Confirm that SSH is working by removing your user's SSH key in the UI, adding a new one, and attempting to pull a repo.
> **Warning:** Do not disable writes until SSH is confirmed to be working perfectly because the file will quickly become out-of-date.
You may disable any more writes to the `authorized_keys` file by unchecking `Write to "authorized_keys" file` in the Application Settings of your GitLab installation.
In the case of lookup failures (which are not uncommon), the `authorized_keys` file will still be scanned. So git SSH performance will still be slow for many users as long as a large file exists.
You can disable any more writes to the `authorized_keys` file by unchecking `Write to "authorized_keys" file` in the Application Settings of your GitLab installation.
![Write to authorized keys setting](img/write_to_authorized_keys_setting.png)
Again, confirm that SSH is working by removing your user's SSH key in the UI, adding a new one, and attempting to pull a repo.
Then you can backup and delete your `authorized_keys` file for best performance.