Issues with DO recognizing SSH private key

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:

1. Convert your private key to OpenSSH format using PuTTYgen:

   • Open PuTTYgen

   • Load your .ppk file

   • Go to Conversions > Export OpenSSH key

   • Save it (e.g., as id_rsa)

2. In FileZilla, go to Settings > SFTP and 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