Troubleshooting Common SFTP Errors

Updated 1 year ago by James Dunn

Here are some common errors regarding Secure FTP, their possible causes and resolutions:

Disconnected from 209.43.40.XX
  1. This will happen after 2 minutes of inactivity. Our server terminates idle sessions in order to keep throughput and other resources available for other users.
    1. Depending on your client, ongoing transfers will continue uninterrupted.
    2. Fortunately FileZilla will reconnect automatically on your next action so there's nothing you need to do. Feel free to go have a coffee!
    3. If it is absolutely necessary to have long-lived connections, you can enable keep-alive signals in your FTP client. The setting will vary depending on your FTP client.
      1. In WinSCP, you can "send null SSH packets" every 100 seconds. More info: [external link]
      2. In WinSCP, you can configure automatic reconnect settings: [external link]
  2. If you have not entered your password within 30 seconds you may also see this error. You can simply try again, and don't worry this will not count towards account lockout.
FATAL ERROR: Remote side sent disconnect message
type 11 (by application):
  1. See above. This is another possible idle timeout message.
    1. WinSCP Example:
    2. FileZilla Example:

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