The real problem nobody talks about
You've decided to leave Gmail. Maybe you're tired of Google reading your emails to sell ads. Maybe you want real encryption. Maybe you just want to own your inbox. Whatever the reason, you've picked ProtonMail and you're ready to switch.
So you Google "how to switch from Gmail to ProtonMail" and find dozens of guides. They all say the same thing: use ProtonMail's Easy Switch, import your emails, set up forwarding, done. Easy, right?
Except that's only 10% of the actual work.
Your Gmail address isn't just an inbox. It's your digital identity. It's the login for your bank, your Amazon account, your social media, your insurance, your tax filings, your healthcare portal, your streaming services. The average person has over 130 online accounts — and most of them are tied to one email address.
Moving your emails from Gmail to ProtonMail takes 20 minutes. Moving your digital identity? That can take weeks. And if you miss even a single important account, you might lose access to it when your Gmail eventually expires or gets compromised.
This guide covers both parts: the quick email transfer that every other guide focuses on, plus the real work — discovering and migrating every account tied to your Gmail address. This is the guide we wish existed when we started researching email migration.
What's actually tied to your email
Before diving into the migration, let's understand the scope. When we analyzed email inboxes (with permission) during our research, we found that people are typically registered with accounts in all of these categories:
The typical person we talked to could name maybe 20-30 accounts from memory. The actual number was usually 3-5x higher. That gap — between the accounts you remember and the accounts you actually have — is where things go wrong during a migration.
Before you start: the preparation
Don't just dive in. Thirty minutes of preparation will save you hours of frustration later.
First, create your ProtonMail account but don't change anything else yet. Pick your new address carefully — you'll be living with it for years. ProtonMail's free tier works for testing, but you'll likely want the Plus plan (€3.99/month) for custom domains and more storage.
Second, decide on your timeline. This isn't a one-evening project. Plan for 1-2 weeks of gradual migration, doing a few accounts each day. Trying to rush it leads to mistakes and missed accounts.
Third, keep your Gmail active during the transition. Don't delete or deactivate it. You'll need it as a fallback for accounts you haven't migrated yet, and for receiving verification emails during the changeover process.
Step 1: Transfer your emails (the easy part)
Use ProtonMail's Easy Switch
Log in to ProtonMail, go to Settings → All Settings → Import via Easy Switch, and select Google. This tool will import your entire Gmail archive — emails, contacts, and calendars — while preserving your folder structure. It also sets up automatic forwarding so new emails to your Gmail arrive in ProtonMail.
This is well-documented by ProtonMail and works smoothly. We won't repeat their guide here — ProtonMail's official migration guide covers it thoroughly.
Easy Switch handles your email archive. But it doesn't touch the 130+ services where your Gmail address is the login. That's the real work.
Step 2: Discover all your accounts (the hard part)
This is where most people either give up or miss dozens of accounts. Here's a systematic approach to finding everything:
Method 1: Search your inbox
In Gmail, search for these terms to surface registration emails you've forgotten about. Go through the results and write down every service you find.
- "welcome to" — catches most sign-up confirmation emails
- "verify your email" — registration verification emails
- "your account" — account-related notifications
- "confirm your" — confirmation emails from sign-ups
- "reset your password" — shows services you've logged into
- "subscription" — catches paid and free subscriptions
- "unsubscribe" — newsletter and marketing emails reveal accounts
Method 2: Check your password manager
If you use a password manager (Bitwarden, 1Password, LastPass, or even Chrome's built-in one), export your saved logins. Any entry with your Gmail address as the username is an account that needs migrating. To check Chrome's saved passwords, go to chrome://password-manager/passwords.
Method 3: Check "Sign in with Google"
Go to Google Account Permissions to see every app and service you've connected via "Sign in with Google." These are particularly important because they'll stop working if you deactivate your Google account.
Method 4: Check your bank statements
Look through 6-12 months of bank and credit card statements. Any recurring charge is a subscription tied to an account — and that account probably uses your Gmail address.
Pro tip: Create a spreadsheet with columns for: Service Name, Category, Priority (Critical/High/Medium/Low), Old Email, New Email Updated (yes/no), and Notes. This becomes your migration dashboard. Expect to find 80-150+ entries.
