De-Google in 30 Days: The Complete Migration Checklist

You Can Leave Google in One Month. Here's the Exact Plan.

The hardest part of leaving Google isn't finding alternatives — it's doing it without losing data or breaking the 40 accounts that email you. Most people start strong, stall on day three when they realize their bank still sends alerts to Gmail, and give up.

This checklist solves that. It sequences the migration so nothing breaks, gives you a concrete task per day, and front-loads the work that takes longest (email, obviously). By day 30, Google won't have your email, your files, your calendar, your browser history, or your search queries.

The tool doing most of the heavy lifting: Proton. One account covers your encrypted email, calendar, cloud storage, and passwords. You'll only need one non-Proton decision: your browser (Brave) and its built-in search.

Let's go.

Week 1: Email (Days 1–7)

Email is the keystone. Every other account you own is linked to it. Get this right first and the rest of the migration gets easier.

Day 1 — Create your Proton Mail account.

Go to proton.me and create your account. Choose your permanent address carefully — you'll be updating 40+ accounts to this over the next 30 days. If your name is taken, use a dot or short word (e.g., jason.w@proton.me). Free tier works for migration; upgrade to Proton Unlimited when you're ready to add a custom domain.

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Day 2 — Export your Gmail data.

Go to myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy → Download your data → Select Mail → Choose .mbox format. Request the export. Google takes 1–24 hours to prepare it. While you wait: write down every important sender you hear from regularly (banks, insurance, subscriptions, doctors). This list becomes your update queue.

Day 3 — Set up Gmail forwarding.

In Gmail Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP, add your Proton address as a forwarding destination and confirm it. Enable forwarding for all new mail. This is your safety net — everything coming into Gmail will land in Proton too, so you have time to update accounts without missing messages.

Day 4–5 — Update high-priority accounts.

Start with accounts where a missed message has real consequences: bank and investment accounts, credit cards, utilities, health insurance, your employer's HR system. These take time because most require email verification. Do 8–10 per day. Don't rush.

Day 6 — Import your Gmail archive.

Your Google export should be ready. Proton has a desktop import tool (Proton Mail Bridge) that ingests .mbox files. Import your archive now so your old emails are searchable in Proton. Labels become folders.

Day 7 — Update medium-priority accounts.

Streaming services, e-commerce accounts (Amazon, eBay), social platforms, newsletters you actually read, and any SaaS tools you pay for. Keep a running tally in a text file of what you've updated so far.

Week 2: Calendar and Contacts (Days 8–14)

Day 8 — Export Google Calendar.

In Google Calendar, go to Settings → Import & Export → Export. This downloads an .ics file (or a zip of multiple calendars). Log in to Proton Calendar and import it: Settings → Import → upload your .ics. All your historical events migrate over with timezone data intact.

Day 9 — Audit your recurring events.

Recurring events (team standups, monthly reminders, anniversary alerts) sometimes need to be manually recreated in Proton Calendar to preserve future occurrences correctly. Check anything that recurs weekly or monthly.

Day 10–11 — Export and import contacts.

In Google Contacts, export as vCard (.vcf). In Proton Contacts, import the file. Verify your top 20 contacts transferred cleanly — name, email, and phone numbers. Spot-check a few from the bottom of your list too.

Day 12 — Set up Proton Calendar on mobile.

Install the Proton Calendar app (iOS or Android). Log in. Your imported events should already be there. This replaces the Google Calendar widget on your home screen. Go ahead and remove the Google Calendar app.

Day 13 — Remove Gmail app from your phone.

You still have forwarding running, but pull the trigger on your phone. Remove or disable the Gmail app. This is a psychological checkpoint: you're checking Proton first now.

Day 14 — Update remaining lower-priority accounts.

Forums, hobby sites, game accounts, old financial accounts you rarely touch. If you're unsure whether a service even uses your Gmail, search your inbox for the domain name. Update any that have sent you something in the last 12 months.

Week 3: Files and Storage (Days 15–21)

Day 15 — Audit your Google Drive.

Open Drive and sort by "Last modified." Anything older than 2 years that you haven't touched: archive it locally but don't spend time migrating it actively. Focus on files you've opened in the last 6 months and anything that's genuinely irreplaceable.

Day 16 — Create your Proton Drive folder structure.

Install the Proton Drive desktop app. Mirror your top-level Google Drive folders locally first. Decide upfront: you don't need to replicate every subfolder, just the structure you actually use.

Day 17–18 — Download and upload your active files.

