Rclone can’t connect to Proton Drive (CAPTCHA errors)

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

I’m trying to mount Proton Drive with rclone. The mount shows up in Dolphin, but the folder is empty. When I run rclone lsd proton: or rclone ls proton:, it fails with a CAPTCHA error from Proton’s API. It looks like it’s blocked by Proton security and not completing authentication.

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

rclone v1.70.3

  • os/version: Arch Linux
  • os/kernel: 6.x (x86_64)
  • os/type: linux
  • os/arch: amd64
  • go/version: go1.23
  • go/linking: static
  • go/tags: none

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

Proton Drive

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

\\\ rclone mount proton: ~/ProtonDrive --vfs-cache-mode full --log-level DEBUG --log-file /tmp/rclone-test.log \\\

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

please note "myemail" is a redacted version of the actual one

[proton]
type = protondrive
username = myemail@pm.me
password = XXX
2fa = 012339
client_uid = 
client_access_token = 
client_refresh_token = 
client_salted_key_pass = 

[protondrive]
type = protondrive
username = myemail@pm.me
password = XXX
2fa = 570559
client_uid = 
client_access_token = 
client_refresh_token = 
client_salted_key_pass = 

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

2025/08/20 15:46:44 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.70.3" starting with parameters ["rclone" "mount" "proton:" "/home/bentraider69/ProtonDrive" "--vfs-cache-mode" "full" "--log-level" "DEBUG" "--log-file" "/tmp/rclone-test.log"]
2025/08/20 15:46:44 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "proton:"
2025/08/20 15:46:44 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/bentraider69/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2025/08/20 15:46:44 DEBUG : proton drive root link ID '': Using username and password to log in
2025/08/20 15:46:44.863873 WARN RESTY 429 POST https://mail.proton.me/api/auth/v4/info: Too many recent login attempts (Code=2028, Status=429), Attempt 1
time="2025-08-20T15:46:44+01:00" level=warning msg="Too many requests, retrying after delay" after=18 method=POST pkg=go-proton-api status=429 url="https://mail.proton.me/api/auth/v4/info"
2025/08/20 15:47:06.675175 WARN RESTY 422 POST https://mail.proton.me/api/auth/v4: For security reasons, please complete CAPTCHA. If you can't pass it, please try updating your app or contact us here: https://proton.me/support/appeal-abuse (Code=9001, Status=422), Attempt 1
2025/08/20 15:47:06.675217 ERROR RESTY 422 POST https://mail.proton.me/api/auth/v4: For security reasons, please complete CAPTCHA. If you can't pass it, please try updating your app or contact us here: https://proton.me/support/appeal-abuse (Code=9001, Status=422)
2025/08/20 15:47:06 CRITICAL: Failed to create file system for "proton:": couldn't initialize a new proton drive instance: 422 POST https://mail.proton.me/api/auth/v4: For security reasons, please complete CAPTCHA. If you can't pass it, please try updating your app or contact us here: https://proton.me/support/appeal-abuse (Code=9001, Status=422)

welcome to the forum,

NOTE: The Proton Drive encryption keys need to have been already generated after a regular login via the browser, otherwise attempting to use the credentials in rclone will fail.
have you done that?

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