How to reset your Proton password (account recovery)

Proton doesn’t have access to your password, so we can’t reset it for you if you forget or lose it. But you can reset your password yourself if you’ve set an account recovery method.

Important note: If you reset your password, you won’t be able to read all your existing emails, contacts, and Drive photos, albums, and files due to the encryption we use to protect your data (read on to see how to recover your existing data).

So if you know your password and simply want to change it, see how to change your password instead of resetting it.

In this article, we explain:

• Ways to reset your password and recover your encrypted data
• How to reset your password using your recovery email address
• How to reset your password using your recovery phone number
• How to reset your password using your recovery phrase
• What’s next after password reset?

Note if you’re using two-password mode

The default password setting in Proton Mail is one-password mode. If you use two-password mode — with one password to sign in to your Proton Mail account and a second one to decrypt your mailbox — resetting either of these passwords reverts your account to one-password mode. Your existing emails and other encrypted data become unreadable.

As with one-password mode, you can follow these steps to recover your data if you know your mailbox password or have set a data recovery method.

Ways to reset your password and recover your encrypted data

Your Proton password is used for two things:

• To give you access to your Proton Account
• To decrypt your emails, contacts, Drive files, photos, and albums, and other encrypted data

If you forget your password, you’ll need to take the following two steps to fully recover your Proton Account and encrypted data:

Step 1. Account recovery: Reset your password using one of the following three options:

• Recovery email: If you’ve provided an email address, we can send a message so you can reset your password.
• Recovery phone number: If you’ve given us a mobile phone number, we can send you a text to reset your password.
• Recovery phrase: If you’ve enabled your recovery phrase, you’ll be able to enter your 12-word phrase to reset your password.

Step 2. Data recovery: Recover your emails and other encrypted files using one of the following two options:

• Recovery phrase: If you’ve enabled your recovery phrase, you can use it to restore your emails and other encrypted data.
• Recovery file: If you’ve downloaded a recovery file, you can upload it to restore your emails and data.

Note that the recovery phrase can be used for both account recovery and data recovery.

In this article, we’ll only look at the different ways you can reset your password (Step 1). For Step 2, see how to recover your data.

How to reset your password using your recovery email address

1. Go to the Proton Account login screen, click Trouble signing in?, and then Forgot password?

2. Enter your Proton Mail email address or username and click Next.

3. Select Email, enter your recovery email address and click Send code.

4. Enter the code that was sent to your recovery email address and click Reset password.

5. You receive a warning informing you of the next steps. If you’re sure you want to proceed, click Reset password to confirm.

6. Enter a new password, confirm it, and click Continue.

You’ll be immediately taken to your inbox. See What’s next after password reset?

How to reset your password using your recovery phone number

1. Go to the Proton Account login screen, click Trouble signing in?, and then Forgot password?

2. Enter your Proton Mail email address or username and click Next.

3. Select Phone number, find your country, enter your recovery email address, and click Send code.

4. Enter the code from your phone and click Reset password.

5. You receive a warning informing you of the next steps. If you’re sure you want to proceed, click Reset password to confirm.

6. Enter a new password, confirm it, and click Continue.

You’ll be immediately taken to your inbox. See What’s next after password reset?

How to reset your password using your recovery phrase

1. Go to the Proton Account login screen, click Trouble signing in?, and then Forgot password?

2. Enter your Proton Mail email address or username and click Next.

3. Select Phrase, enter your 12-word recovery phrase, and click Reset password.

4. Check the warning and click Reset password to confirm.

5. Enter a new password, confirm it, and click Continue.

You’ll be immediately taken to your inbox. Your access to emails, contacts, Drive files, photos, albums, and other encrypted data will be fully restored.

What’s next after password reset?

If you have successfully reset your Proton Account password using the email or phone recovery method, the next step is to recover your encrypted data. This includes your:

• Encrypted emails, contacts, and other data
• Drive files, photos, and albums

If you used your recovery phrase to reset your password, you don’t need to restore encrypted data separately — everything stays accessible automatically.