Proton Drive for Linux

⚠️ Unofficial Client - This is an independent, unofficial desktop client for Proton Drive on Linux. It is not affiliated with, maintained by, or endorsed by Proton Technologies.

Native C++/GTK4 desktop application for accessing and synchronizing files with Proton Drive on Linux.

🚀 Features

Cloud Browser

Full Cloud Explorer - Browse, search, and preview your Proton Drive files with a native GTK4 interface
Full-Text Search - Instant search across all cloud files using SQLite FTS5
File Details - View file metadata, creation dates, and version history

Folder Synchronization

Two-Way Sync - Automatic bidirectional synchronization between local folders and cloud
Scheduled Sync - Configurable sync intervals (manual, 15-min, hourly, etc.)
Conflict Resolution - Intelligent handling of files modified on both sides
Delete Protection - Prevents accidental mass deletion with configurable thresholds
Drag & Drop Upload - Drop files directly onto the cloud browser

Desktop Integration

System Tray Icon - Minimalist D-Bus StatusNotifierItem with sync status
Real-Time Notifications - Alerts for sync errors, completed jobs, and conflicts
No Dependencies - Pure GTK4, no WebView, no Electron—fast and lightweight

Security

Secure Authentication - OAuth2 through Proton's official APIs
Keyring Storage - Credentials stored in XDG Secret Service (system keyring)
Search Privacy - Cloud filenames indexed locally, never exposed to plaintext

⚠️ Important Limitations

Proton Sentinel May Block Syncing

If you have Proton Sentinel enabled on your account, it may block this application from syncing.

Symptom: Authentication works, but sync operations fail or get blocked
Cause: Proton Sentinel flags third-party API access as suspicious activity
Solution: Either disable Proton Sentinel in your account settings, OR contact Proton Support to whitelist this application
Support Ticket: If you want to keep Sentinel enabled, you'll need to open a support ticket with Proton to request whitelisting for third-party rclone access

Note: This is a Proton security feature, not a bug in this application. Official Proton clients don't have this limitation.

Sync Behavior: Polling-Based, Not Real-Time Cloud-to-Local

This app uses rclone's polling mechanism for synchronization, which has an important limitation:

Cloud-to-Local Changes (Limited):

✅ Changes made locally are uploaded to cloud immediately when detected
❌ Changes made in the web app or other clients are NOT automatically downloaded to your local machine
⏱️ Cloud changes are only detected during scheduled sync intervals (default: every 15 minutes)

Why? Proton Drive has no real-time push notification API. rclone must poll the server periodically to detect cloud changes. This is a limitation of how Rclone works Proton's API, not this application.

Recommended Workaround:

Set sync intervals to 5-10 minutes for active folders if you frequently make changes in the web app
Or manually trigger sync from the app's sync panel when you know cloud changes have been made

Local-to-Cloud Sync is Fully Automatic:

Files/folders added locally are uploaded within seconds of creation (inotify-based)
File modifications are detected and uploaded automatically
Deletions are synced (subject to delete protection rules)

📋 System Requirements

Build Dependencies

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install build-essential cmake pkg-config \
  libgtk-4-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libsqlite3-dev libssl-dev

Fedora/RHEL:

sudo dnf install gcc g++ cmake gtk4-devel libcurl-devel \
  sqlite-devel openssl-devel

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S base-devel cmake gtk4 curl sqlite openssl

Runtime Dependencies

GTK 4.0+ (libgtk-4-0)
libcurl (libcurl4-openssl)
SQLite 3 (libsqlite3-0)
OpenSSL (libssl3)
rclone 1.73+ with Proton Drive patch (for sync functionality)

🔨 Building

From Source

git clone https://github.com/Xanderful/proton-drive-for-linux.git
cd proton-drive-for-linux

# Build release binary
mkdir -p src-native/build && cd src-native/build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make -j$(nproc)

# Binary at: src-native/build/proton-drive
./proton-drive

Using Makefile Shortcuts

make build      # Build release binary
make dev        # Build and run with debug output
make clean      # Clean build artifacts
make help       # Show all available targets

📦 Installation

From Source (Recommended)

git clone https://github.com/Xanderful/proton-drive-linux.git
cd proton-drive-linux
make build
sudo make install     # Installs to /usr/local/bin

AppImage (Portable)

# Build the AppImage
make build-appimage

# Or download from releases and run directly
chmod +x ProtonDrive-*.AppImage
./ProtonDrive-*.AppImage

🚀 Getting Started

1. First Run & Authentication

Launch the application: proton-drive
Click "Login" in the cloud browser panel
Enter your Proton Account credentials
Authenticate with OAuth2 (opens in browser)
Authorization tokens are stored securely in your system keyring

2. Set Up a Sync Job

# Option A: Via GUI (Recommended)
1. Click the sync icon in the sidebar
2. Click "Add Sync Job"
3. Select a local folder: ~/Documents (or any folder)
4. Select a cloud folder: /Backups (or any Proton Drive folder)
5. Choose sync type: Two-Way (recommended)
6. Set interval: 15 minutes (adjust as needed)
7. Enable and start sync

# Option B: Via CLI (Manual Sync)
proton-drive --sync-now ~/Documents /Backups

3. Monitor Sync Status

Sync Panel: Shows active jobs, progress, and status
System Tray: Click icon for quick status overview
Notifications: Alerts for errors, completion, conflicts
Logs: View detailed logs in Preferences → Logs

