Finding Your Settings

The settings window has a search box at the top and a list of pages down the left side.

To open it, click Edit > Settings. On macOS the window is called Preferences, and you find it under the GpgFrontend menu.

Just Search

The fastest way to find anything is the search box at the top. It looks at page names and at the things on each page, so you do not have to guess which page a setting is on.

Type pin and it takes you to the page with the PIN setting. Type proxy, theme, or update and the same thing happens.

The Four Groups

If you would rather browse, the pages are sorted into four groups:

Application: how the program looks and behaves.
Keys & Engines: where your keys live and which engine handles them.
Features: extras that come from modules.
System: the technical settings, plus logging.

What Is on Each Page

Page	Group	What you change there
General	Application	Language, how operations behave, where the File Panel opens, which modules to look for
Appearance	Application	Theme, icon size, which actions appear on the toolbar and what a click runs, fonts
Network	Application	Proxy settings
Updates	Application	Whether GpgFrontend checks for a new version when it starts
Key Databases	Keys & Engines	Your key databases, which one is the default, and the built-in database’s engine
Key Generation	Keys & Engines	The default key type, the made-up identity for Quick Generate, and your key profiles
GnuPG	Keys & Engines	Point at your own GnuPG, and fix GnuPG when it stops responding
rPGP	Keys & Engines	How long the rPGP engine remembers a passphrase, and passphrase encryption strength
Key Servers	Keys & Engines	The list of key servers, and which one is the default
Instant Messaging	Features	Your phrase for instant messaging
Mail Accounts	Features	Your email accounts for sending and reading email
Advanced	System	How the program protects its own key, and how much it writes to the log

Some pages only show up when they apply to you:

GnuPG and rPGP appear only if your copy has that engine.
Network does not appear in sandboxed builds, such as Flatpak or the Mac App Store edition.
Updates is not in the Flatpak or Mac App Store builds, which get their updates from Flathub or the App Store.
Updates, Key Servers, Instant Messaging and Mail Accounts come from built-in modules. Each one appears only while its module is switched on. You can check that in Module Controller.

The General Page

The General page has these parts.

Base

Module Discovery: decides which modules GpgFrontend looks for when it starts. The choices are Only Integrated Modules, Also Look For Modules I’ve Added and Disable. Looking for a module never runs it. See Module Controller for the rest. A change here takes effect the next time you start GpgFrontend.

Sandboxed builds hide the whole Base box.

Operation

Default Workspace As: choose whether GpgFrontend starts with the File Panel or the Text Editor. The default is File Panel.
File Panel Opens At: the folder the File Panel shows first. Sandboxed builds hide this and Default Workspace As:. They always start with the Text Editor, and ask for a folder each time you open a File Panel.
Cache text editor contents. keeps your open text tabs, including ones you have not saved, so they come back the next time you start GpgFrontend. They are stored encrypted. This is on by default.
Allow only one checked key in the key list. When you check a key, the others are unchecked. This stops a key from an earlier message from being added to the next one by mistake.
Ask before encrypting to more than one recipient. GpgFrontend shows you the list of recipients and asks you to confirm.
Allow undoing encrypt, decrypt and other operations in the text editor. This is off by default. When it is on, the old text stays in memory so you can undo. After you encrypt, that old text is your plaintext.

For more about these choices, see Encrypting Safely.

The same box also has options to import dropped files without asking, to remember checked keys, to use binary mode for files, and to warn about keys that expire soon.

Language

Pick the language GpgFrontend uses. System Default follows your operating system. Changing it reloads the window.

Data

Reveal in File Explorer: open the folder where GpgFrontend keeps its data, in your system’s file manager.
Clear All Data Objects (Total Size: …): delete the data GpgFrontend has saved for you, such as window positions, states and your key server list. GpgFrontend asks first. See App Data Storage.

Sandboxed builds hide the Data box.

The Key Databases Page

A key database is a folder where your keys are kept.

The Key Databases page lists your key databases and lets you add, edit and remove them. You can also pick which one is the default with Use as Default.

The Built-in Key Database box has a Key engine: choice. It applies only to the built-in database. Other databases always open with their own engine.

This page is still changing. For the details, see Key Database.

The Key Generation Page

This page decides what making a new key starts with. It has two tabs.

The Quick Generate Tab

Default key profile: the key type that is picked first in the Generate Key window, and that Quick Generate uses. A profile is a saved set of key choices. The default is Ed25519 / X25519 (Modern & Fast).
Quick Generate identity: how the made-up name, email and comment look. Quick Generate and the Fill In Anonymously button use these. Change them in Name pattern:, Email pattern: and Comment pattern:. Preview: shows an example. Click the refresh button next to it for another one.

A pattern is normal text with placeholders in curly braces. For example, the default name pattern anon-{token} gives anon- followed by 8 random letters and digits. Click Placeholders to see them all. Some useful ones:

{token}: 8 random letters and digits, the same in every field.
{domain} and {tld}: a made-up domain. {tld} gives test, example or invalid, so no mail can ever reach the address.
{date}: today’s date.

