Enable Password Auth to Login Droplet without SSH Key

If you have lost Digital Ocean SSH key and you are unable to login, no worries. Just follow the step-by-step procedure. If need any help, please feel free to comment below.

1. Login to Digital Ocean account
   

   

2. Select your desired Droplet which you want to recover
   

   

3. Go to Access menu and click Reset Root Password button

   

4. Copy the Password which you received at your e-mail

   

5. Launch Console

   

6. Type username root
7. Using right click or CTRL+V paste the password and press Enter
8. Digital Ocean will ask to change password, first Enter Current password
9. Then, provide a New password
10. Re-enter the New password
11. Now, you are logged in via Console.
12. But, we need to enable password login for the droplet, please enter below command nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
13. Find the line PasswordAuthentication no
14. Replace to PasswordAuthentication yes

    

15. Save the file using command CTRL+O and press Enter key
16. Restart the Droplet using reboot command reboot
17. Now, you can login using password in Putty SSH client without providing SSH key.

I hope this helps.

Reference: https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/droplets/resources/lost-ssh-key/