🏗️ Architecture

src-native/
├── src/
│   ├── main_native.cpp              # Application entry point
│   ├── app_window.cpp               # Main window (UI core)
│   ├── app_window_*.cpp             # UI features (cloud, sync, actions, etc.)
│   ├── sync_manager.cpp             # Sync orchestration & rclone integration
│   ├── sync_job_metadata.cpp        # Job registry & persistence
│   ├── file_watcher.cpp             # inotify-based local change detection
│   ├── file_index.cpp               # SQLite FTS5 cloud file search index
│   ├── cloud_browser.cpp            # Cloud explorer UI
│   ├── tray_gtk4.cpp                # D-Bus system tray integration
│   ├── notifications.cpp            # Desktop notifications
│   ├── settings.cpp                 # User preferences persistence
│   └── logger.cpp                   # Debug logging to ~/.cache/proton-drive.log
│
├── CMakeLists.txt                   # Build configuration
└── packaging/
    └── proton-drive.desktop         # Desktop integration

scripts/
├── setup-rclone.sh                  # rclone configuration wizard
├── setup-sync-service.sh            # systemd user service setup
├── manage-sync-job.sh               # Sync job lifecycle management
└── build-local-appimage.sh          # AppImage packaging

docs/
├── SYNC_SAFETY_FEATURES.md          # Safety features & conflict resolution
├── SYNC_CONFLICT_FIX.md             # Conflict scenarios & resolution
├── FOLDER_DELETION_HANDLING.md      # Handling deleted sync folders
├── PREVENTING_FALSE_POSITIVES.md    # Cache management & validation
├── FILE_INDEX_SECURITY.md           # File search encryption details
└── CROSS_DISTRO_TESTING.md          # Testing matrix for distributions

Key Components

Component	Purpose
`app_window.cpp`	Main GTK4 window, UI state management, event handling
`sync_manager.cpp`	Orchestrates bisync jobs, manages rclone lifecycle
`file_watcher.cpp`	Monitors local filesystem changes with inotify
`file_index.cpp`	Caches cloud file metadata, provides instant search
`cloud_browser.cpp`	GTK4 widget tree for cloud file explorer
`tray_gtk4.cpp`	StatusNotifierItem D-Bus tray icon

📚 Documentation

Document	Purpose
SYNC_SETUP.md	Detailed rclone setup, troubleshooting, upload fixes
SYNC_SAFETY_FEATURES.md	Delete protection, conflict resolution, versioning
SYNC_CONFLICT_FIX.md	Understanding & resolving sync conflicts
FOLDER_DELETION_HANDLING.md	Recovering from accidental folder deletions
PREVENTING_FALSE_POSITIVES.md	Cache validation, stale lock cleanup
FILE_INDEX_SECURITY.md	Search privacy & encryption design
CROSS_DISTRO_TESTING.md	Compatibility matrix & distribution testing

🐛 Troubleshooting

Authentication Issues

Problem: Login button stuck or browser doesn't open
Solution:

# Clear credentials from keyring
secret-tool delete service proton-drive

# Restart app and try login again

Sync Stuck or Stalled

Problem: Sync job not progressing
Solution:

# Check for stale rclone locks
rm -f ~/.cache/rclone/bisync/*cache*

# View detailed logs
tail -f ~/.cache/proton-drive/proton-drive.log

# Manually restart sync service
systemctl --user restart proton-drive-sync

Upload Failures (422 Error)

Problem: Files fail to upload with "422 Invalid Request"
Note: This requires rclone with Proton Drive patch. AppImage includes this; if building from source, see SYNC_SETUP.md

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature
Commit with clear messages describing changes
Test on at least one supported distribution
Push and submit a Pull Request

Development Setup

# Clone and build with debug symbols
git clone https://github.com/Xanderful/proton-drive-linux.git
make dev          # Builds with --debug, shows detailed output

Reporting Issues

Include distribution (Debian, Fedora, Arch, etc.) and version
Include logs from ~/.cache/proton-drive/proton-drive.log
Include steps to reproduce the issue
Attach relevant screenshots or recordings

📄 License

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.

⚖️ Legal Notice

This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Proton Technologies AG. Proton Drive is a trademark of Proton Technologies AG. This is a community-maintained integration for Linux users.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 10 Commits
.github		.github
aur		aur
docs		docs
patches		patches
scripts		scripts
snap		snap
src-native		src-native
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CHANGELOG.md.save		CHANGELOG.md.save
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
SYNC_SETUP.md		SYNC_SETUP.md
package.json		package.json

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Proton Drive for Linux

🚀 Features

Cloud Browser

Folder Synchronization

Desktop Integration

Security

⚠️ Important Limitations

Proton Sentinel May Block Syncing

Sync Behavior: Polling-Based, Not Real-Time Cloud-to-Local

📋 System Requirements

Build Dependencies

Runtime Dependencies

🔨 Building

From Source

Using Makefile Shortcuts

📦 Installation

From Source (Recommended)

AppImage (Portable)

🚀 Getting Started

1. First Run & Authentication

2. Set Up a Sync Job

3. Monitor Sync Status

🏗️ Architecture

Key Components

📚 Documentation

🐛 Troubleshooting

Authentication Issues

Sync Stuck or Stalled

Upload Failures (422 Error)

🤝 Contributing

Development Setup

Reporting Issues

📄 License

⚖️ Legal Notice

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