How to Access Your Raspberry Pi from Anywhere Using MacOS and SSH

A step-by-step guide on how to connect to your Raspberry Pi remotely from any Mac device using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. …


Updated August 10, 2023

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A step-by-step guide on how to connect to your Raspberry Pi remotely from any Mac device using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol.

Raspberry Pi is a popular single board computer used for various projects, including home automation, digital signage, and IoT solutions. However, accessing it remotely can be a challenge, especially when you are not physically near the device. In this article, we will learn how to connect to Raspberry Pi from a Mac using SSH (Secure Shell) protocol.

Prerequisites

  • A Raspberry Pi with Raspbian or any other Linux distribution installed on it.
  • A MacOS device (laptop or desktop).
  • An internet connection on both the Raspberry Pi and the MacOS device.

Step 1: Enable SSH on Raspberry Pi

The first step is to enable SSH on your Raspberry Pi so that you can remotely connect to it from your Mac. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Open the terminal on your Raspberry Pi by typing Ctrl + Alt + T or navigating to “Accessories” > “Terminal” in the menu.
  2. Type the following command and hit Enter:
sudo systemctl enable ssh
  1. This will start the SSH server on your Raspberry Pi. Now, you need to find the IP address of your device. Type the following command:
hostname -I

Make a note of the IP address that appears after running this command. It should look something like 192.168.1.10.

Step 2: Install an SSH client on MacOS

Next, you need to install an SSH client on your MacOS device. Open the terminal and type the following command:

sudo apt-get install openssh

This will install the openssh package which includes the necessary tools for connecting to a remote server via SSH.

Step 3: Connect to Raspberry Pi from MacOS using SSH

Now that you have enabled SSH on your Raspberry Pi and installed an SSH client on your Mac, it’s time to connect to your device remotely. Open the terminal on your Mac and type the following command:

ssh pi@<IP address>

Replace <IP address> with the IP address of your Raspberry Pi that you noted down in Step 1. For example, if your IP address is 192.168.1.10, the command would be:

ssh pi@192.168.1.10

You will be prompted to enter the password for the “pi” user account on Raspberry Pi. By default, the password is “raspberry”. Once you enter it correctly, you will have successfully connected to your Raspberry Pi from MacOS using SSH.

Step 4: Interact with your Raspberry Pi remotely

Now that you are connected to your Raspberry Pi via SSH, you can interact with the device as if you were sitting in front of it. You can run commands, transfer files, and even use graphical applications through an SSH client like PuTTY on Windows or Terminal on MacOS.

For example, you can check the system information by running:

uname -a

This will display the kernel name, node name, release number, version, machine hardware, and processor type of your Raspberry Pi.

Conclusion

In this article, we learned how to remotely connect to a Raspberry Pi from MacOS using SSH. This is an essential skill for any maker or developer who works with Raspberry Pi and needs to access it from anywhere with an internet connection. By following these steps, you can easily connect to your device and perform tasks without being physically present at its location.