Unable to connect to SFTP - no supported methods remain

Help and Support
1

Hello Experts,

Trying to connect a SFTP remote and getting below error - any idea what could be the reason?
Any suggestion is much appreciated.

With the same creds we are able to login from Winscp and SSIS.

Issue details -

Rclone version : 1.69.0

Remote Created:

[eccaprefdev02_5242_SFTP_ec5b4d06_0588_4882_9e0c_a4862431a526]
type = sftp
pass = aA****************-Q
port = 22
pub_key_file =
user = e****r
host = s*****--..com

Command:

eccaprefdev02_5242_SFTP_ec5b4d06_0588_4882_9e0c_a4862431a526:/E2E_Q/interface/

Error response :

2025/11/12 10:29:26 CRITICAL: Failed to create file system for "eccaprefdev02_5242_SFTP_ec5b4d06_0588_4882_9e0c_a4862431a526:/E2E_Q/interface/": NewFs: couldn't connect SSH:
ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none password], no supported methods remain

Thanks in advance

Mahendra

2

run rclone selfupdate and test again

3

Sure, will try this and see once. Thank you for the quick reply

4

welcome

also please do the following:

  • remove pub_key_file =

  • post a full debug log of a simple command such as
    rclone lsd eccaprefdev02_5242_SFTP_ec5b4d06_0588_4882_9e0c_a4862431a526: -vv

5

Hi @asdffdsa @hegdemahendra

removed pub_key_file = and below is the debug logs.

eccaprefdev02_5242_SFTP_2d2c74cf_81d7_47ec_a963_632f59bc6dbc: -vv
2025/11/13 08:07:40 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.71.2" starting with parameters ["rclone" "lsd" "eccaprefdev02_5242_SFTP_2d2c74cf_81d7_47ec_a963_632f59bc6dbc:" "-v
v"]
2025/11/13 08:07:40 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "eccaprefdev02_5242_SFTP_2d2c74cf_81d7_47ec_a963_632f59bc6dbc:"
2025/11/13 08:07:40 DEBUG : Using config file from "/config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2025/11/13 08:07:40 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 1/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none p
assword], no supported methods remain)
2025/11/13 08:07:40 DEBUG : pacer: Rate limited, increasing sleep to 200ms
2025/11/13 08:07:41 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 2/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none p
assword], no supported methods remain)
2025/11/13 08:07:41 DEBUG : pacer: Rate limited, increasing sleep to 400ms
2025/11/13 08:07:41 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 3/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none p
assword], no supported methods remain)
2025/11/13 08:07:41 DEBUG : pacer: Rate limited, increasing sleep to 800ms
2025/11/13 08:07:42 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 4/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none p
assword], no supported methods remain)
2025/11/13 08:07:42 DEBUG : pacer: Rate limited, increasing sleep to 1.6s
2025/11/13 08:07:43 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 5/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none p
assword], no supported methods remain)
2025/11/13 08:07:43 DEBUG : pacer: Rate limited, increasing sleep to 2s
2025/11/13 08:07:44 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 6/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none p
assword], no supported methods remain)
2025/11/13 08:07:47 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 7/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none p
assword], no supported methods remain)
2025/11/13 08:07:48 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 8/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none p
assword], no supported methods remain)
2025/11/13 08:07:50 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 9/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none p
assword], no supported methods remain)
2025/11/13 08:07:52 DEBUG : pacer: low level retry 10/10 (error couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none
password], no supported methods remain)
2025/11/13 08:07:52 CRITICAL: Failed to create file system for "eccaprefdev02_5242_SFTP_2d2c74cf_81d7_47ec_a963_632f59bc6dbc:": NewFs: couldn't connect SSH: ssh:
handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none password], no supported methods remain

Thnx, Sud.

6

Did you obscure the password?

As in run rclone obscure mypassword and put the result in the config file?

It looks like you did, but some generated passwords can pass the obscured check.

7

Hi,
We tried creating remote from command line only instead of API to so that it encrypts pass correctly.

/data # rclone config show elc-sftp-test
[elc-sftp-test]
type = sftp
host = s******************.com
user = e**********user
pass = *** ENCRYPTED ***

/data # rclone ls elc-sftp-test:/
2025/11/14 09:49:15 CRITICAL: Failed to create file system for "elc-sftp-test:/": NewFs: couldn't connect SSH: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted metho
ds [none password], no supported methods remain

Thanks

Mahendra

8

According to the log, it is trying the password but it didn't work.

Can you check the logs on the server?

9

Hi All,

Although logs might say an issue around the password which is misleading in the case.

The actual root cause was that the SFTP server was hosted in a different network(not sure if this is hosted on cloud) and rclone pod was sitting in a different network and whitelisting of the k8s cluster’s subnet cidr range in the SFTP’s network side resolved the issue.

Thanks, Sud.

2 Likes
10

Thank you @ncw @asdffdsa for your quick suggestions.
Thanks @Sudhakar_Munuswamy for sharing the actual root cause

1 Like