git - gpg onto mac osx: error: gpg failed to sign the data

If you’re not getting prompted at all for a passphrase, the solution may just be to install a program to facilitate that. The most common is pinentry.

brew install pinentry-mac

So installing that and trying again may get things working. But if not, another thing to do is make sure git it using/finding the right GPG program. These days you really should be using gpg2, so if you don’t already have that installed, do this:

gpg --version

…and make sure it indicates you have GnuPG version 2+ (not version 1) installed.

If you already have GnuPG 2+ and pinentry installed, then try this:

echo "pinentry-program /usr/local/bin/pinentry-mac" >> ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf

…or, more robustly:

echo "pinentry-program $(which pinentry-mac)" >> ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf

…and then try again.

And you may also need to stop gpg-agent:

gpgconf --kill gpg-agent

You don’t need to manually restart it — it will get restarted automatically when it’s needed.

Note: Some commenters mention needing to reboot after making changes — but it seems likely the only effect of that is to cause gpg-agent to be restarted. So manually killing gpg-agent as described above should be sufficient.

To anybody who is facing this issue on MacOS machines, try this:

1. brew uninstall gpg
2. brew install gpg2
3. brew install pinentry-mac (if needed)
4. gpg --full-generate-key Create a key by using an algorithm.
5. Get generated key by executing: gpg --list-keys
6. Set the key here git config --global user.signingkey <Key from your list>
7. git config --global gpg.program /usr/local/bin/gpg
8. git config --global commit.gpgsign true
9. If you want to export your Key to GitHub then: gpg --armor --export <key> and add this key to GitHub at GPG keys: https://github.com/settings/keys (with START and END line included)

If the issue still exists:

test -r ~/.bash_profile && echo 'export GPG_TTY=$(tty)' >> ~/.bash_profile

echo 'export GPG_TTY=$(tty)' >> ~/.profile

If the issue still exists:

Install https://gpgtools.org and sign the key that you used by pressing Sign from the menu bar: Key->Sign

If the issue still exists:

Go to: ‎⁨your global .gitconfig file which in my case is at: ‎⁨/Users/gent/.gitconfig And modify the .gitconfig file (please make sure Email and Name are the same with the one that you have created while generating the Key):

[user]
	email = [email protected]
	name = Gent
	signingkey = <YOURKEY>
[gpg]
	program = /usr/local/bin/gpg
[commit]
	gpsign = true
	gpgsign = true
[filter "lfs"]
	process = git-lfs filter-process
	required = true
	clean = git-lfs clean -- %f
	smudge = git-lfs smudge -- %f
[credential]
	helper = osxkeychain

p.s I took this answer from my previous answer here: gpg failed to sign the data fatal: failed to write commit object [Git 2.10.0]