File Transfer Protocol (FTP), allows you to manage your website files. The cPanel includes an FTP server with all the required settings. Every hosting package includes by default an FTP account. You can use your cPanel login credentials to connect with FTP. You can also create individual FTP accounts or manage these accounts through the FTP Accounts option in the Files section in your cPanel.
You may perform the following actions on FTP accounts:
- Add an FTP account
- Change password of an FTP account
- Edit quota of an FTP account
- Delete an FTP account
- Connect to an FTP account
- View FTP logs
1. Add an FTP account
FTP accounts allow users to access files and folders stored on a server disk.
To create an FTP account, follow the steps below:
- Type the username you want in the Login field.
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Type in the Password field the password you want to use for this account and confirm it in the Password (again) field.
*cPanel evaluates your password in a scale of 0 to 100. 0 indicates a very weak password, while 100 a very strong. If strength meter changes to green, means that the password used is strong enough. We recommend that your password contains at least 6-8 characters.
*If you do not want to use your own password, you can use the Password Generator, which creates a random password. Remember to write down your password for future use!
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Determine which the home directory of your FTP account will be.
*In Directory you may define which will be the root folder to be accessed from the FTP account you create. For example, if you type "example-folder", the account will have access to the contents of the folder /home/username/example-folder and all its sub folders.
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Set the quota. The size in Quota determines how much disk space will be assigned to this FTP account.
You can select Unlimited or set the maximum size of the data in MB.
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Press Create FTP Account. The new FTP account will appear below, in the list of FTP Accounts.
*If you encounter any problems while uploading files via FTP, you might need to resize the quota of the FTP account you use to upload your files.
All FTP accounts you have created are available on the FTP Accounts Table.
This table enables you to edit your accounts. To look up a specific account, follow these steps:
- Type a word to search in Search Accounts field.
- Press Search Accounts. Now the FTP Accounts table will display only accounts containing the search word.
- To return to the list of all accounts, click Clear Search.
2. Change password of an FTP account
To change the password of an FTP account, follow the steps below:
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Click Change Password for the FTP account you want to alter. A window like this will be displayed:
Type in the Password field the password you want to use for this FTP Account. Enter the same password in the Confirm field, to confirm.
*cPanel evaluates your password in a scale of 0 to 100. 0 indicates a very weak password, while 100 a very strong. If strength meter changes to green, means that the password used is strong enough. We recommend that your password contains at least 6-8 characters.
*If you do not want to use your own password, you can use the Password Generator, which creates a random password. Remember to write down your password for future use!
- Click on Change Password to save the changes.
3. Edit quota of an FTP account
The quota limits the amount of data a user can upload to a server using an FTP account. To change the quota of an FTP account, follow these steps:
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Press Change Quota for the FTP account you want to modify the quota. A window like this will be displayed:
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Click on FTP Quota for the FTP account you want to modify. If you don't wish for the quota of this account to be Unlimited, type the maximum data size in MB.
* Regardless the quota set for an account, user will not be able to upload more data than the amount of the disk space provided by user's hosting package.
- Press Change Quota to save the changes.
4. Delete an FTP account
To delete an FTP account, follow the steps below:
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Press Delete for the FTP account you want to delete.
You will be asked for your confirmation to delete the account:
- You can choose whether you want to delete only the FTP account or all contents uploaded in the home directory of this account as well. You may choose Delete Accountor Delete Account and Files, depending on what you want to do. If you do not wish to delete the account, press Cancel.
5. Connect to the FTP account
To connect to one of the FTP accounts you have created, you may follow the steps below:
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Download an FTP client. Uploading on an FTP server, requires specific software, which is called FTP client. Most computers don't have pre- installed clients, so you'll have to search for and download one online.
*We recommend the following FTP clients:
- For ΙΒΜ/Windows: LeechFTP (free), WS_FTP LE (free), FTP Explorer(free), CuteFTP (free trial).
- For Macintosh: Fetch (free), Transmit (free trial).
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Log in the server. All FTP clients require the following information
- Username
- Password
- Address (this is the server address). Use ftp.example.com
- Port Use the default port 21.
*Some clients may also ask for the host type, so select "auto", and the remote folder, which field you may leave empty or change it to /domains/example.com/public_html to start at the root folder.
- Once you are connected, you can make changes to the folder or upload your files. To upload, you must first select the files / folders in your computer and drag them in the appropriate directory on the remote server. Each FTP client operates differently, so you may want to consult the Help tutorial of the client you are using, which contains full instructions.
6. See the FTP logs
If you wish to know who has been or still is connected to your site via FTP, you can find these information in the access log raw files of your website.
To view older FTP connections to your site, click on the Raw Access Logs option in the Logs section. The FTP data include the entry "ftp_log" in their file names.
