gpg2 - Unusable public key -No assurance key belongs to named user

Question

I'm using pass as my main password manager(which uses gpg2), but since a few days i can't create new keys, I always get the error message:

There is no assurance this key belongs to the named user
[stdin]: encryption failed: Unusable public key

I already set the the trust of my key to ultimate als suggested here

And also checked that my key is not expired. Any suggestions how to fix this or should i get a new key?

Answer 1

From https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33361068/gnupg-there-is-no-assurance-this-key-belongs-to-the-named-user:

do gpg --edit-key <KEY_ID> and gpg>trust

If you're sure about the authenticity of your key, select the trust level 5.

Answer 2

I had simillar issue. In my case I generated the GPG key for RSA (sign only).

It can be fixed either by regenerating it for RSA and RSA (default) of by adding a subkey for RSA (encrypt only).

The second option can be done by gpg --edit-key <KEY_ID> and gpg> addkey and select RSA (encrypt only)

Answer 3

Solved the problem by running:pass init <gpg-id> which reencrypted the existing keys. Afterwards i was able to decrypt my keys again normaly