Have you ever generated GPG keys, loaded them into your YubiKey, and then thrown away/erased your computer? You’ll discover that when you take your YubiKey to a new computer, GPG refuses to automatically import your key when running --card-status.
The common wisdom on the Internet is that this is because YubiKeys (and Smart Cards in general) don’t store your public keys at all, they only store your private keys, so you must import your public keys from a backup or a public keyserver instead. If you don’t have such a backup, you’re screwed.
However, I investigated this and found that this common wisdom wasn’t true. I was able to recover my public keys from my YubiKey 4 even on a brand new, erased computer. Here’s how you can, too.
Continue reading Recovering lost GPG public keys from your YubiKey