Deleting PGP, Re-installing it, and using old Public Keys

[steinwayartist]

Hi.

A while ago (several years), I deleted PGP and just recently re-installed version 8. I found my old public key, and an old pgp-encrypted file. I'm using the same name/passphrase combination as before.
How do I tell PGP that this old public key is *me* and how can I make it let me open the file? It's the same passphrase, so what's up with the "It is not possible to decrypt this message because your keyring does not contain usable private key(s) corresponding to any of the above public key(s)" error? (The 'above' public key in question is that old public key.)

Thanks for any help,
-Nick

http://nickcoffey.com

 

[punkslap]

Have you tried to install your old version of PGP and re-open the file?

If you know that your version worked on pgp6.5, for instance, go to

http://www.pgpi.com

and get yourself the freeware version of pgp6.5 and try to install and decrypt your file.

Then regenerate/re-export your pgp keys and see if the new pgp8.0 version will work with the new file.

I have never had issues with pgp8 not decrypting a previously encrypted file. Also, when you are encrypting a file to any one, I would suggest that you include yourself as the receipient so you can open it one day also (esp. if you are keeping a copy of that message/document). You may have not included yourself as a reciepient to start with in this situation. In which case, you will not be able to open the document.

PGPTek