Decryption failures
What to do if a message shows scrambled text — and what's normal vs. not.
Looks broken but is normal
Some things look alarming but are expected:
- The first email after sign-up takes ~30 seconds. Account setup has to finish on-chain and your encryption identity has to be bound first. One-time only.
- A toll payment shows "pending" for a few seconds. It's waiting for confirmation, not stuck — give it 10–30 seconds.
- Gas shows as "free". Correct. All your blockchain actions are sponsored; you never pay gas.
- A connected Sui wallet shows a zero balance. That's fine — your MailGate balance (toll revenue and deposits) is separate from your wallet's coin balance. Check Settings → Balance.
Not normal — please report it
A message that displays scrambled / ciphertext gibberish instead of readable text is a real problem. So is anything that looks like a raw key, seed, or internal code value rendered in the UI.
If you see either:
Treat visible ciphertext or any key-like value in the UI as high priority. Report it to the team right away with the affected account email, a rough timestamp, and a screenshot. Don't post sensitive details in a public channel.
Also worth reporting (these aren't expected):
- Mail from a known/whitelisted sender that gets stuck in spam.
- A toll you paid that never credits to the recipient's balance.
- Pages that error out or stay on a loading spinner for more than ~15 seconds.
Why decryption normally "just works"
You never click decrypt — when you open a message, your account decrypts it for you through the verified enclave. A decryption failure therefore usually points to a real backend issue (identity binding, key release), which is exactly why it's worth a report rather than a retry.
If readable mail simply hasn't arrived yet and it's your first message, wait the ~30 seconds described above before assuming failure.