How to force Mail to use new email certificates instead of still valid one?

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How to force Mail to use new email certificates instead of still valid one?

In response to a warning SwissSign that my certificates for three email accounts will expire in 10 days I purchased and installed new certificates on my MacBook Pro 15" 2018 running macOS 10.13.6. The certificates are in the Keychain and they are valid. I have also installed them on my iPhone and iPad Pro and, on those two devices, can force Mail to use them instead of the still valid old ones. Is there any way to do the same on the Mac? If there is, it is well hidden and would seem to be inconsistent with Apple's security consciousness. By switching now I would like to avoid (a) any confusion on the part of recipients of my signed emails as to the use of two different certificates for each account, depending on the hardware from which the emails were sent, (b) the eventual failure of macOS to "automagically" switch to the new certificates when the old ones expire.

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Sep 17, 2019 12:17 PM

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Answer 1

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MrHoffman

Community+ 2024

Level 10

118,263 points

Sep 17, 2019 12:23 PM in response to Richard Liu

Per the help text, try the following: "Note: If for some reason your certificate isn’t associated with your email address, or you want to use the certificate with a different email address, Control-click the certificate in Keychain Access, choose New Identity Preference, and provide the requested information."

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Answer 2

Sep 17, 2019 1:40 PM in response to Richard Liu

Good that it's working.

Lob some feedback at Apple, and suggest that they add a certificate-selection pop-up onto the mail compose window, maybe? There are some other handy pop-ups selected by the hamburger button, when that button has been configured as present in the new-mail-message compose window. Just not a pop-up to select the certificate, though.

"It just works... until it doesn't" describes all of IT, and all of life for that matter.

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Answer 3

Richard Liu Author

Level 1

88 points

Sep 17, 2019 1:07 PM in response to MrHoffman

Yes, thanks. There is something "ominous" about the wording, New Identity Preference, and I remember trying a long time ago to do something with certificates that didn't work even when I changed the identity preference. So I can confirm that this does indeed convince Mail to use the new certificates, even though, on My Card in Contacts the old certificates are still displayed, even after closing and reopening the app. Maybe I have to restart. Any-who, this is Apple. It just works ... until it just doesn't.

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How to force Mail to use new email certificates instead of still valid one?

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