I’m migrating from Thunderbird and trying to import my full PGP key database from that old install.
GnuPG allows the export of a keyring including public keys and private keys. I’ve done that, and migrated between various mail clients in the past, etc.
“unknown PGP public key algorithm encountered” is the error encountered when I try to load that ASC file.
no other information is given by that error message.
it seems like i can import keys individually but i can’t figure out why i can’t import the full database.
interesting… i first thought my problem was the huge mass of keys i have. so i exported them in two halves from Thunderbird.
the first one imported to eM Client. “nice!” i thought, “i’ll now import the second half.”
that failed. so it wasn’t size.
i cut the remaining portion in half. then did so again and again. i kept searching and searching to find what key or keys might be throwing the error.
turns out (isn’t this always the way) it was the third key from the end of the list, hah. owned by a journalist i know, i can’t see anything weird about her public key.
i’ll paste it here (pub key, nothing sensitive) and if folk want to take a poke at it, feel free.
here’s the key that didn’t work…
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
mDMEXu/4OBYJKwYBBAHaRw8BAQdAuX5jY7OGFb3YSbX+ZFjQ030+65LRMVo0slSV
for comparison, here’s a key that did work…
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
mQINBFJJqugBEADI065XrfKS/BNv2rDv2ZtndG0YLCnO9A23PShLrozLCPhI8E3Q
Gary
January 14, 2021, 8:39am
5
It worked just fine for me.
