CarlosRiley

Q: unable to encrypt email in IOS 10

Tried setting up S/MIME for email encryption.  Sending signed emails works fine, but unable to encrypt email.

 

After sending a signed email between the two accounts, then clicking on the contact in that received email, and viewing their certificate, clicking on 'install' certificate (so that it would be trusted for encryption) does nothing.  Plus, the 'Done' button disappears, so you can't exit back from the contact back to email, but that's another problem.

 

So, I can send encrypted emails to myself all I want (and the other person can send encrypted emails to themself), but sending encrypted emails to each other fails.

 

We've tried enabling the 'encrypted by default', backing out of settings until 'done'... also tried rebooting.

iPhone 6, iOS 10

Posted on Sep 18, 2016 6:44 PM

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Q: unable to encrypt email in IOS 10

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  • by norm123,

    norm123 norm123 Sep 19, 2016 3:36 PM in response to CarlosRiley
    Community Specialists
    Sep 19, 2016 3:36 PM in response to CarlosRiley
    Hello CarlosRiley, 

    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities! 

    Based on your post, I see that you are unable to encrypt mail. Sending emails work fine, but you are unable to encrypt mail. I know how important it is that you are able to send and encrypt messages.

    To send encrypted messages, you need the recipient's certificate (public key). Mail accesses this certificate using one of two methods, depending on whether the recipient is in your Exchange environment. This article explains both methods Use S/MIME to send encrypted messages in an Exchange environment in iOS, specifically, these sections:
     

    Message encryption

    When configuring S/MIME for your account, you can choose to ‘Encrypt by Default’ when composing new messages.

    If you turn on the ‘Encrypt by Default’ preference, you can still encrypt on a per-message basis using the blue lock icon:

     

     

    Send encrypted messages to people in your Exchange environment

    If your recipient is a user in the same Exchange environment, iOS finds the necessary certificate for message encryption. iOS consults the global address list (GAL) and your contacts. 

    Follow these steps to send encrypted messages to contacts in your Exchange environment:

    1. Compose a new message in Mail. Notice the unlocked lock icon, indicating that message encryption is enabled for your Exchange account.
    2. Begin addressing the message to a recipient in your Exchange organization.
    3. Mail consults the GAL to discover the recipient's S/MIME certificate.
    4. When Mail finds a certificate, a lock icon appears to the right of the recipient's contact name, and the address is highlighted in blue. Notice the larger blue lock icon, it can be used to toggle encryption for the message allowing you to easily compose both encrypted and an unencrypted messages.
    5. If you add a recipient and Mail can’t find the certificate, that address is highlighted in red and an unlocked icon appears to the right of the recipient's address. The message designation will now show unlocked and Unable to Encrypt.

    Send an encrypted message to someone outside your Exchange environment

    If the intended recipient is outside the sender's Exchange environment or if the sender isn't using an Exchange account, the recipient's certificate must be installed on the device. Use these steps.

    1. In a signed message from your intended recipient, tap the sender's address. Invalid signatures have a red question mark   to the right of the sender's address. Mail indicates valid signatures with a blue check mark   to the right of the sender's address.
    2. If the sender's certificate was issued by an unknown certificate authority that doesn't reside within your Exchange environment, tap View Certificate.
    3. To install and trust the sender's signing certificate, tap Install.
    4. The Install button changes color to red and reads Remove. Tap Done in the upper-right to complete the certificate-installation process.
    5. iOS associates this digital certificate with the recipient's email address, allowing for message encryption.

    Have a great day! 
  • by CarlosRiley,

    CarlosRiley CarlosRiley Sep 23, 2016 7:24 AM in response to norm123
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 23, 2016 7:24 AM in response to norm123

    Hi norm123,

     

    Thanks for this.  However, this is not working.  I'm not doing this within an Exchange environment, so what I'm saying is that step 3 under 'Send an encrypted message to someone outside your Exchange environment' is not working.  Tapping install for the other persons certificate does not do anything.  Therefore, it's not possible to send an encrypted email to another person after receiving a signed email from them first.