this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2026
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For context, in my password manager I had tried formatting some of my entrees so that it would contain the usual username and password, but instead of creating whole new entrees for the security questions for the same account, I just added additional fields in the same entree in order to keep things a little more tidy.

I was not expecting that doing so would result in later being shaken down by Proton to pay even more money just to access the same few bytes of fucking text I had trusted them with. This is sleazy as fuck and I am dropping these idiots entirely.

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[–] blitzen@lemmy.ca 98 points 3 months ago (7 children)

Download BitWarden and be done with it.

[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 34 points 3 months ago (2 children)

If you can, just self-host vault warden (compatible with bit warden and supported). Gets your data out of the cloud entirely.

[–] blitzen@lemmy.ca 42 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I’m with you, but the hosted subscription is miles more secure than I can make my installation, and at $10 per year probably cheaper than the electricity to self host. Plus it supports the devs.

But I do make regular backups in case I need to migrate.

[–] teuniac_@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I think their prices have increased, but it's still a good deal

https://bitwarden.com/pricing/

[–] CoyoteFacts@piefed.ca 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Apparently the price increase happened yesterday; I hadn't heard anything about it until just now. Gave me the push I needed to switch to self-hosted vaultwarden in like 15 minutes. Very pleased with how simple the docker compose and export->import were. I'll note that I'm running it privately on my local network, which I'm assuming should work fine as my devices enter that network semi-frequently and should keep everything synced up(?).

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[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Giving money to yanks though

[–] eli@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

KeepassXC and syncthing, free and easy

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[–] tiny@midwest.social 9 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Why are you suggesting self hosting vaultwarden instead of self hosting bitwarden?

[–] Opisek@piefed.blahaj.zone 22 points 3 months ago

It's much lighter on the resources while having the exact same functionality.

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[–] halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 20 points 3 months ago

You can even self host it... And easily export your data from their hosted solution to your own.

[–] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Keepass is tried and true, I'm going back to Keepass.

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[–] photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 57 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (6 children)

KeepassXC + Syncthing has worked fine for me for a few years. Sure, it's a bit of a hassle and not exactly perfect, but nothing is. I have control over my data and I don't have to pay anyone anything, that's enough for me.

Also, tasty entrees 🤤

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If you don't host your own data, you don't own it.

[–] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 6 points 3 months ago

This is the route I'm taking. Keepass has always been tried and true. I switched from Keepass to Proton Pass for a while, and in more ways than this one complaint it has been very much a downgrade.

Proton does not know how to make quality software.

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[–] mrnobody@reddthat.com 54 points 3 months ago (18 children)

Dude, jfc calm down. You pay a little money to get premium services, instead of them monetizing user data. This is the way the world works with paid software, except they're not making money on your data and you, just you.

Maybe some context in what exactly you pay for would help too. I'm assuming you pay for a base tier of mail, bc I use their password manager too but pay for the full suite, and don't have this issue.

Maybe also a chat with support might find this to be an unexpected bug, but instead you're coming to Lemmy to the echo chamber of hate on proton which won't help.

[–] ttyybb@lemmy.world 115 points 3 months ago

I won't say your wrong, but IMHO it's unacceptable for a password manager to not warn you that information you give will be inaccessible without paying more money. Imagine if someone gave you 30 free entries before requiring a subscription, but let you add any number of accounts. Unless you want to reset all those passwords, your forced to pay them.

[–] fauxerious@lemmy.world 63 points 3 months ago

Their data should have been grandfathered in rather than locked out. Premium is a ransom with the lock out model

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 55 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It is a shakedown to accept your data for free then charge you to access it later. 

What the fuck else would you call that?

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It kind of sounds like OP tried to circumvent limitations in the free tier by formatting the available field in a certain way, but this then got caught by proton and then stored "correctly", which is in a way that requires the paid tier.

[–] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 8 points 3 months ago

Uh no. First off, I'm not on the free tier. I'm not on the most expensive tier, but I do pay for my account $4.99 monthly. Second, I used the built in features exactly as intended. Every login entree in Proton Pass has the option to add additional fields that you can name. That's what I did, every security question being the name, and every answer being the data filled in. There was nothing to circumvent, because at least according to their pricing plans, even the free tier claims to allow unlimited logins.

It is literally ransomware. They allowed me to enter data in their program as intended, and then held that data ransom in order to pressure me into upgrading into a higher tier.

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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 31 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I tried protonmail not for the privacy purpose but just to have a normal web email client.

After wasting an hour before finding out you can't disable the "sent from protonmail" footer without manually deleting it in each draft you make, I said screw it and deployed my own email server with stalwart lol.

It's receive only because outgoing SMTP is a pain to make reliable these days and my ISP blocks outgoing SMTP anyway, but for everything else I now use Thunderbird.

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[–] hector@lemmy.today 25 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I know someone that signed up for an account with them, they froze it immediately for suspicious activity. He does nothing with that IP address, reads, social media, that's it. No way to get off the shit list without giving up personal information like a phone number and or alternate email and no guarentee that would fix it.

Their IP was on a blacklist from some shady company for some strange reason. But other companies let you write the company and plead your case, proton does not.

They further suspended a bunch of accounts based on some half baked unproven accusations by the government(s) if I recall.

They aren't trustworthy, they will give you up at the first sign of friction it appears.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 25 points 3 months ago (6 children)

shaken down by Proton to pay even more money

What are you paying for currently?

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[–] addictedtosongtitles@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Bitwarden offers this feature for free using custom fields, although 2FA is paid unless you self-host IIRC

[–] jsnfwlr@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Vaultwarden is a great self hosted bitwarden clone

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[–] harmbugler@piefed.social 17 points 3 months ago

OMG I thought I was the only child of Mr and Mrs Upgrade, of Upgrade street, Upgrade! Maybe we're related?

[–] afk_strats@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Howdy. For the clarity of users such as myself, can you please clarify which "Proton" you're referring to.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 months ago (3 children)
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[–] skozzii@lemmy.ca 14 points 3 months ago (7 children)

Pretty sure the warning signs were apparent when the CEO submitted to Trump. it just his "personal beliefs" and not representative of the company. Right.

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[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

??? I use Proton mail and I never saw something like this. Account with nick, other mail, password and go.

[–] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 14 points 3 months ago (3 children)

It's in Proton Pass. When you create an account entree, there is an option to create additional fields that you can name and fill out, kind of like multiple notes in one file. Somehow I was able to create those fields on my account just fine, but then to be given access to that data it turned out that I had to upgrade my account. In other words they duped me into entering data at no extra cost, but then charged me to access that same data later on.

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[–] termaxima@slrpnk.net 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Bitwarden ! Host it yourself.

[–] nek0d3r@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)
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[–] vatlark@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

What tier do you at for now? Did you ever downgrade your their?

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[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I don't think that's where entrees go.

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