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Simple FTP ServiceSFTPSSH keys

SSH authorized keys for passwordless SFTP

Give a user public-key login for SFTP - generate a key pair, add up to 10 authorized keys to the user, connect without a password.
Updated August 27, 2026

On paid plans you can attach SSH authorized keys to a user, so they log in to SFTP with a key pair instead of a password.

1. Generate an SSH key pair

On macOS or Linux:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f docevent_key

This produces docevent_key (the private key - stays with the user) and docevent_key.pub (the public key - what you paste into DocEvent).

On Windows, use PuTTYgen to create the pair, or convert an existing private key to PPK format for PuTTY/WinSCP - WinSCP will offer the conversion itself if you hand it an OpenSSH-format key.

2. Add the public key to the user

  1. Log in to the DocEvent console
  2. Open the Simple FTP Service and go to its Users tab
  3. Edit the user and open the Authorized keys panel
  4. Paste the public keys, one per line - up to 10 keys per user
  5. Save

3. Connect

sftp -i docevent_key 'serviceid/username@sfs-us-east-1.docevent.io'

No password prompt - the key authenticates the session.

If you still get a password prompt

  • The user may have more than one key configured locally and the client is offering the wrong one - point -i at the matching private key.
  • On older clients, see ssh-rsa client compatibility.