keybase / keybase/client

Unable to REKEY after setting up new device

Open
#9,912 6 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
acked
Dominant language
Go
Stars
9.2k
Forks
1.3k
Avg merge
12h 58m
Merged PRs (30d)
56

Description

This morning I installed the Keybase client on a new Mac that I am in the process of moving to from an old one. I installed the client, logged in, and verified the new Mac from my mobile client just fine. Then I get prompted in the client on my new device with the following message: "This computer and possibly others are unable to read some of your folders. To avoid losing data forever, please turn on one of the devices below" or enter paper key.

I tried just opening the client on one of my other devices and then tried all of them individually to get this to resolve with no luck. I then used the option to enter my paper key and receive a pop-up message that says "Your paper key is now rekeying folders for this computer. It takes just a couple minutes but lasts forever, like the decision to have a child." The problem is that it does not appear to be working. The prompt keeps coming up on the new system that the folders will be unavailable unless I take action.

When I open Keybase on my other systems, they all now show that all my private folders need to be rekeyed. I first checked the status with `keybase rekey status` and it shows 5 private folders that need rekeying. I then tried the rekey with `keybase rekey paper` and check the status again and 1 of the 5 folders appears to have been rekeyed now but still have 4 that state they need it.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start by reproducing the failure on a newly set-up device, then run `keybase rekey status` and `keybase rekey paper` as described. Compare the result across the five private folders and verify that all folders report as rekeyed and become available on the new computer.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go
Domain
cli, cryptography, security
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
20/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.