What is the problem you are having with rclone?
The rclone mount command with sftp fails to connect with a known host file that has entries containing hashed server information; unlike older versions of known hosts file that had unhashed server information of IP address etc. The known hosts file that rclone fails with has this entry:
|1|JS4pgdIsvqRkiKabuClTOLut3Xk=|7d0A6KMBa3awk+4bH+mY8P08moc= ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIG9mYHs0ZrhclBWQRKyWjMfdloo5F9R3KrOP0SZSZ7iA
The above line contains the host’s key signature preceded by hashed server information, unlike older versions which had no hashing. Regular sftp without rclone has no problem connecting with the known hosts file rclone fails with. I list relevant information below, including rclone response to an unintended (seemingly broken) command that was able to connect and mount something.:
Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.
C:\Users\nobody\Desktop\rclone>rclone --version
rclone v1.69.3
- os/version: Microsoft Windows 10 Home 22H2 22H2 (64 bit)
- os/kernel: 10.0.19045.5854 (x86_64)
- os/type: windows
- os/arch: amd64
- go/version: go1.24.3
- go/linking: static
- go/tags: cmount
C:\Users\nobody\Desktop\rclone>
Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)
sftp
The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)
C:\Users\nobody\Desktop\rclone>rclone mount nobody: * --volname fort
2025/05/30 15:36:15 CRITICAL: Failed to create file system for "nobody:": NewFs: couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: knownhosts: key mismatch
C:\Users\nobody\Desktop\rclone>
Please run 'rclone config redacted' and share the full output. If you get command not found,
[nobody]
type = sftp
host = www.xxx.yyy.zzz
user = test1
key_file = C:/Users/nobody/Desktop/rclone/.ssh/id_ed25519_nobody
known_hosts_file = C:/Users/nobody/Desktop/rclone/.ssh/known_hosts
ssh =
shell_type = none
A log from the command that you were trying to run with the -vv flag
C:\Users\nobody\Desktop\rclone>rclone mount nobody: * --volname fort -vv
2025/05/30 13:43:58 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.69.3" starting with parameters ["rclone" "mount" "nobody:" "*" "--volname" "fort" "-vv"]
2025/05/30 13:43:58 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "nobody:"
2025/05/30 13:43:58 DEBUG : Using config file from "C:\\Users\\nobody\\Desktop\\rclone\\rclone.conf"
2025/05/30 13:43:59 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 1/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: knownhosts: key mismatch)
2025/05/30 13:43:59 DEBUG : pacer: Rate limited, increasing sleep to 200ms
2025/05/30 13:43:59 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 2/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: knownhosts: key mismatch)
2025/05/30 13:43:59 DEBUG : pacer: Rate limited, increasing sleep to 400ms
2025/05/30 13:43:59 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 3/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: knownhosts: key mismatch)
2025/05/30 13:43:59 DEBUG : pacer: Rate limited, increasing sleep to 800ms
2025/05/30 13:44:00 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 4/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: knownhosts: key mismatch)
2025/05/30 13:44:00 DEBUG : pacer: Rate limited, increasing sleep to 1.6s
2025/05/30 13:44:01 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 5/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: knownhosts: key mismatch)
2025/05/30 13:44:01 DEBUG : pacer: Rate limited, increasing sleep to 2s
2025/05/30 13:44:02 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 6/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: knownhosts: key mismatch)
2025/05/30 13:44:04 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 7/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: knownhosts: key mismatch)
2025/05/30 13:44:06 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 8/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: knownhosts: key mismatch)
2025/05/30 13:44:08 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 9/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: knownhosts: key mismatch)
2025/05/30 13:44:10 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 10/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: knownhosts: key mismatch)
2025/05/30 13:44:10 CRITICAL: Failed to create file system for "nobody:": NewFs: couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: knownhosts: key mismatch
C:\Users\nobody\Desktop\rclone>
This shows that sftp has no problem connecting.
C:\Users\nobody\Desktop\rclone>sftp -o UserKnownHostsFile=C:\Users\nobody\Desktop\rclone\.ssh\known_hosts -i C:\Users\nobody\Desktop\rclone\.ssh\id_ed25519_nobody test1@www.xxx.yyy.zzz
Connected to www.xxx.yyy.zzz.
sftp> quit
C:\Users\nobody\Desktop\rclone>
This is how rclone behaved with an unintended command (intended to have nobody:, with a colon). With this command windows explorer showed a device Z: with a name of fort, but did not show any contents.:
C:\Users\nobody\Desktop\rclone>rclone mount nobody * --volname fort
2025/05/30 14:41:15 NOTICE: "nobody" refers to a local folder, use "nobody:" to refer to your remote or "./nobody" to hide this warning
2025/05/30 14:41:15 NOTICE: Assigning drive letter "Z:"
2025/05/30 14:41:15 ERROR : Local file system at //?/C:/Users/nobody/Desktop/rclone/nobody: Statfs failed: failed to read disk usage: The system cannot find the path specified.
2025/05/30 14:41:15 ERROR : symlinks not supported without the --links flag: /
The service rclone has been started.
The service rclone has been stopped.
2025/05/30 14:41:21 ERROR : *: Unmounted rclone mount
C:\Users\nobody\Desktop\rclone>