Since a few days, vorta wouldnt make backups anymore with the error "Connection closed by remote host. Is borg working on the server?". This confused me very much, since I could ssh just fine and even execute borg serve on the server.
After a while I found out about the logs, and luckily it says what the actual error is: The SSH config file had bad permissions. This is easy to fix with chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config but you first have to know that this is a problem.
I propose that there should be a clearer error message for this scenario. Perhaps something like this:
2026-05-31 00:48:23,427 - vorta.i18n - DEBUG - Loading translation succeeded for ['de-Latn-DE', 'de-DE', 'de-Latn', 'de'].
2026-05-31 00:48:23,431 - root - INFO - Using NetworkManagerMonitor NetworkStatusMonitor implementation.
2026-05-31 00:48:23,493 - root - DEBUG - Not a private SSH key file: authorized_keys
2026-05-31 00:48:23,499 - vorta.views.source_tab - DEBUG - Added item number 0 from 1
2026-05-31 00:48:23,583 - vorta.borg.jobs_manager - DEBUG - Add job for site default
2026-05-31 00:48:23,583 - vorta.borg.jobs_manager - DEBUG - Start job on site: default
2026-05-31 00:48:23,584 - vorta.borg.borg_job - INFO - Running command: /app/bin/borg --version
2026-05-31 00:48:23,846 - vorta.borg.jobs_manager - DEBUG - Finish job for site: default
2026-05-31 00:48:23,847 - vorta.borg.jobs_manager - DEBUG - No more jobs for site: default
2026-05-31 00:48:23,847 - vorta.scheduler - DEBUG - Refreshing all scheduler timers
2026-05-31 00:48:23,847 - vorta.scheduler - DEBUG - scheduling 1
2026-05-31 00:48:23,848 - vorta.scheduler - DEBUG - Profile: 1, 22 0
2026-05-31 00:48:23,848 - vorta.scheduler - INFO - Setting timer for profile 1
2026-05-31 00:48:23,849 - vorta.scheduler - DEBUG - Last run time: 2026-05-21 22:12:41.131918
2026-05-31 00:48:23,849 - vorta.scheduler - DEBUG - Catching up by running job for Default (1)
2026-05-31 00:48:23,849 - vorta.scheduler - INFO - Starting background backup for Default
2026-05-31 00:48:23,849 - vorta.notifications - DEBUG - success notifications suppressed
2026-05-31 00:48:23,853 - vorta.keyring.abc - DEBUG - No module named 'objc'
2026-05-31 00:48:23,892 - asyncio - DEBUG - Using selector: EpollSelector
2026-05-31 00:48:23,892 - vorta.keyring.abc - DEBUG - Using VortaSecretStorageKeyring
2026-05-31 00:48:23,892 - vorta.borg.borg_job - DEBUG - Using VortaSecretStorageKeyring keyring to store passwords.
2026-05-31 00:48:23,892 - asyncio - DEBUG - Using selector: EpollSelector
2026-05-31 00:48:23,893 - vorta.keyring.secretstorage - DEBUG - Found 1 passwords matching repo URL.
2026-05-31 00:48:23,893 - vorta.keyring.secretstorage - DEBUG - Retrieved password for repo ssh://fileserver@homeserver.box/srv/data/main/backup/borg/apoapsis
2026-05-31 00:48:23,912 - vorta.scheduler - INFO - Preparation for backup successful.
2026-05-31 00:48:23,912 - vorta.borg.jobs_manager - DEBUG - Add job for site 1
2026-05-31 00:48:23,912 - vorta.borg.jobs_manager - DEBUG - Start job on site: 1
2026-05-31 00:48:23,915 - vorta.borg.borg_job - INFO - Running command: /app/bin/borg create --list --progress --info --log-json --json --filter=AM -C lz4 --exclude-from /tmp/tmpzd6op3a5 ssh://fileserver@homeserver.box/srv/data/main/backup/borg/apoapsis::apoapsis-2026-05-31-004823 /home/plex
2026-05-31 00:48:24,057 - vorta.borg.borg_job - WARNING - Remote: Bad owner or permissions on /home/plex/.ssh/config
2026-05-31 00:48:24,058 - vorta.borg.borg_job - ERROR - Connection closed by remote host. Is borg working on the server?
...
Description
Since a few days, vorta wouldnt make backups anymore with the error "Connection closed by remote host. Is borg working on the server?". This confused me very much, since I could ssh just fine and even execute
borg serveon the server.After a while I found out about the logs, and luckily it says what the actual error is: The SSH config file had bad permissions. This is easy to fix with
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/configbut you first have to know that this is a problem.I propose that there should be a clearer error message for this scenario. Perhaps something like this:
Backup failed: SSH Error: config file has bad permissionsReproduction
OS
Debian 13, Gnome 48
Version of Vorta
0.11.5
What did you install Vorta with?
Flatpak
Version of Borg
1.4.4
Logs