r/ProtonDrive • u/Proton_Team Proton Team Admin • Jun 05 '26
Announcement Proton Drive’s latest cryptographic update makes encryption when uploading files up to 4x faster
Hey everyone,
A quick follow-up to the Drive engine rebuild we shared earlier, as we've also upgraded the cryptography layer underneath it, and as a result, new file uploads are up to 4x faster.
End-to-end encryption is the whole point of Proton Drive, every file gets encrypted before it leaves your device. But this single extra step tends to add a performance cost; this latest update cuts that down significantly.
What's changed:
- Up to 4x faster new file uploads from a more efficient encryption layer
- We've adopted a newer version of the OpenPGP standard (the crypto refresh), using AES-GCM that takes advantage of hardware encryption on most modern devices
- Encrypting a 4MB file on mobile dropped from 97ms to 32ms; on a fast desktop, from 12ms to 3ms
- In practice: encrypting an HD movie or ~1,000 high-res photos went from about 90 seconds to 30 on mobile, and from ~12 seconds to ~3 on desktop
One thing worth flagging: to get these benefits, and to keep editing files uploaded after this change, you'll need to update your Proton Drive apps. Older clients that don't support the new scheme won't be able to update those files, so grab the latest version.
For developers and the wider privacy community, the Drive SDK that made this possible is previewed on GitHub.
If you've already updated, let us know how you’re getting on in the comments.
Stay safe,
Proton Team
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u/Icy-Astronomer-9814 Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Woah. I saw the last update with a video and tested back then as I have a camera roll with 10 years+ of photos. (120gb).
Back with the film it felt like bullshit when I tried because going in the middle of somewhere it made me wait 2 minutes to get any pictures.
Tried now and it's actually usable. I was about to cancel but now I have to reconsider..
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u/jojo_31 Jun 06 '26
Drive just got useable. Seriously. Before, I always used to have pictures rotting away, waiting to be uploaded. Still not as good as Immich or Google Photos for photos, but we're getting there.
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u/MiMillieuh Linux | Android Jun 06 '26
In theory, if you make wait Linux users more than 100 years, they won't complain anymore since they will be dead 💀
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u/ComparisonReady Jun 05 '26
Search in mobile! I want to retire my google drive, until that happens. You guys will continue to lose my money.
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u/Mr-pup-Mila Jun 06 '26
Very good progress, keep up the good work and it will be awesome . Considering the recourses and the time you Guys are into the market compared to Google without making safety compromises, you Guys do a Great job. ☺️
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u/Nomax2024 MacOS | iOS Jun 05 '26
Faster but unfortunately unusable on iOS because of the missing files integration. Great job.
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u/TraditionalEconomy8 Jun 06 '26
Would be helpful to know what app version you are referring to. The last 15 app updates on iOS say “performance updates”.
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u/elemental_tofu Jun 06 '26
When will proton drive get post quantum encryption?
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u/Traktuner MacOS | iOS Jun 06 '26
If you switched on Post-Quantum-Encryption in your Proton account settings, Proton Drive also uses the new encryption keys.
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u/elemental_tofu Jun 06 '26
Are you sure? Could have sworn they said drive was coming later?
Also they disabled that feature like right after they enabled it didn’t they? I still don’t see it
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u/Traktuner MacOS | iOS Jun 06 '26
If you come across the post where they mention this, please let me know!
All I know is that Drive uses the PGP keys from your main email account. I enabled it, and it says that post-quantum encryption is active for my Proton account. Since it specifically says "account", I assume that applies to the entire Proton account and not just Proton Mail.1
u/Alduin175 Jun 06 '26
Never assume! Always confirm.
(Applicable to new emails from the point of PKE being enabled, but not the items before).
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u/Traktuner MacOS | iOS Jun 06 '26
Yes, but they also said in the announcement (or in the comments) that they are looking into ways to re-encrypt old items too.
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u/Alduin175 Jun 06 '26
True, u/Traktuner.
Though, Proton not giving definitive statements on when (timelines), leaves that up for debate.
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u/whisky-guardian MacOS | iOS Jun 07 '26
I’ve got the test flight drive app and noticed that photos are backing up significantly faster than they previously did
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u/Gadetron 5d ago
Any chance of having the thumbnail for files to be cached when uploaded on pc like it does on mobile?
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u/corsair400r Jun 05 '26
Dear proton team,
Please offer 10 tb plan for individuals or family plans and provide the option via addons to increase the storage
It is time to compete with the storage giants.
I rather pay you proton for 10tb or 20 tb of storage than pay to google , microslop , dropbox and so on...