Backing Up Robo-FTP's PGP Keys

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It is very important that you backup your PGP keyring files. If a keyring file is lost or destroyed, you will lose the ability to decrypt files encrypted using any public keys that you previously distributed.

Shared Keyring Files

Robo-FTP's primary shared key store consists of two files. The files are named Robo-FTP.skr and Robo-FTP.pkr and they are located in Robo-FTP's installation folder. The keys in these files are available to all users.

Personal Keyring Files

Any key files created or imported by users without local administrative privileges are stored in the user's personal keyring files. You should always check for personal keyring files when saving backup files for systems that have User Settings instead of Shared Settings. The personal keyring files are also named Robo-FTP.skr and Robo-FTP.pkr but they are located in the \Robo-FTP X.X sub-folder of the user's %APPDATA% folder. The precise location of this folder will vary depending on your username and which version of Windows is installed. The folder is hidden by default on some systems. As an example, in Windows 2003 Server the personal keyring files for a windows user account named "Fred" might be located in a folder named:

C:\Documents and Settings\Fred\Application Data\Robo-FTP X.X\

... but if Fred were using Windows 2008 Server the personal keyring files may be located in a folder named :

C:\Users\Fred\AppData\Roaming\Robo-FTP X.X\

Hint: If one user is able to decrypt a file, but another user cannot, the private key for decryption may be stored in the first user's personal keyring file.

To protect against loss of your encrypted data, it is vital that you make backup copies of these files whenever you add, import, or delete keys.

Related command(s): PGPENCRYPT, PGPDECRYPT, PGPIMPORT