How to set Magento 2 Developer and Production Mode via SSH

1. Connect to your server using command line SSH connection. SSH credentials can be provided by your hosting partner. If you experience connection problems, make sure your IP is whitelisted.

2. Go to the root location of your Magento 2 installation on your server.  

cd mymagentostore.com/html

3. Verify current store mode

php bin/magento deploy:mode:show

4a. If necessary, set Magento 2 Developer Mode 

php bin/magento deploy:mode:set developer

4b. If necessary, set Magento 2 to Production Mode

php bin/magento deploy:mode:set production

Note: Depending on your hosting provider, for some servers command 'php bin/magento' does not work, you may want to replace it with '/usr/local/php56/bin/php-cli bin/magento' or '/usr/local/php70/bin/php-cli bin/magento' .

Example: '/usr/local/php70/bin/php-cli bin/magento deploy:mode:set developer'