Cannot sign or encrypt this message certificate error when sending from Outlook solved!

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Ever see this when trying to send messages form your outlook?

encryptedemailerror

The error reads: “Microsoft Office Outlook cannot sign or encrypt the message because you have no certificate which can be used to send from the email address…”  Some people have even reported seeing the “Welcome to E-Mail Security” screen, which keeps asking them to “Get Digital ID.”

First thing, if you haven’t made any changes to your Outlook Settings, you should report this to your IT department or tech consultant. It likely means that your email server’s SSL certificate has expired! But if you might have done some tinkering, you’re in luck, because this is a very simple fix. 

It’s just a checkbox that you may have checked because you wanted your email to be safe. Unfortunately, you can’t just check the box (as easy as it looks) – it requires set up on the server to actually encrypt your mail, and for that to work, it needs a valid SSL security certificate. It could be that you do normally encrypt your messages, but your certificate has expired! In the mean time, here’s your workaround:

The setting is called “Encrypt Contents and attachments for outgoing messages” and I have instructions below on how you find it.

 

In Outlook 2007 and 2010:

  1. Click Tools.
  2. Click Trust Center.
  3. Click E-mail Security on the left.
  4. Uncheck the top box that says “Encrypt Contents and attachments for outgoing messages.”
  5. Click OK.

You’re all set!  Now try sending another email, and the error should leave you alone.