How to SSH into Raspberry Pi

January 02, 2021

Overview

Learn how to enable ssh on any raspberry pi on a mac with this quick and easy tutorial.

Benefits to Enabling SSH on Raspberry Pi

Enabling ssh on a raspberry allows the user to connect without needing a mouse, keyboard or monitor connected.
Editing and accessing files through ssh is usually quicker on the raspberry pi than the graphical user interface.
Lastly, ssh access can allow multiple users at once to login to the raspberry pi if needed.

Load SD Card on Mac

Make sure you already have Raspbian OS installed on the micro SD card you are using. If you need to install Raspbian OS, I have written a full guide for that.

Plug SD card into the Mac that you are using. You should see it visible in “Finder” once its plugged in.

Open Terminal Application on Mac

Navigate to Applications on your Mac. Next open up the Terminal application which can usually be found in Applications > Other > Terminal

Once the application is open, it should look like this:

Create SSH File

Enter the following commands into terminal to create the ssh file on the SD card.

$ cd /Volumes/boot
$ touch ssh

Load SD Card on Raspberry Pi

Lastly go ahead and plugin the SD card into your Raspberry Pi and turn it on.

You should now be able to ssh into the raspberry pi from your Mac with the following command.

$ ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

You will be prompted for a password, enter the following as the default.

raspberry