SFTP

ExpanDrive is the gold standard for mapping SFTP as a network drive on Mac and Windows. It makes the contents of any SSH server available through Finder, Explorer and other apps on your system.

Authentication Options

Password

Password is the default authentication option. Your password is saved securely in the macOS Keychain or the Windows credentials vault. If you have multi-factor authentication set up, ExpanDrive will prompt you for those inputs during connection.

SSH Key

ExpanDrive supports mounting a drive without a password using a public/private key pair. Currently we support OpenSSH format keys. If you have a putty “.ppk” file, you should either convert that key to OpenSSH format or alternatively load it into Pageant and use the agent style authentication within ExpanDrive.

Note: You must have already generated a public/private rsa key pair, and that you must have also already added the public key to the SFTP server.

Generating SSH Keys on OS X

Generating SSH Keys on Windows

To use SSH Key

  1. From the SFTP configuration screen, enter the server name.

  2. For “authentication” select SSH Key.

  3. You are prompted to provide the SSH key file that includes the private key via the pop-up (must be in format supported by OpenSSH).

  4. Configure the remaining fields as required.

  5. Click on Connect. If your private key has a passphrase you will be prompted to enter it when connecting.

SSH Agent

A SSH Agent manages ssh key files for you, removing the need to enter a lengthy passphrase each time you want to connect to an SSH server. This is particularly helpful if you use multiple private/public key pairs to connect to different resources.

You can use ExpanDrive with the Pageant SSH authentication agent (Putty utility) on Windows or the built-in ssh-agent on Mac.

To connect using Pageant

  1. From the SFTP configuration screen, enter the server name.

  2. For “authentication” select Pageant.

  3. Configure the remaining fields as required.

  4. Click Connect.

The private key managed by Pageant will be used to connect to the SFTP server, and there is no need to enter a passphrase.

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