10.9: Cannot encrypt mails anymore

Viktor's Avatar

Viktor

03 Jan, 2014 01:03 AM

I noticed that I cannot encrypt mails anymore. When I enter a recipient for who I have a public key, the encryption lock stays open and grayed out. The tooltip reads that the mail can only be encrypted once I have entered a recipient (see attached file). When I enter a recipient for who I don't have a public key the tooltip displays a different message (see other attached file).

I can encrypt from the command line just fine. I've tried rebooting the computer and I also reinstalled GPG tools but the problem remains. The last encrypted mail in my archives is from November 30.

I'm on OS X 10.9.1.

  1. 1 Posted by Viktor on 03 Jan, 2014 01:06 AM

    Viktor's Avatar

    Forgot to add that I can still sign messages, so my own private key is detected.

  2. Support Staff 2 Posted by Steve on 03 Jan, 2014 10:43 PM

    Steve's Avatar

    Hi Viktor,

    I think your attchments didn't make it onto this platform. Could you please download and install our latest nightly build and see if the problem persists.

    Also what color do you see for the gpg indicator in Mail.app > Preferences > GPGMail?

    All the best, steve

    Disclaimer: This is a development version which has not been thoroughly tested yet, so bugs or crashes are to be expected. Thanks for helping us test this fix.

  3. 3 Posted by Viktor on 03 Jan, 2014 11:26 PM

    Viktor's Avatar

    Hi Steve,

    I uninstalled GPG tools and installed the nightly build but could not get it to work. There were a few issues:

    • During installation, the process gpg-agent started to consume lots of CPU and the installation process would not finish. Once I killed the gpg-agent process after a few minutes the installer finished with a success message.

    • Immediately after installation, the GPG Keychain opened and asked me to generate a new key. None of my installed public keys were available, so it appears that the program did not recognize my key chains.

    • In mail.app, I could not decrypt mails, i.e., there was a yellow pane above the mail. Clicking on details revealed did not show an error message, i.e., in the dialog that opened, the error message was missing.

    • The gpg indicator in Mail.app > Preferences > GPGMail was yellow.

    I uninstalled the nightly build and reinstalled the GPG tools 2.1 release. Afterwards, the gpg indicator light in Mail.app preferences was green again. Also, my key ring showed up in GPG keychain. However, I still cannot encrypt mails.

    Let me know if there's something else or a new build I can try. Also, I'm reattaching the screenshots, hopefully they'll get through this time.

    Cheers,
    Viktor

  4. 4 Posted by Viktor on 04 Jan, 2014 03:22 PM

    Viktor's Avatar

    Hi Steve,

    I found the cause of the problem. It was my mistake. I had my key set to expire at Jan 1st. When I updated the expiration date for next year, I only set the expiration date for the signing key. However, the expiration date for the encryption key was still outdated. GPG tools encrypts sent mails to the sender's email, which it was obviously not able to do.

    So, with the caveat that the error message/tooltip in this case could be more helpful, I think this case can be closed. Sorry for the noise!

    Cheers,
    Viktor

  5. Support Staff 5 Posted by Steve on 15 Jan, 2014 04:58 PM

    Steve's Avatar

    Hi Viktor,

    this is a mixture of several problems. We had issues with the nightly build that should now be fixed. Could you please download and install our latest nightly build and see if the problem persists. That installer should not cause CPU spikes or not finish it's installation. Please let me know if that is true for you.

    Yes, we need better information in the case of an expiring key. https://gpgtools.lighthouseapp.com/projects/65684/tickets/206 covers this. We have more tickets in that area that need to be dealt with when we find capacity.

    All the best, steve

    Disclaimer: This is a development version which has not been thoroughly tested yet, so bugs or crashes are to be expected. Thanks for helping us test this fix.

  6. 6 Posted by Viktor Rosenfel... on 15 Jan, 2014 09:36 PM

    Viktor Rosenfeld's Avatar

    Dear Steve,

    I tested the nightly build. CPU usage during installation was high but the installer finished quickly. After the installation was finished and I had quit the installer, the distnoted process continued to consume about 60% CPU for a few moments before the system started to idle. However, I have had problems with this process on other occasions so I don't know if/how that is related to the installer process. Overall, the install process of the nightly build was similar to that of the latest release.

    I was able to encrypt/sign and decrypt/verify mails. In my very brief tests, I did not find any problems.

    Cheers,
    Viktor

    Am 15.01.2014 um 17:58 schrieb Steve <[email blocked]>:

  7. Support Staff 7 Posted by Steve on 16 Jan, 2014 10:30 AM

    Steve's Avatar

    Viktor, the fact that the nightly installer finishes correctly is great to hear.

    Sounds to me like all open issues are solved and things are working fine.

    I'm closing this discussion. If you need further assistance or have questions you can re-open this discussion here or open a new one any time.

    Best, steve

  8. Steve closed this discussion on 16 Jan, 2014 10:30 AM.

  9. Steve closed this discussion on 16 Jan, 2014 05:23 PM.

  10. Steve closed this discussion on 03 May, 2015 09:08 AM.

  11. Steve closed this discussion on 27 Aug, 2018 12:31 PM.

Comments are currently closed for this discussion. You can start a new one.

Keyboard shortcuts

Generic

? Show this help
ESC Blurs the current field

Comment Form

r Focus the comment reply box
^ + ↩ Submit the comment

You can use Command ⌘ instead of Control ^ on Mac