GPG Mail Upgrader fails to activate GPG Mail
In some cases the GPG Mail Upgrader is launched after upgrading to macOS 12.3 but fails to complete and following re-try attempts fail as well.
The reason for this problem is that GPG Mail Upgrader fails to close Mail which is necessary to complete the upgrade. In most cases this happens, because there's still a dialog presented in macOS Mail which is trying to inform you that an incompatible plug-in has been disabled.
To resolve this problem
- Close Mail app
- If the GPG Mail Upgrader is still running, press retry
2a. If it's no longer running, reboot macOS and it will launch shortly after reboot
The GPG Mail Upgrader doesn't start automatically after reboot
To manually launch the GPG Mail Upgrader please follow these steps:
- Open Finder
- Press
CMD + SHIFT + G
- Type
/Library/Application Support/GPGTools
and pressEnter
- Find
GPG Mail Upgrader.app
and double click on it (not to be mistaken with GPG Suite Updater) - Make sure Mail is closed
- Press
Upgrade
- Launch Mail and check if
Mail › Settings › GPG Mail
is present
The upgrader doesn't appear to launch even when started manually
- Open Terminal (easiest to find via Spotlight, the loupe icon in menu bar)
- Type
/Library/Application\ Support/GPGTools/GPG\ Mail\ Upgrader.app/Contents/MacOS/GPG\ Mail\ Upgrader -FromInstaller YES -Force YES
and press enter - Make sure Mail is closed
- Press
Upgrade
- Launch Mail and check if
Mail › Settings › GPG Mail
is present
The upgrader still fails
If the upgrade still fails it is possible that you are running into a macOS permission bug.
For yet unknown reason macOS sometimes applies very restrictive permissions to the GPG Mail plug-in. This is known to happen when re-installing macOS (keeping user data), restoring a backup from TimeMachine or having run the macOS Migration Assistant recently.
Unfortunately this issue can only be fixed by temporarily disabling Apple's System Integrity Protection:
- Disable System Integrity Protection by following this guide:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/disabling_and_en... - Once macOS has rebooted, open Finder
- Press
CMD + SHIFT + G
- Enter
~/Library/Application Support/Mail/Plug-ins/Bundles/Library/Mail/Bundles
- Delete
GPGMailLoader_6.mailbundle
- Press
CMD + SHIFT + G
- Type
/Library/Application Support/GPGTools
and pressEnter
- Find
GPG Mail Upgrader.app
and double click on it (not to be mistaken with GPG Suite Updater) - Make sure Mail is closed
- Press
Upgrade
- Launch Mail and check if
Mail › Settings › GPG Mail
is present - Re-enable System Integrity Protection again (see Apple article from Step 1)
If none of the aforementioned steps work and the GPG Mail Upgrader still fails, please contact us via System Settings > GPG Suite > Contact Support
or update your existing discussion if you had created a related one before reading this article.