Failed to Load OpenPGP Keys From Keyrings

I have been a user of WS_FTP for a while – years, in fact. I can’t even tell you when I started using it. I’m sure that it was in the 1990s sometime. But at one point, I started getting this error – Failed to Load OpenPGP Keys From Keyrings and I just couldn’t figure out what the problem was. Eventually, I noticed that the error did come up on the Ipswitch forums, but not until I had already solved it (more than once).

The problem, you see, has to do with the fact that I change computers. A lot. But it can even happen if you don’t change computers – for instance, if you upgrade your computer (perhaps to Vista). What is happening is that the location of your keyring – even if you don’t use one! – isn’t pointing to the same place. So you need to tell the application that it’s moved. It’s not a difficult change to make either. Here’s how.

Locate the ipspgp.ini file. This is the tough part, but there is a way you can try and find it. Open up WS_FTP and go to Tools -> Options. Click on Logging. When you do, you’ll see the Log file path. This isn’t where the file is, but it will get you most of the way there. Chances are, if your user name is Bob, the path looks like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\bob\Application Data\Ipswitch\WS_FTP\Logs

The part in bold (bob) is the important part, as it tells you the username that WS_FTP thinks that it should be using. Make a note of it, because you’ll need it later. Then open up Windows Explorer and navigate to the path above Logs. There, you’ll find another directory called pgp. In other words:

C:\Documents and Settings\bob\Application Data\Ipswitch\WS_FTP\pgp

In this directory, you’ll see ipspgp.ini. That’s the file you want. Make a copy of it so in case you screw anything up, you can restore it later. Then edit the file and locate the lines that has that path in them. There should be five of them: PubKeyring, SecKeyring, PubBakring, SecBakring and PassphraseStore.

Chances are the the path after each of these is not the path you have above. Maybe it’s another user, or if you’ve upgraded to Vista, maybe your new path looks a little different than the one above. What you need to do is make each of these paths look like the actual path to the file, so that WS_FTP can find the files again. Then the error will go away. Save the file and you’re done.

What do you do if you can’t find the file? In that case, you’ll need to look for it. Use the Windows search function to locate ipspgp.ini. When you find it, that’s the directory that you need to put on each of those lines – just don’t remove the filename at the end of them!