If you are having problems getting key authentication in JuiceSSH working, here are some troubleshooting steps to check:


  • You have the following lines configured in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file on your server:
    • RSAAuthentication yes
    • PubkeyAuthentication yes

  • You have the following permissions on your home directory:
    • Only your user has write/execute permissions on your home directory
        chmod 700 ~
    • Only your user has write/execute permissions on your ssh configuration directory
        chmod 700 ~/.ssh
    • Only your user has write permissions on your ssh authorized keys file
        chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
  • Your ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file contains one public key per line, each beginning with ssh-rsa or ssh-dsa
  • Your public keys in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys have not been wrapped over multiple lines

You should also check the following log files for any error messages that sshd might be giving:
  • /var/log/secure (RedHat)
  • /var/log/auth.log (Ubuntu/Debian)

If you do not see anything relevant in the logs, you can try increasing the logging verbosity of sshd by setting LogLevel DEBUG3 in your /etc/ssh/sshd_config and restarting the ssh daemon.