Need help with mounting the protondrive drive

kamcole · December 31, 2025, 5:08pm

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

I am indeed a newbie to rclone. Trying to setup my protondive, and am at the mount command. Reading the instructions at rclone mount it says:

rclone mount remote:path/to/files /path/to/local/mount

Not sure what BOTH of these arguments refer to. I created a local directory:

/media/kameroncole/extradrive1/protondrive

Seems like that would be

/path/to/local/mount

It’s already mounted. So what is

path/to/files

Indeed when I run the rclone mount command, it wants two arguments. I just don’t know which is which

Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.

rclone version
rclone v1.72.1
- os/version: debian bookworm/sid (64 bit)
- os/kernel: 6.16.3-76061603-generic (x86_64)
- os/type: linux
- os/arch: amd64
- go/version: go1.25.5
- go/linking: static
- go/tags: none

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

protondrive

The command you were trying to run (eg `rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp`)

rclone mount protondrive:/media/kameroncole/extradrive1/protondrive /media/kameroncole/extradrive1/protondrive

Please run 'rclone config redacted' and share the full output. If you get command not found, please make sure to update rclone.

rclone config redacted

[protondrive]

type = protondrive

username = kamcole@protonmail.com

password = XXX

otp_secret_key = XXX

### Double check the config for sensitive info before posting publicly

A log from the command that you were trying to run with the `-vv` flag

rclone mount protondrive:/media/kameroncole/extradrive1/protondrive /media/kameroncole/extradrive1/protondrive -vv
2025/12/31 12:05:11 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.72.1" starting with parameters ["rclone" "mount" "protondrive:/media/kameroncole/extradrive1/protondrive" "/media/kameroncole/extradrive1/protondrive" "-vv"]
2025/12/31 12:05:11 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "protondrive:/media/kameroncole/extradrive1/protondrive"
2025/12/31 12:05:11 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/kameroncole/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2025/12/31 12:05:11 DEBUG : proton drive root link ID 'media/kameroncole/extradrive1/protondrive': Using username and password to log in
2025/12/31 12:05:11 CRITICAL: Failed to create file system for "protondrive:/media/kameroncole/extradrive1/protondrive": couldn't generate 2FA code: Decoding of secret as base32 failed.

Note that the error concerns 2FA, which I don’t have configured for my Proton Drive (in my Proton Drive account). I did fill in my password in the rclone config - I don’t know whether the output of

password = XXX

means that the password is somehow not there? TBH, I could could use an “rclone for dummies using protondrive” manual. Apologies

asdffdsa · December 31, 2025, 5:13pm

need to ensure simple commands work, such as rclone lsd protondrive: -vv
before trying complex commands such as rclone mount

did you run rclone config and type the password then.
or
did you manually edit the config file and paste the password.

then why did you add otp_secret_key = XXX ?
perhaps remove that and test again

as per your output of rclone config redacted, you can see the password is there

the forum has many examples using protondrive...

kamcole · December 31, 2025, 5:39pm

I added the password via the interactive rclone config
I did not add 2FA - the prompt said “leave blank if no 2FA”
was asking if “XXX” meant there was an encoded value, or whether the value in the config was actually “XXX” for some reason
the “regular” commands work:

rclone lsd protondrive: -vv
2025/12/31 12:32:15 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.72.1" starting with parameters ["rclone" "lsd" "protondrive:" "-vv"]
2025/12/31 12:32:15 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "protondrive:"
2025/12/31 12:32:15 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/kameroncole/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2025/12/31 12:32:15 DEBUG : proton drive root link ID '': Using username and password to log in
2025/12/31 12:32:15 CRITICAL: Failed to create file system for "protondrive:": couldn't generate 2FA code: Decoding of secret as base32 failed.

will try removing the 2FA from the config file. I assume it is the file listed above?

/home/kameroncole/.config/rclone/rclone.conf

Would love to find the simple examples on the forum. When I created this post, it listed all related posts. I checked those, They weren’t simple enough. I need to know if I even need to perform the mount command, and exactly what the syntax is looking for on my system. I installed rclone, created a remote - now what? Do you have a link to the next steps, from the forum? Thank you!

asdffdsa · December 31, 2025, 5:41pm

that did not work, as per CRITICAL: Failed log entry

yes, or use rclone config file

kamcole · December 31, 2025, 5:48pm

It seems like the command rclone lsd protondrive: -vv itself did work - the CRITICAL log entry was from the earlier rclone mount command - that’s the command that did not work.

I removed the 2FA entry from the config file, and tried the mount command again. Seems to be working - although it is hanging - do I need to mount this in the background>

rclone mount protondrive:/home/kameroncole/protondrive /media/kameroncole/extradrive1/protondrive
2025/12/31 12:40:17 NOTICE: proton drive root link ID 'home/kameroncole/protondrive': --vfs-cache-mode writes or full is recommended for this remote as it can't stream

Per the notice above, not clear what to do: do I re-execute the command with the flag: --vfs-cache-mode writes? Or do I edit the remote config somehow?

