[Enigmail] Question for the passphrase of a key which is not involved in encrypting an email

Hello Enigmail-users,

I want to help someone who uses Thunderbird 68.7.0 (64-Bit)+Enigmail Version 2.1.6 (20200328-0946) under Xubuntu 18.04.4 LTS.

He has forgotten the passphrasefor his private key if there ever was one. Chances are high that itwas made without a password but I am unsure about it. At least he did not haveto enter the passphrase when looking at his encryptedemails, so even if there ever was a passphrase forthe key, it never had to be entered for years.

In order to help him, I created a new public+private key with Enigmail. Although using a key without a passphrase is not recommended, I generated one without it. Then I sent an encrypted test email to himself using the newly generated public key.

After the encrypted test mail was received, Thunderbird/Enigmail still asks for the passphrase related to the old key.

Even after I had _disabled_ the old key under Enigmail's key management (and a later reboot of course), Thunderbird/Enigmail still asks for the passphrase of the old key before decrypting a mail encrypted with the new key (the one without a passphrase)!

I don’t want to delete the old key from Enigmail, just in case he should remember the passphrase (if there ever was one). There seems to be no way back: If I export the old pair of keys, I will am asked for the passphrase. If I don’t enter it, Enigmail still writes a file named *pub*-sec*.asc. If I export only his old public key, a *pub.asc file is generated. But has exactly the same content as the one with both keys according to the name. *This is definitely an error in Enigmail*. The unability to export the old key pair is why I did not make a test after deleting the old one.

*How can I let Enigmail work with the new key only?*

*Is there a way to circumvent the passphrase in case there never was one associated with the old private key?*

Adalbert Hanßen
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