[MikeKL]

Screengrabs of settings assigned to root for storage & .cache folder for info

Thanks but it's the permissions on the /storage folder as Linux sees it that I was after - you'd have to mount the SD card in a Linux PC, I think. Duff permissions (as sshd can be very picky about that sort of thing, quite rightly) is about the only thing I can think of right now that would prevent sshd from working. If you have Samba enabled you can access your logfiles in the Logfiles share - open the latest zip and inside you'll have dmesg and journalctl logfiles which might give a clue as to what is wrong (upload the zip to dropbox and post the link if you don't get anywhere).    

I have not attempted to delete shadow files yet via samba and Windows PC to regain access and controil via ssh (both files then reboot?)



and not sure what to look for in log files for clues on why I get access denied when trying to login via ssh, here is dropbox link to latest logfile zip

Thanks for help/advice.