ProtonMail has announced the availability of Import Assistant for paying customers. The tool, which is currently in beta, allows users to import their messages and folders to ProtonMail’s end-to-end encrypted email service. As Proton adds more digital services to its roster, it will extend Import Assistant to those too.
To use the import assistant, you need to head over to ProtonMail version 4 which is currently accessible through the ProtonMail beta URL. Once you’ve logged in, you should navigate to Settings and then go to Import & export, from there, you’ll find Import Assistant in the menu on the left. The tool will then let you fetch your mail from external mailboxes, easing your switch to ProtonMail.
ProtonMail does offer an Import-Export app already but it requires you to keep the tool open for the whole duration of your email transfer. With Import Assistant, the messages are imported in the background so you can continue to use ProtonMail, log out, or close the browser while the transfer is in progress.
According to the firm, messages are transferred directly to its servers and no programs needed to be installed to complete the task. As soon as messages reach the servers, they're encrypted straight away and only you can access their contents. The tool also allows you to customise your import so you can select the folders that you’d like to import, the time range of imported messages, and any labels that you want to preserve.
To learn more about the transfer process, ProtonMail has created a comprehensive guide to help you with the import process.
