Move your email from Proton Mail to FranklyMail
Proton has no IMAP server on the internet — it only exists inside Proton Bridge, running on your own computer, which no server of ours can reach. On a paid plan, Bridge plus Thunderbird moves everything. On a free plan, Proton’s Export Tool is the way out.
Which password Proton Mail wants
Nothing we can use. Proton decrypts your mail locally, so its IMAP lives inside Proton Bridge and listens on 127.0.0.1 — an address that means "this machine" and is unreachable from anywhere else by design. That is a consequence of how Proton encrypts mail, not an oversight.
Getting it, step by step.
Written against Proton Mail's current screens — the words in quotes are the words on the buttons.
- 1
On a paid plan: install Proton Bridge, sign in, and open its Mailbox details.
Bridge needs a paid Proton Mail plan. Free accounts should skip to the note below.
- 2
In Thunderbird, turn off the new Account Hub first — Menu → Settings → General, then untick "Create accounts in the new Account Hub".
Proton’s own guide says to do this, because their instructions describe the classic setup flow.
- 3
Add the account in Thunderbird using the password shown in Bridge’s Mailbox details — not your Proton account password.
This is the mistake nearly everyone makes. The Bridge password is a different, generated one.
- 4
Accept the certificate warning. Bridge signs its local connection with its own certificate, which your computer has no reason to trust and which is safe here because the connection never leaves the machine.
- 5
Add your FranklyMail mailbox as a second account, then copy folder by folder: select all with Ctrl+A, right-click, "Copy To".
What goes wrong with Proton Mail.
- On a free Proton plan there is no Bridge. Proton’s Export Tool is available to everyone, runs from a command line, and writes your mail out as individual .eml files with a JSON file of metadata. Those can be pulled into Thunderbird with the ImportExportTools NG add-on and copied across from there.
- We have not verified whether the Export Tool preserves your folder structure or writes everything into one directory — Proton does not document it, and labels live in the metadata file. If your folders matter and you have a paid plan, use Bridge instead; it definitely keeps them.
- Bridge uses ports 1143 and 1025 on your own machine. If something else is already using them, Bridge can be told to use others in its advanced settings.
- Bridge is desktop only — Windows, macOS and Linux. There is no way to do this from a phone.
Then the part that is the same for everyone.
Getting the password is the only step that differs by provider. The order of the move, what does and does not come across, and the one decision that stops you ending up with two copies of every message are on the main migration page.
How the move worksMoving from somewhere else?
$9/yr, and your archive comes with you.
Unlimited mailboxes and aliases on your own domain, 10 GB pooled across the account, 30 days to change your mind.