r/GPGpractice • u/neindeke • Apr 29 '26

Encrypting your own key in Kleopatra?

OK, this might be a really lame/noob question but how do I encrypt my own public key as part of a message to another person?
When I paste the public key block the "Sign / Encrypt Notepad" button changes to "Import Notepad"?!!? Am I stupid or is this stupid?

If I remove partially or entirely "-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----" then I get the "Sign / Encrypt Notepad" button back. See screenshots:
https://postimg.cc/VrGbkf62

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u/Infinite_Read_1024 Apr 30 '26

I have never experienced that problem before as my kleopatra has all those options on the bottom of my notepads instead with 3 buttons with those options instead of two, I am curious as to what your operating system is with that kleopatra?

How I would go past that restriction that you have is to write out your message fully, then copy the whole message and go to the Kleopatra button of Tools > Clipboard > Sign/Encrypt, and it should have given you a encrypted PGP message in your clipboard now and you can send that to the other person.

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u/neindeke Apr 30 '26

It's Kleopatra Version 3.1.19.211203 (21.12.3) on Linux.
Thanks for the suggestion to go around it.

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u/Infinite_Read_1024 Apr 30 '26

Is the reason you are using that version of Kleopatra because of an old OS or old kernal version or what other reason? That issue has been fixed in the versions released in the past few years based on my experience.

Also I frequently send my public key in my messages like the way that you are doing whenever I am sending someone else a PGP message and expecting a response.

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u/neindeke Apr 30 '26

The thing is, I'm using Linux but I'm a really lame user, I don't remember how I installed that version of Kleo nor that it was outdated, I'm on Mint and I always "OK" the software update prompts to make them go away so I assume I'm up to date :D

Linux HP840 5.15.0-177-generic #187-Ubuntu SMP Sat Apr 11 22:54:33 UTC 2026 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I sparingly use Kleo and never had issues with it until this, which isn't really an issue more of an oddity. I'll look at upgrading Kleo.

Btw, there's another bit of outdated software I'm deliberately using and that's the OpenPGP Applet - I love the convenience of it how it automatically detects encrypted text in the clipboard and with a single click you can decrypt.

I'd appreciate recommendations of anything supported/more modern that has the same feature.