My experience of migrating from Google G-Suite to ProtonMail

2026-02-24 · 4 minutes read · Email Privacy

For about 9 years, I’ve been a customer of Google G-Suite, using it for email, file storage, and photos. I’ve never fully trusted them, however I have always claimed the following.

As a paying customer, I hope that they mine my data less than they do for free users.

There’s a lot of uncertainty in that sentence. Words like hope and less aren’t exactly reassuring, and there’s no proof it’s actually the case either. With a recent price increase warning at renewal time and the current state of politics between the EU and USA, I decided to switch to an EU provider.

Here’s how the journey actually went.

1. Planning and Preparation

At first, it seemed overwhelming. I had multiple email accounts, shared folders, and years of accumulated emails and photos. With one of the accounts belonging to a parent who isn’t always tech-savvy, I wanted to ensure the transition would be smooth for everyone involved.

I needed to assess:

• How many accounts I had
• How much data was stored
• Which features needed to migrate
• What could stay behind

Proton’s tools for mail import, combined with manually syncing files (via Google Takeout and upload to Proton Drive), made the transition manageable. Proton’s migration interface for email, calendar, and contacts is excellent.

2. Mail / Calendar / Contacts Migration

Migrating mail from Google to Proton was straightforward with the built-in import tools. I synced emails using a one-time import through Proton Easy Switch, and it worked well.

It took some time, especially with large mailboxes, but it just works.

3. Files and Photos

Files and photos required more work. Google Takeout was useful for export, but it comes with quirks:

Photos export with separate JSON metadata files containing timestamps and location data, rather than embedding them in the actual images.

Without correcting EXIF metadata, Proton Photos would display incorrect dates.

I wrote a script to read the exported JSON and embed the correct timestamps and GPS data back into the photos before uploading. This ensured Proton Photos would index most of them correctly.

With Proton Drive syncing files and photos locally first, uploads and indexing afterward worked smoothly.

4. DNS and Cut-over

Once everything was migrated and tested, I pointed my domain’s DNS records (MX, SPF, DKIM) to Proton. The cutover was seamless—mail flow switched over quickly once DNS propagated.

Google G Suite stopped delivering mail at that point, as expected.

5. Closing Google G Suite

Here’s where things got messy compared to how most subscriptions behave.

If you have a gym membership for a year and cancel it after half a year, one of two things would happen:

• (Most likely) You get to use the membership for the remaining period of time, you don’t get any money back.
• (Less likely) You don’t get to use the membership for the remaining period of time, but you do get the money back.

However, Google decided to go the third route:

• You cancel, they lock you out right away even though you’ve already pre-paid for a period of time. And they don’t give you any money back.

However, they do warn about it. So I pressed on and canceled right after everything was moved.

6. Preserving Cloud Identities

When you cancel a G Suite subscription, you’ll probably still want to keep your Google account for things like YouTube, Play Store, Sign in with Google, and other services.

In the admin console, you can add the Cloud Identity Free license type and assign it to all users.

This allows you to keep the account but with zero storage for Email, Drive, and Photos. This creates a catch-22: I can’t access Gmail to delete my emails, so they remain there and I’m over my storage limit. But it’s not actually a problem for my use case.

You can still access Google Drive, which is great for viewing shared files and folders owned by other users.

My Sign in with Google, Play Store, and other services still work, which is exactly what I wanted.

7. Final Thoughts

Overall, the migration was less risky and more straightforward than expected once broken down into steps:

• Mail migrated reliably
• Files and photos moved with mostly correct metadata
• Accounts kept their identity without losing Play purchases or Google login capabilities

7.1 Proton Docs and Sheets

I’m fortunate not to be a demanding user of Google Docs or Sheets. I actually prefer Proton Docs—you can type markdown syntax and it formats automatically, which is lovely.

Proton Sheets is more limited, and I’m a heavier user there for personal data tracking. Some of my imported sheets needed adjustments.

But I’ll adapt. It’ll take some time, but it’s manageable.

7.2 My Recommendation

Migrate first, then cancel G Suite. If you want to preserve your Google account identity, convert to Cloud Identity Free after canceling.

That’s the cleanest path I found. It left me with Proton for daily use and a preserved Google identity for the services I still need.