Trying to connect to remote server via SSH but still prompts for password

Question

I generated a ssh key pair with ssh-keygen, use ssh-copy-id to the server and checked that the public key was added to authorized_keys, but then when i try to connect with ssh -i ~/.ssh/MY_KEY user@server it is still asking me for the password. I don't have root privileges in the server but my .ssh directory only has "authorized_keys" and "known_hosts" files, both have the public key "MY_KEY". I already checked every permission on /User, /.ssh and both files inside /.ssh but i don't have access to sshd_config

This is what i get when trying to connect with

ssh -v -i ~/.ssh/MY_KEY user@serverIP

debug1: Reading configuration data /Users/user/.ssh/config
debug1: /Users/user/.ssh/config line 18: Applying options for *
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 48: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to serverIP [serverIP] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /Users/user/.ssh/MY_KEY type 0
debug1: identity file /Users/user/.ssh/MY_KEY-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/user/.ssh/gitlabkey type 3
debug1: identity file /Users/user/.ssh/gitlabkey-cert type -1
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.9
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_7.4
debug1: match: OpenSSH_7.4 pat OpenSSH_7.0*,OpenSSH_7.1*,OpenSSH_7.2*,OpenSSH_7.3*,OpenSSH_7.4*,OpenSSH_7.5*,OpenSSH_7.6*,OpenSSH_7.7* compat 0x04000002
debug1: Authenticating to serverIP:22 as 'user'
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: algorithm: curve25519-sha256@libssh.org
debug1: kex: host key algorithm: ecdsa-sha2-nistp256
debug1: kex: server->client cipher: chacha20-poly1455@openssh.com MAC: <implicit> compression: none
debug1: kex: client->server cipher: chacha20-poly1455@openssh.com MAC: <implicit> compression: none
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug1: Server host key: ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 SHA256:oF1yjVJjhgf9N7u84hk8QqZrY
debug1: Host 'serverIP' is known and matches the ECDSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /Users/user/.ssh/known_hosts:17
debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
debug1: Will attempt key: /Users/user/.ssh/MY_KEY RSA SHA256:W3JxHToIyelBpl4 explicit
debug1: Will attempt key: /Users/user/.ssh/gitlabkey ED25519 SHA256:KAd+YwkK6dWptbtLvWg explicit
debug1: SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO received
debug1: kex_input_ext_info: server-sig-algs=<rsa-sha2-256,rsa-sha2-512>
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering public key: /Users/user/.ssh/MY_KEY RSA SHA256:W3JxHToIyelB6Upl4 explicit
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: Offering public key: /Users/user/.ssh/gitlabkey ED25519 SHA256:KAd+YwkK6dWtvWg explicit
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: Next authentication method: password
user@serverIP's password:

I honestly don't know what else to try. I don't get why is it trying the correct key (MY_KEY) but it clearly fails.

Answer 1

For anyone having the same problem... after a long time i could resolve it.

I was tired of trying things so i deleted both authorized_keys and known_hosts, all i had was the empty .ssh directory. At that moment i got disconnected from the server and thought i broke it all, but since i'm in a mac, by doing this https://coderwall.com/p/8ag5aq/ssh-broken-pipe-fix-mac-os-x i could connect again.

I simply execute again the ssh-copy-id command from the mac and it automatically created, on the server, the file "authorized_keys" but not "known_hosts".

Just with that i then run ssh -i /path/to/MYKEY user@serverIP and it worked like a charm without prompting for password.