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Scripts / Proton Drive CLI — Overview

gphoto2proton offers two import workflows, and which one you pick depends entirely on where you want your photos to end up:

  1. Proton Drive (My Files) — the Go binary (gphoto2proton sync)
  2. Proton Photos timeline — the bash scripts (gphoto2proton-import.sh)
flowchart TD
    A[Google Takeout .tgz archives] --> B{Where do you want<br/>your photos?}

    B -->|"Proton Drive<br/>(My Files / gphoto2proton/)"| C[gphoto2proton sync<br/>Go binary]
    C --> C1[Streaming · no extraction]
    C --> C2[EXIF restored via exiftool]
    C --> C3[Albums via legacy Photos API]

    B -->|"Proton Photos<br/>(timeline + native albums)"| D[gphoto2proton-import.sh<br/>bash + proton-drive CLI]
    D --> D1[Extract · upload · validate]
    D --> D2[EXIF read natively by CLI]
    D --> D3[Native Photos albums + RAW support]

    click C "../quickstart/"
    click D "quickstart/"

Which workflow should I choose?

Go binary (gphoto2proton sync) Bash scripts (gphoto2proton-import.sh)
Target Proton Drive — My Files / gphoto2proton/ Proton Photos timeline
Albums Recreated via legacy Photos API Recreated natively (photos-volume)
EXIF Restored from takeout JSON sidecar (exiftool) Read natively from files by the CLI
RAW support (NEF/CR2/ARW) ❌ Not handled ✅ Converted to JPEG (--convert-raw)
Disk Streaming — no extraction Extracts one archive at a time (≈ 2× archive size)
Platform macOS, Linux, Windows Linux (where proton-drive CLI runs)
Auth Proton API (password / 2FA or session import) proton-drive auth login session in pass
Best for Local / laptop use, low disk footprint Server-based bulk import into Proton Photos

Choose the Go binary if...

  • You want your photos stored under Proton Drive My Files, not the Photos timeline.
  • You want to run on macOS or Windows, not just Linux.
  • Your disk space is limited — it streams from .tgz and never extracts.
  • You're okay running albums-finalize afterwards to recreate albums.

Choose the bash scripts if...

  • You want your photos directly in the Proton Photos timeline, where they behave like photos taken on your phone (searchable, in your photo app, with native albums).
  • You have a Linux server with the proton-drive CLI installed.
  • Your library contains camera RAW files (NEF/CR2/ARW) you want imported.
  • You're migrating a large archive set (hundreds of GB) and can afford per-archive extraction.

Tip

The two approaches are not mutually exclusive. You can use the bash script as the primary import path and keep the Go binary for one-off archives, or vice-versa. They write to different places in Proton.

The bash scripts at a glance

Script Purpose
gphoto2proton-import.sh Full import pipeline: extract → upload → verify → albums → validate → cleanup. Resumable per step, supports RAW conversion and recovery reprocessing.
fix-photo-date.sh Fix the capture time of already-uploaded Proton Photos (typically videos that got the archive extraction date instead of the recording date).

Both scripts talk to the official proton-drive CLI and reuse its authenticated session from the pass secret store — no Proton API credentials needed.