Configure SendCrypt

Creating your SendCrypt account

Signing up from the SendCrypt Desktop Application

You can Sign Up for SendCrypt by clicking on the Sign up button on the top right of the SendCrypt Desktop Application.


When you click on Sign Up, you will be redirected to the SendCrypt website to complete the registration.

Signing up from the SendCrypt website

Once on the SendCrypt website, you can sign up with your email address.


Once you click on Create account, you will receive a verification email:

Signing into SendCrypt

On the top bar of the SendCrypt application, click on Sign in button.


Doing so will redirect you to the SendCrypt login page on your default browser. Finish signing in on your browser.

After login, you will be prompted with the following dialog:


Click on Continue with browser and then click on Launch. The browser will automatically ask you to reopen your SendCrypt Desktop Application and will activate your session.

In the top bar on the right side, you will see your email address which signifies that you are currently logged in.


My SendCrypt Desktop Application didn’t reopen successfully after clicking on Launch

In the case that clicking on the Launch button didn’t prompt your browser to open the SendCrypt Desktop Application, you can manually copy your session token from the website, by clicking on Manually enter token:


Then, paste the token into your application:


Configure your SSH access

SendCrypt relies on the SFTP protocol to transmit data. Therefore, it requires some configuration to ensure that it will use a valid pair of SSH keys to connect to the remote server.

In the SendCrypt Desktop Application, click on Settings in the left panel to access the settings of the application.


Scroll down until you see the SSH section. By default, SendCrypt will automatically assume that you have ssh installed on your machine. It will therefore, automatically try to select /Users/{user}/.ssh/id_rsaand /Users/{user}/.ssh/id_rsa.pub as your SSH keys. If that’s correct you can skip the following part.

If you already use a pair of SSH keys, simply click on Browse to open a dialog that will allow you to select your SSH keys.

If your SSH private key is protected with a password, you can use the field Passphrase to fill your password and then click on Save to save it. Please note that your password is stored encrypted by using electron safeStorage module which can potentially prompt a warning to allow access to the system Keychain on Mac and Linux. Make sure to allow SendCrypt.

If you don’t have ssh installed or you don’t have any keys configured, simply click on Generate to generate a new pair of SSH keys (RSA 4096 bit) and set them as your active SSH keys.

Careful while generating new SSH keys, as clicking on the button Generate will automatically erase/replace any previous key named sendcrypt_rsa and sendcrypt_rsa.pub.


Register your SSH public key

Once your SSH keys are set up, you will need to transmit your public key to either your recipient if you don’t have a SendCrypt account or register it under your account.

Start by copying your SSH public key by clicking the blue button next to SSH public key:


Then, head to your SendCrypt account where you should see your current SSH and GPG keys.

Then click on the New SSH key button, which will prompt you with a form to add your SSH public key:


You can define a title if you want and then paste your copied SSH public key in the Key form. Finally, click on Add SSH key.

If everything went well, you should see a banner confirming that you have successfully added your key and your key should now appear under Authentication keys.


Your key will be automatically shared with any project that you are part of.

Configure your GPG keys

SendCrypt makes extensive use of OpenPGP to prove your identity by signing the metadata file but also to securely encrypt your data before any transfer, ensuring that only the recipient will be able to decrypt it.

In the SendCrypt Desktop Application, click on Settings in the left panel to access the settings of the application.

Scroll down until you see the GPG section.
By default, no GPG key will be configured. You have two options:

  • Import your own GPG private key

  • Generate a new pair of GPG keys

Importing a GPG private key

First, make sure that you private key is stored inside a file in ASCII armored format.

You can use the following command to export your key:

gpg -a --export-secret-keys <your-key-ID-or-email> > private-key.asc

Then, click on the Import button which will prompt you with a dialog to select the file containing your GPG private key.

If everything went well, you should see that your key automatically selected as your Signing key.

Generating a new pair of GPG keys

The functionality to generate a new pair of GPG keys is only accessible to logged users as it requires access to the email of the user.

SendCrypt allows you to directly generate a new pair of GPG keys (RSA 4096 bit) which will expire in 2 years.

Start by filling the Passphrase form with a strong password (make sure to store this password in a safe place) and then click on the Generate button. This will automatically generate a new pair of GPG keys protected with your password and set them as your active signing key.

Register your GPG public key

Once your GPG keys are set up, you will need to transmit your public key to either your recipient, if you don’t have a SendCrypt account, or register it under your account.

Start by copying your GPG public key by clicking the blue button next to Signing key:


Then, head to your SendCrypt account where you should see your current SSH and GPG keys.

Then click on the New GPG key button, which will prompt you with a form to add your GPG public key:

You can define a title if you want and then paste your copied GPG public key in the Key form. Finally, click on Add GPG key.

If everything went well, you should see a banner confirming that you have successfully added your key and your key should now appear under Authentication keys.


Your key will be automatically shared with any project that you are part of.


It’s important to note that if the UserID of the GPG public key does not match your current email address (which is indicated by the tag Unverified next to the email address, you will need to add your additional email address by following this guide. If you don’t, your GPG public key will not be shared with any project that you are part of.

Configure the temporary directory

When a batch is sent throught the GUI, the tool needs to prepare the data before sending it which requires some storage. To achieve those steps, it uses by default a temporary directory. If you would like to change this directory, head to the Settings. Then under Storage, you will find the current temporary directory. Click on Change location and select a new directory (make sure you have the correct permissions).