I created a new private key using PuTTY. Pasted key value into DO for SSH. When accessing via Filezilla key is rejected. Need suggestions.
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Heya, @paulhives
It sounds like the issue may be due to a mismatch in key formats between PuTTY (which uses .ppk format by default)
You can check our tutorial on how to configure FileZilla to work with ssh-key
https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/transfer-files/
Hope that this helps!
Hey Paul 👋
If you generated your key with PuTTY, it’s likely in .ppk format, which isn’t directly compatible with FileZilla or most Linux servers.
To fix that:
-
Convert your private key to OpenSSH format using PuTTYgen:
-
Open PuTTYgen
-
Load your
.ppkfile -
Go to Conversions > Export OpenSSH key
-
Save it (e.g., as
id_rsa)
-
-
In FileZilla, go to
Settings > SFTPand add your newly converted OpenSSH key.
Also important: If you added the SSH key to your DigitalOcean account after creating the Droplet, it won’t automatically apply to that existing Droplet (for security reasons).
You’d need to manually add the public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the Droplet or rebuild the Droplet with the key pre-added.
- Bobby
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