Secret key without public key

[Larry Brower]

CONNIE RODRIGUEZ wrote:
> Help!!  Just last week I was able to decrypt files for our Vendor.  I 
> tried this morning and now I get the message below.  The only changes 
> that occurred was that another vendor key was added last week.  The 
> ELG-E Key is the same the message was encrypted with.  Any insight to 
> this message is appreciated.  I read a few articles and it stated to 
> delete secret key but I am not comfortable with deleting any key without 
> some kind of guidance since I am a rookie at gpg.   Anyway I am confused 
> as to why I would need to delete the secret key when nothing has changed 
> for this vendor.
>  
> gpg: key 9EDEB618: secret key without public key - skipped
> gpg: encrypted with ELG-E key, ID BEA2D168
> gpg: decryption failed: secret key not available
>  
> Thank you in advance for any help that you can provide
>  
> Connie

The actual error is:

gpg: encrypted with ELG-E key, ID BEA2D168
gpg: decryption failed: secret key not available

It appears that another key being added was not the only thing that 
occurred and someone has deleted the secret key the message was 
encrypted to. Do you have a backup to re-import?