Step 3: Prioritize what to migrate first
Don't try to change everything at once. Work in priority order:
Critical (do first, today)
These are accounts where losing access would cause serious problems: your primary bank, investment accounts, government portals (tax, digital ID), health insurance, and your Apple ID or Microsoft account. These often have the most complex email change processes and may require identity verification, so start early.
High priority (this week)
Accounts you use frequently or that hold sensitive data: secondary financial accounts, work tools, password manager, domain registrars, cloud storage (Dropbox, iCloud), and major shopping accounts where payment methods are stored.
Medium priority (next week)
Social media, streaming services, productivity tools, developer accounts. These are important but you won't lose money if they're a few days behind.
Low priority (ongoing)
Newsletters, forums, loyalty programs, rarely-used services. You can update these over time as you encounter them, or simply let them go.
Step 4: Change your email on each account
This is the tedious part. For each account, the process is usually: log in, find settings or profile, update email address, verify the new address via a confirmation email sent to your ProtonMail, confirm.
Some tips to make this faster:
Batch by type. Do all your financial accounts in one session, all social media in another. You'll get into a rhythm and move faster within each category.
Watch for "Sign in with Google" accounts. Some services don't have a traditional email login — they only support Google Sign-In. For these, you'll need to either create a password-based login first (most services allow this) or keep your Google account active.
Keep notes. Some services make it surprisingly difficult to change your email. Some require you to contact support. Some have a waiting period. Write down anything unusual so you can follow up.
Don't forget 2FA. If you use your Gmail for two-factor authentication codes, update those too. This is especially important for financial accounts.
Step 5: Set up a safety net
Even after weeks of careful migration, you'll miss some accounts. Here's how to catch them:
Keep Gmail forwarding active for at least 6 months. Any email that arrives at your Gmail gets forwarded to ProtonMail. When you notice an email from a service you forgot to migrate, add it to your list and update it.
Set a calendar reminder for 3 months and 6 months from now to check your Gmail for any accounts you missed. After 6 months of no new discoveries, you can consider deactivating Gmail forwarding.
Don't delete your Google account yet. Keep it as a dormant backup for at least a year. Some services have long verification cycles, and you may need your old Gmail to recover access to forgotten accounts.
Realistic timeline
Based on what we've heard from people who've done this, here's what to actually expect:
Day 1 (2-3 hours): Create ProtonMail, run Easy Switch, start account discovery. You'll find 40-60 accounts in the first sweep.
Day 2-3 (1-2 hours each): Continue discovery, start migrating critical accounts. Expect to hit some roadblocks — some services have slow verification or require customer support.
Week 1 (30 min/day): Work through high-priority accounts. By now you'll have migrated 30-50 accounts and found another 20-30 you didn't know about.
Week 2 (20 min/day): Medium and low priority. The pace picks up because these accounts are simpler.
Month 1-6 (occasional): Catch stragglers as they appear via Gmail forwarding. Expect 5-10 more accounts to surface over time.
Total active time: roughly 15-20 hours spread over 2-3 weeks. Not impossible, but significantly more than the "20 minutes" most migration guides promise.
Common mistakes to avoid
Deleting Gmail too early. This is the most common mistake. People switch, feel good, delete Gmail — then realize months later they can't access an old account. Keep Gmail alive for at least 12 months.
Migrating without a list. Going from memory guarantees you'll miss accounts. Take the time to systematically search your inbox first.
Ignoring "Sign in with Google" accounts. These are invisible until they break. Check your Google permissions page before you start.
Not updating 2FA. If Gmail is your 2FA recovery email and you lose access to it, you could get locked out of critical accounts permanently.
Doing it all in one weekend. This leads to mistakes, exhaustion, and missed accounts. Spread it over 2 weeks.
This is the problem we're solving at Portably.
We're building a tool that automatically discovers every account tied to your email and guides you through migrating each one. No more spreadsheets, no more guessing, no more lost accounts.
Try the Interactive Demo Join the WaitlistSwitching from Gmail to ProtonMail is one of the best decisions you can make for your privacy. The email part is easy. The account migration part is hard — but doable if you approach it systematically. Don't let the scale of the task scare you off. Start with the discovery phase, prioritize ruthlessly, and chip away at it daily. Your future self will thank you.