Cannot initialize SFTP protocol. Is the host running a SFTP server? WinSCP error

gk1 picture gk1 · Nov 23, 2014 · Viewed 25.9k times · Source

When I try to SSH into my cluster, there are two stages. So I have to enter the password twice to go to my home directory using SSH in a Linux terminal or PuTTY.

But when I try to use WinSCP, I get these errors:

Trying SFTP:

Cannot initialize SFTP protocol. Is the host running a SFTP server?

Trying SCP:

Error skipping startup message. Your shell is probably incompatible with the application (BASH is recommended).

How can I bypass this problem?

Answer

IRSHAD picture IRSHAD · May 1, 2018

In Winscp I just changed the File protocol option from "SFTP" to "SCP" and file transfer is started working now.

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