You probably see error message like:

General failure (server should provide error description).
Error code: 4
Error message from server: Failure
Request code: ?

What does particular error code mean is explained on the line above, i.e. “General failure” here. Particularly for “General failure”, the SFTP server should provide you more details, that you will see next to “Error message from server”. Unfortunately, SFTP server shipped with OpenSSH (or Sun SSH) does not. That is, why you see there just “Failure” (very useful).

Some situations when OpenSSH (Sun SSH) server issues this useless error message:

• Renaming file to name of already existing file.
• Creating directory that already exists.
• Moving remote file to different filesystem (HDD).
• Uploading file to full filesystem (HDD).
• Exceeding user disk quota.

If none of the above helps, check your permissions or contact server administrator.