Again, the command I executed has two arguments: one is a directory in my $HOME directory. I assume that is <path/to/files> whatever that means, The other is a directory on my additional harddrive, which has the arg placement for /path/to/local/mount

asdffdsa · December 31, 2025, 5:49pm

we cannot see into your machine. so post the full debug output

kamcole · December 31, 2025, 5:54pm

Now this looks better:

rclone lsd protondrive: -vv2025/12/31 12:50:57 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.72.1" starting with parameters ["rclone" "lsd" "protondrive:" "-vv"]
2025/12/31 12:50:57 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "protondrive:"
2025/12/31 12:50:57 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/kameroncole/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2025/12/31 12:50:57 DEBUG : proton drive root link ID '': Has cached credentials
2025/12/31 12:51:03 DEBUG : proton drive root link ID '': Used cached credential to initialize the ProtonDrive API
          -1 2025-12-30 18:48:05        -1 kc0olm@gmail.com-drive
          -1 2025-12-30 20:14:57        -1 kc0olm@gmail.com-iclouddrive
2025/12/31 12:51:03 DEBUG : 5 go routines active

Those are indeed directories in my protonmail online drive.

But now, how to add/sync a file? For example, I just created a testfile.txt in the /home/kameroncole/protondrive dir, which is the <path/to/files> Hoping it would show up in the mount directory, or even better, appear on my proton drive. Again, missing “next steps”

asdffdsa · December 31, 2025, 5:57pm

good, making progress

as a test, try

mkdir ~/rmount
rclone mount protondrive: ~/rmount -vv -vfs-cache-mode=full --allow-other

kamcole · December 31, 2025, 6:11pm

I did this

rclone mount protondrive:/home/kameroncole/protondrive /media/kameroncole/extradrive1/protondrive --vfs-cache-mode full&

Created a directory and file on proton drive online, and now I see it in this command.

rclone lsd protondrive: -vv2025/12/31 13:06:23 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.72.1" starting with parameters ["rclone" "lsd" "protondrive:" "-vv"]
2025/12/31 13:06:23 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "protondrive:"
2025/12/31 13:06:23 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/kameroncole/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2025/12/31 13:06:23 DEBUG : proton drive root link ID '': Has cached credentials
2025/12/31 13:06:27 DEBUG : proton drive root link ID '': Used cached credential to initialize the ProtonDrive API
          -1 2025-12-30 18:48:05        -1 kc0olm@gmail.com-drive
          -1 2025-12-30 20:14:57        -1 kc0olm@gmail.com-iclouddrive
          -1 2025-12-31 12:57:27        -1 linux_test

Don’t know where/if I should see it in either the files drive or the mount drive - don’t see it in either at the moment. Feels like I need to run the rclone sync command, but again, syntax is not clear:

Usage:
rclone sync source:path dest:path [flags]

What exactly is source:path and dest:path? Are these local paths, or do I need to find the path somehow from the proton drive web UI?

asdffdsa · December 31, 2025, 8:07pm

both.

sync is not needed with mount command and can create issues and confusion.

simply copy a file to the mountpoint and rclone will upload it to protondrive.
simply copy a file from the mountpoint and rclone will download it.

need to read the debug output and you will see exactly what rclone is doing

kamcole · January 2, 2026, 2:32pm

thanks. good to know that sync is not needed, when using mount.

Just pasted a file into the mount point. this is what the logs wrote:

2026/01/02 09:30:34 ERROR : testfile.txt: vfs cache: failed to upload try #2, will retry in 20s: vfs cache: failed to transfer file from cache to remote: 422 GET https://mail.proton.me/api/drive/shares/yJtmSWzaD0ebJZZmPbkzisOhrelpvxArTk96HKXKWXhU3iOMvapXMaVJysM4mYMRrq6R3SSkePgA4ekEuSJoFg==/files/B2cw6Lx_jE1RuFEnKhsfHxxHP-OBCl6xc4bF0ctiIilg17VJkVT-1OMXVkW0Ke5_YtrABG9WNe2SCqvGCcMbfw==/revisions: File or folder not found (Code=2501, Status=422)

asdffdsa · January 2, 2026, 3:26pm

given the current status of protondrive support in rclone, i cannot spend time to help you debug that specfic error

fwiw, that has been discussed in the forum...

rclonelinuxnoob · January 12, 2026, 12:24am

Hi all, thanks for the steps to here, wanted to share what I found useful.

In the rclone .config file, the second password should be sent as “mailbox_password” (ie., mailbox_password = xxx), not whatever rclone had it saved as (aep, I think). Was a handshake issue.

Also, I don’t have 2fa on, but I found that the config file worked with it as a blank string (2fa=” “).

Those got it working for me.

system · February 11, 2026, 12:25am

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