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Contents

Getting Started

The first thing you need to do when getting started with iPGMail is to either import your existing keys (if you have them) or create a new keypair for yourself.

External Links

Simon at Anotherwindowsblog.com posted a very nice iPGMail Review and Walkthrough, check it out if you still need more help after reading the content here.
ScreenCastsOnline has a great instructional video posted HERE. Thanks to Don McAllister for putting this together.

Configuring an SMTP Server

It is not necessary to configure an SMTP server for outgoing mail, the app will default to using the default iOS Mail client and default email account defined for the device if one is not configured in the app settings. If you want more details about the custom STMP server – click here.

Importing Existing Keys

Start by importing your private key first. It is not necessary to import both your public and private keys, the PGP private key data contains a copy of the public key and the private key. Keys should be exported with ASCII-Armor (use the “–armor” option when exporting from GnuPG based software such as gpg2). The private key file can then be imported into the app using iTunes File Sharing, DropBox, or email (not recommended).

Import Keys from a Connected Computer (MacOS Catalina)

  • Export your private key from your desktop PGP software (GPG Keychain on Mac, gnupg, etc) using the ASCII format and with a .asc file extension
  • Follow instructions https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/sync-files-to-your-device-mchl4bd77d3a/mac for connecting and navigating to the iPGMail section to see the files.
  • You can copy files to and from your computer by dragging and dropping them into the iPGMail folder.

Transfer keys using Apple’s AirDrop

NOTE: only for Mac OS/X 10.10 (Yosemite) or later

  1. On the computer, export your key (public OR private) from your desktop PGP software (GPG Keychain on Mac, gnupg, etc) using the ASCII format and with a .asc file extension
  2. On your iPhone or iPad with iPGMail installed, enable “AirDrop” in the settings widget (pull up from bottom of screen)
  3. On the computer, right click on the exported key file, select Airdrop in the “Share” submenu
  4. Select your iPhone or iPad as the device to share with. If it is not an option, go to the device and make sure you have properly enabled AirDrop.
  5. Once you select your iPhone or iPad on the computer in the AirDrop Share panel, it will transfer the file to the device, the device will then present you with a list of apps to use to read the file, choose iPGmail. If iPGMail was not an option, make sure that the file has the “.asc” file extension.
  6. Once the key is successfully imported, the view will automatically switch to the key detail view and you can review the information associated with the key. Select the “Done” button to close the detail view. You should see they key in both the public and private key listings from the Keys tab.
  7. You can now disable AirDrop on the iPhone or iPad.

Import Public Keys from PGP.net

When viewing the list of public keys on the “Keys” tab, the “+” button in the upper right can be used to open a view that can be used to search the PGP.net servers to import public keys. Touching the field next to the “Server:” line will present a list of servers to choose from. All of these servers are synchronized nightly so keys available on 1 are usually available on all of the others. Enter in an email address or a key id (ex: 0x47e3234c) and it will display a list of matching keys that you can then select and use the “Import” button to import into the app.

Import Public Keys from Keybase.IO

Keybase.IO is an online collection of public keys paired with unique user ids. If you select “Search Keybase.IO” from the public key search choices (touch “+” on the public key list view), you will be presented with a form that lets you search for users or keys in the Keybase.IO database. You can enter their username or keyID (partial keyIDs are OK). The list of matching keys or users will be displayed. When you select the user that you are looking for it will show details about that user and then you can click on the key’s fingerprint value to import their public key into the app.

Import Keys from Dropbox

Note: Transferring private keys over a public cloud service such as DropBox or iCloud is STRONGLY DISCOURAGED. Use the iTunes file sharing method for transferring your PRIVATE keys.

  1. You must have a Dropbox account. If you don’t have one, use this link to sign up and get started
  2. From your desktop, export your private key to a file (using the ASCII Armor option) to your PRIVATE folder in Dropbox, make sure it has a “.pgp” or “.asc” extension.
  3. Enable Dropbox access from the Settings
  4. In the Files tab, select the Dropbox folder and browse to the “Private” folder, select the key uploaded earlier
  5. Choose the “Download” option
  6. Once the file is downloaded into the app, you should delete it from your Dropbox folder
  7. Close the Dropbox view in the app to return to the list of local files
  8. Select the key just downloaded from Dropbox and use the “Decode” option to import it into the app.
  9. Once it is successfully imported (verify by checking the list of Private keys in the Keys tab), you may delete it from the list of local files.

Creating a New Keypair

  1. Select the “Keys” tab
  2. Select the “Private” segment button at the top
  3. Select the “New Key” button (upper right)
  4. Fill in your preferred key attributes
  5. Select the “Create” button to begin generating the key (may take a few seconds to complete)

Importing a PGP Message From Email

PGP Message as an attachment:

  1. Click on the attachment in the Mail.app
  2. Mail app should then present you with a preview of the raw PGP message.
  3. Use the action button (upper right) and select “Open in iPGMail”

PGP Message in Email Body

  1. Copy the entire PGP message, from the “—– BEGIN” through the “END —–” lines to the clipboard.  To do this, hold your finger on the message until the “copy” button appears, then adjust the beginning and end of the highlighted section to cover the entire message, then press the “Copy” button.
  2. Switch to iPGMail
  3. Select the “Decode” tab
  4. Press the “Import” button (upper left) to import content from the system clipboard.  This should then attempt to decrypt and display your message.

Sharing

Public keys can be shared with others in several ways.

  1. Attach to your outgoing email.  Use the “Attach Pubkey” option in Settings to automatically add your public key as an attachment everytime you use iPGMail to send a message (encrypted or n0t).
  2. Upload to a public key server.  When viewing your public key details, you can use the Action button in the upper right and choose the “Export to Keyserver” option.  This will allow you to publish your key on one of the registered Public PGP Key Services. The app only allows you to upload your own public keys to the keyservers, you may NOT upload a public key that is not yours.
    1. Once your key is uploaded, it cannot be removed.  This is a limitation of the PGP Key Servers, not the app itself.
    2. All of the key servers sync with each other so you only need to choose 1 and they will all eventually be able to look up your key.
  3. Share with Airdrop. If you are running iOS 7 (or later) and are on a newer device, you can use the airdrop feature to simple send your key to a nearby friend who has iPGMail installed. This is an easy way to exchange public keys with people physically close by without sending anything over the internet.  Details here.

Settings

  1. Attach PubKey The senders public key will be attached to all outgoing messages as an attachment.
  2. Enable Dropbox iPGMail will allow you to link up with an existing DropBox account so that you can upload and download files to your dropbox account.   Use this link to sign up for a free dropbox account.
  3. Enable iCloud Enables you to store files and keys in iCloud. This makes it easy to then download your same files and keys from iCLoud on another device with iPGMail installed
  4. Enable App PIN Protection The app will prompt you for a 4 digit PIN whenever the app is activated.
  5. Default Mode Sets the default mode of encryption to be “sign only”, “encrypt only”, or “both”.
  6. Mail Server Config Allows you to choose to either use the default iOS Mail client to send your email, or configure a custom SMTP server to send your mail through. See SMTP Setup for more details.
  7. PGP in Email Body The encrypted PGP ASCII Armored message will be put into the body of the outgoing email.  By default this is “OFF” which causes the encrypted message to be sent as an attachment.