Foundry376/Mailspring · error

Mailspring could not store your password securely because en

Error message

Mailspring could not store your password securely because encryption is not available on this system.

What it means

KeyManager._writeKeyHash guard: secureStorage.isAvailable() is false, so there is no OS keychain/secret service to store the encrypted password keyset — on Linux this means no org.freedesktop.Secret.Service or xdg-portal Secret provider is running. The error halts storing any secrets rather than writing them unencrypted.

Source

Thrown at app/src/key-manager.ts:162

      } catch (err) {
        console.warn('Mailspring could not re-encrypt your saved passwords with the new key.', err);
      }
    }

    return keys;
  }

  _encryptionUnavailableHint() {
    return process.platform === 'linux'
      ? localized(
          ' On Linux, Mailspring requires a secret service such as org.freedesktop.portal.Secret or org.freedesktop.Secret.Service. Please ensure a provider is installed and running, then restart Mailspring.'
        )
      : '';
  }

  async _writeKeyHash(keys: KeySet) {
    if (!(await secureStorage.isAvailable())) {
      throw new Error(
        localized(
          `Mailspring could not store your password securely because encryption is not available on this system.`
        ) + this._encryptionUnavailableHint()
      );
    }
    const enrcyptedCredentials = await secureStorage.encrypt(JSON.stringify(keys));
    AppEnv.config.set(configCredentialsKey, enrcyptedCredentials);
  }

  _reportFatalError(err: Error): never {
    // ensureClients is throttled rather than serialized, and _getKeyHash's callers report its
    // throw a second time, so only the first failure gets a dialog. The rest still propagate.
    if (this._fatalErrorReported) {
      (err as any).noSentry = true;
      throw err;
    }
    this._fatalErrorReported = true;

View on GitHub (pinned to 648c685d60)

Solutions

1. On Linux, install and start a secret service provider (gnome-keyring, KWallet, keepassxc with the freedesktop Secret Service) and restart Mailspring
2. On macOS/Windows, ensure the OS keychain is accessible and not locked by policy

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at app/src/key-manager.ts:162 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of Foundry376/Mailspring@648c685d60 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0711d6ed16422745. Report an issue: GitHub.