diff --git a/Source/santasyncservice/SNTSyncStage.mm b/Source/santasyncservice/SNTSyncStage.mm
index ad81998bb..40eb9a747 100644
--- a/Source/santasyncservice/SNTSyncStage.mm
+++ b/Source/santasyncservice/SNTSyncStage.mm
@@ -214,6 +214,17 @@ - (NSError *)performRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request
   NSData *data = [self dataFromRequest:request timeout:timeout];
   if (data.length == 0) return nil;
 
+  if ([[SNTConfigurator configurator] syncEnableProtoTransfer]) {
+    if (!message->ParseFromString(std::string((const char *)data.bytes, data.length))) {
+      NSString *errStr = @"Failed to parse response proto into message";
+      SLOGE(@"%@", errStr);
+      return [NSError errorWithDomain:@"com.google.santa.syncservice"
+                                 code:4
+                             userInfo:@{NSLocalizedDescriptionKey : errStr}];
+    }
+    return nil;
+  }
+
   google::protobuf::json::ParseOptions options{
     .ignore_unknown_fields = true,
   };