Google Drive's download speeds can be slow for large exports. Do this in batches. Priority order: documents and spreadsheets, then photos (if you haven't already moved to a separate photos solution), then everything else. Proton Drive encrypts files client-side before upload — your keys, not Google's.

Day 19 — Handle Google Docs and Sheets.

Files created in Google Docs format need to be exported as .docx or .xlsx before Proton Drive can store them usefully. Either export individually or use Google Takeout to batch-export your Docs as Office files. If you still need collaborative editing, Proton Docs is built into Proton Drive.

Day 20 — Move Google Photos (if applicable).

If you use Google Photos, this is its own migration project. Download via Google Takeout (select Photos), then choose a destination: Proton Drive, local storage on an external drive, or a photos-specific alternative like Ente. This can be large — 50GB+ for active photo takers — so start the export now even if you finish later.

Day 21 — Empty your Google Drive.

Once you've confirmed your files exist in Proton Drive, delete them from Google Drive. This isn't permanent yet (Google keeps deleted files for 30 days), but it signals you're done depending on that storage.

Week 4: Browser, Search, and Final Audit (Days 22–30)

Day 22 — Install Brave.

Download Brave browser. On first launch, it offers to import your Chrome bookmarks, extensions, and saved passwords. Do the bookmark import. Hold off on passwords — we'll handle those with Proton Pass in a moment.

Day 23 — Set Brave Search as your default.

In Brave Settings → Search engine → set Brave Search as default. Brave Search is fully independent — it doesn't use Google or Bing indexes. There's a brief adjustment period where results feel slightly different. Stick with it for a week before judging it.

Day 24 — Migrate your passwords with Proton Pass.

Export your Chrome saved passwords (Settings → Passwords → Export). Import the CSV into Proton Pass (the Proton password manager). Install the Proton Pass browser extension in Brave. This replaces Google's auto-fill across all your devices and covers the "passwords" dimension of your Google dependency — the 4th area Proton handles.

Day 25 — Install privacy extensions in Brave.

Brave's built-in shields block most trackers, but add uBlock Origin for belt-and-suspenders ad blocking. Optionally add the Proton Pass extension for auto-fill. That's it — don't install more extensions than you need. Each one is an attack surface.

Day 26 — Disconnect Google account from your phone's system settings.

On Android: Settings → Accounts → Google → Remove account. This stops background sync to Google's servers for contacts, calendar, and Drive. You'll have Proton equivalents running. On iOS, this is in Settings → Mail → Accounts.

Day 27 — Audit your Google account's "Connected apps."

Go to myaccount.google.com/connections. Every app that has "Sign in with Google" access is listed here. For the ones you still use, set up a new account with your Proton email instead. Revoke access for the ones you're done with. This step catches the apps that quietly call home to Google on your behalf.

Day 28 — Change your Google account recovery settings.

Update your account recovery phone number and backup email to non-Google addresses. This matters even if you plan to delete the account — you want control until the last moment.

Day 29 — Switch your DNS.

Your ISP's DNS resolver logs every domain you visit. Switch to a privacy-respecting alternative: Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 (set in your router for household-wide coverage) or Quad9 (9.9.9.9) which also blocks known malicious domains. This one step covers every device on your network.

Day 30 — Final audit and decision on the Google account.

Check: Are there any accounts still sending to Gmail that you use? Search your Proton inbox for Gmail mentions. Run a search in Gmail for emails from the last 7 days — everything should be appearing in both due to forwarding. If you see gaps, hunt down those accounts.

Then make your call: delete the Google account, or leave it in read-only mode as a permanent catch-all for stragglers. Most people leave it alive but stop actively using it. Deleting is permanent — only do it if you're confident nothing critical still points there.

What You've Built

By day 30, your data footprint looks like this:

Email: Proton Mail, end-to-end encrypted, custom domain optional
Calendar: Proton Calendar, zero-knowledge encrypted
Files: Proton Drive, client-side encrypted before upload
Passwords: Proton Pass, encrypted vault replacing Chrome's keychain
Browser: Brave, blocking trackers at the network layer
Search: Brave Search, independent index, no Google in the loop

Proton's zero-knowledge architecture means even Proton can't read your email, calendar events, or files. That's the actual difference between "we promise not to look" and "we technically can't look."

The migration is done when forwarding is no longer catching anything new. Most people hit that point around day 45–60 for truly long-tail accounts. Don't rush the final delete.

Keep Your Privacy Sharp

This checklist gets you out. Staying out is a habit. Every few months, revisit your connected apps list and trim what you've stopped using.

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