What is the difference between a PGP passphrase and a password?
A PGP passphrase is used to encrypt your private key, which in turn is used to encrypt your emails. The password is used to log in to your StartMail account.
When you create a StartMail account, a PGP passphrase will automatically be configured for you: your PGP passphrase will be your account password. Also, when creating new PGP keys your new passphrase will also be the same as your current account password. The reason for this is because we would like to simplify the general complexity of PGP for our users.
Since new users will automatically have a PGP passphrase configured upon account creation, they can immediately make use of PGP, both with StartMail recipients as well as non-StartMail recipients.
If you change your account password, this will not change your PGP passphrase (and vice versa). You would have to use your PGP passphrase (which is either your old account password or a PGP passphrase you have configured yourself) to encrypt / decrypt any emails.
How to change your PGP passphrase
- Go to Settings — PGP Keyring and select your own PGP key pair.
- Click on Change PGP-passphrase
- Enter your old PGP passphrase, your new PGP passphrase (twice), and click on Change passphrase.