Restore Default Patterns puts the three patterns back as they were.

The Profiles Tab

The list shows every profile and its Status: Default, Hidden, Unavailable (your engine cannot make it) or Offered. Click a profile to see what it makes and where it appears in the Generate Key window.

New… makes a profile. Choose its Name, the Primary key, and whether to add a Subkey.
Edit… changes the selected profile.
More has Duplicate, Set as Default, Hide and Delete.
Drag a profile, or use the arrow buttons, to change the order.

You cannot delete or hide the default profile. Choose another default first. Deleting a profile never changes keys you already made with it.

Restore Built-in Profiles… adds back the profiles GpgFrontend comes with, if you deleted any. Your own profiles and your changes are kept.

The rPGP Page

The rPGP page sets how long the rPGP engine remembers a passphrase and how long its passphrase prompt waits.

Under Passphrase Encryption there is Argon2 Parameters:. It decides how much memory it takes to turn a passphrase into a key when you encrypt with a passphrase only:

High memory, 2 GiB: the default. It makes a stolen message much harder to crack.
Low memory, 64 MiB: choose this if your computer, or the computer of the person who opens the message, cannot spare 2 GiB.

The choice applies only to messages you encrypt from now on. See Symmetric Encryption.

The Updates Page

The Updates page has one checkbox: Checking for version updates when the application starts.

When it is on, GpgFrontend checks quietly in the background, at most once a day. It never opens a window for this. If a newer version exists, a badge appears on Help > Check for Updates.

GpgFrontend only checks after the first-run setup has asked you whether you want this.

To check yourself, click Help > Check for Updates. If you have not turned the check on, the window does not check by itself. Click Check now to check once. The window then tells you one of these things:

You’re up to date.
A new version is available. The window names it, offers a button to download it, and has Release notes you can open.
This version isn’t listed on GitHub Releases. This can happen with a pre-release or a withdrawn version.
This build isn’t from the official repository. This is expected if you built GpgFrontend yourself.
Couldn’t check for updates, with Try again.

The check only asks GitHub Releases.

The Advanced Page

The Advanced page has two parts:

Security: Secure Level: and Application Key Protection:. See App Secure Key.
Diagnostics: Log Level: and Log Ring Buffer:.

Log Level: decides how much GpgFrontend writes to its log. The choices are Trace, Debug, Info, Warning, Error and Fatal. Trace writes the most. It adds detail from modules that Debug leaves out.

You can also set the level for one run when you start GpgFrontend from a terminal:

gpgfrontend --log-level trace

The short form is -l. The values are trace, debug, info, warn and error.

When a Restart Is Needed

Most settings take effect the moment you click OK. That now includes all changes on the Key Databases page, the built-in database’s engine, and Forbid all GnuPG network connection. on the GnuPG page. GpgFrontend opens your key databases again, without a restart.

On macOS there are no OK and Cancel buttons. Your changes are saved when you close the window.

A few settings still need a restart. If you changed one of them, GpgFrontend shows a Restart Required message when you click OK. It names the pages with these changes. Click Save and Restart or Save and Reload to apply them, or Cancel to throw away every change you made in the window.

These changes reload the window:

the language, on the General page;
the theme, on the Appearance page.

These changes restart the program:

Use Custom GnuPG, the GnuPG path, and Enable GpgME Debug Log, on the GnuPG page;
anything on the Advanced page.

A module’s settings page may also ask for a restart.

One exception: the buttons in the Maintenance part of the GnuPG page act straight away. Cancel does not undo those.

If GnuPG Stops Responding

The GnuPG page has a Maintenance section with three buttons. They are the first thing to try when GnuPG hangs, forgets your passphrase at the wrong moment, or stops seeing your smart card. Sandboxed builds, such as Flatpak, hide this section and the Clear password cache on exit option.

Clear Password Cache: make GnuPG forget every passphrase it is holding.
Reload Components: have GnuPG re-read its settings.
Restart Components: stop and restart GnuPG’s background programs.

These act the moment you click them, and are not undone by Cancel. Restarting interrupts anything GnuPG is in the middle of, so do not use it during a large file operation.

Checking What Is Actually in Use

When something looks wrong, it helps to see what GpgFrontend thinks it is running. Click Help > About, then open the Status tab.

The tab shows:

Needs Attention: only appears when something is not as it should be, for example when the system credential store cannot be used.
At a Glance: your profile, how the application key is protected, and the secure level.
More details: click it to open the Details card. It has rows for Application, Profile, Folders and OpenPGP Engines.

Hold the mouse over a row to read more about it, or to see a long value in full.

To share this with someone who helps you, click Copy Status Information. It copies every row, including the hidden ones.

Your key databases are not listed here. Look on the Key Databases settings page instead.

The other tabs of the About window are also useful:

About has a Resources card with links to the website, the documentation, the source code and the release notes.
Build Information lists the versions GpgFrontend was built with. Click Copy Build Information to copy them.