Gpgtools GPG Keychain Access → 1.4.5

When extending the expiry date of a key, one needs to extend both the main keys expiry date, as well as that of all of the subkeys.

However, only the expiry date of the main key is displayed in the main windows 'key is good' indicator, which make it hard to find this error case.

So, in essence: It makes it even harder to explain my mom how she is supposed to work with GPG.

Proposed fix: when changing the expiry date of a main key, if the subkeys have the same expiry date, either just change it with the main key, or ask the users permission and explain that this is usually a good idea to do. Maybe better: Offer an advanced shortcut (perhaps option click on the change button) that then offers to not change the expiry date of the subway as well).

I would wager a bet that 99.99999% of all people using a gui would want to change the expiry date of the subkey as well, so there should be no need to have GUI that allows changing just one's key expiry date and creating a difficult error case in the process.