How to fix No more authentication methods to try. in SSH

Use verbose SSH mode to see what authentication methods the server is offering:

ssh -v [email protected]

Look for lines like:

Authentications that can continue: publickey,password

This tells you what the server will accept. If you only see publickey but you're trying to use password, that's your problem.

Check that your private key file exists and has correct permissions:

ls -l ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Should output something like:

-rw------- 1 user group 1704 Jan 15 10:30 /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa

If the file doesn't exist, generate a new SSH key:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa -N ""

If permissions are wrong, fix them:

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Instead of relying on SSH to find your key automatically, specify it directly:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa [email protected]

For non-default key locations or names:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/my-custom-key [email protected]

For Git operations:

GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519" git clone [email protected]:user/repo.git

For SCP or rsync:

scp -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa file.txt [email protected]:/destination/

Copy your public key to the server's authorized_keys file. If you have temporary password access:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa [email protected]

Or manually:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh [email protected] "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

If you don't have any access to the server, you'll need to:
- Request the server administrator add your public key
- Use a different authentication method that's enabled
- Contact your hosting provider if it's a cloud instance

If you have a ~/.ssh/config file, verify it correctly specifies your identity:

cat ~/.ssh/config

Look for entries like:

Host example.com
    User myuser
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    IdentitiesOnly yes

If the IdentityFile path is wrong or doesn't exist, SSH will fail. Fix the path if needed.

If you don't have a config file but want to set it up:

cat >> ~/.ssh/config << EOF
Host example.com
    User myuser
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    IdentitiesOnly yes
EOF

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config

If you're relying on SSH agent, verify your key is loaded:

ssh-add -l

This lists all keys in the agent. If your key isn't listed, add it:

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

If your key is password-protected, this will prompt for the passphrase once.

On macOS with M1/M2 chips using newer OpenSSH, add to ~/.ssh/config:

Host *
    AddKeysToAgent yes
    UseKeychain yes
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Different operating systems and hosting providers use different default SSH users:

# Amazon EC2 (Ubuntu)
ssh -i ~/.ssh/key.pem ubuntu@ec2-instance-ip

# Amazon EC2 (Amazon Linux 2)
ssh -i ~/.ssh/key.pem ec2-user@ec2-instance-ip

# DigitalOcean (Ubuntu)
ssh -i ~/.ssh/key.pem root@droplet-ip

# Linode (Ubuntu)
ssh -i ~/.ssh/key.pem root@linode-ip

# Heroku Dyno
ssh -i ~/.ssh/key.pem [email protected]

# GitHub
ssh -i ~/.ssh/key.pem [email protected]

# Bitbucket
ssh -i ~/.ssh/key.pem [email protected]

Check your hosting provider's documentation if unsure which user to use.

If you've made many failed authentication attempts, the server may temporarily block further attempts. Check server-side logs if you have access:

# On the remote server
sudo tail -f /var/log/auth.log  # Linux
sudo log stream --predicate 'eventMessage contains[cd] "sshd"' --level debug  # macOS

Look for patterns like:

sshd: Received disconnect from X.X.X.X port XXXX [preauth]
sshd: Connection closed by authenticating user user X.X.X.X port XXXX [preauth]
sshd: Too many authentication failures for user

If you're locked out, wait 15-30 minutes or ask the server administrator to reset the auth counter.

Also check for IP-based access restrictions (firewall, fail2ban):

sudo iptables -L -n  # Check firewall rules
sudo fail2ban-client status sshd  # Check fail2ban status