PuTTYgen "Couldn’t load private key(unable to open file)" error
If you see the “Couldn’t load private key(unable to open file)” error message in PuTTYgen when you try to load a private key, then you should try the following solutions:
- make sure that you are loading the private SSH key, not the public one;
- check the contents of the .ppk file with a text editor like Notepad. The file should contain a very large string of text starting with a “—–BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY—–” line and ending with a “—–END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY—–” one. There shouldn’t be any blank new lines at the end of the file or at the top.
- check if the private key file you are trying to load has a .ppk file extension. If it doesn’t – rename the file;
- if the problem persists – save the private key in a new file with UTF-8 encoding. To do that copy the key from Site Tools and then paste it in Notepad. After that click File -> Save As, choose “All Files (*.*)” in the Save as type dropdown and select “UTF-8” in the Encoding option. Make sure that when you type in the file name in which you save the key you end it with “.ppk”.