonMail's Bridge? Having become a paid user for ProtonMail for work, I was hoping maybe to use notmuch, mu4e, or wanderlust for email.
Hey !
Proton bridge on linux is still in beta (they are "a bit" late).
According to this page : https://protonmail.com/bridge/install
if you hover your mouse over "beta", it says that you have to contact ([email protected]) them for more info, and possibly for a beta version.
++
Someone just recently tried to package it... https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/issues/8051 However it seems to be in beta and it doesn't even seem available as of yet: https://protonmail.com/bridge/install
> First, if the browser client is not secure as the alternative clients - is/should there be an option to download emails and read them locally (say, far away from the browser in a separate, compartmentalised environment)?
Yes, the ProtonMail Bridge.
> Second, how secure is uploading keys I use elsewhere?
They are still encrypted, so ProtonMail can't read them. But if you don't need to do that necessarily, don't do it.
> Third, I wish to download files and store them locally anyhow, for backup, logging and space conservation. Now, when I download the header file, I can unencrypt fine - but this leads me to the curiosity of the .eml files - they are encrypted, and presumably this is the raw text that passes through when you send mails. So, how does protonmail get from that content to the encrypted pgp message? I couldn't figure out myself how to replicate this locally - and yet this is the default export option. Is this because they intend you to reupload them to reread them?
EML files are not encrypted, many are just encoded with BASE64. Opening them with Thunderbird or another Mail Client should make them readable. Or decode them simply.
They also offer an import/export tool, which is currently in beta.
I think point one has been sufficiently answered by /u/RejZor
Point two however: As far as I know there is no possibility of deleting more than 50 mails at a time from either the app or the web-interface. What you can do however is use the https://protonmail.com/bridge/ to delete the mails through thunderbird or a similar mailclient. A bit of a workaround, but maybe enough for your usecase. I agree that this should be a standard feature.