Overview
You can use this interface to create and manage your website’s File Transfer Protocol (FTP) accounts. FTP allows you to manage your website’s files.
You can only access this interface if your hosting provider has enabled FTP services on your server.
To determine which FTP server daemon that your server uses, contact your hosting provider. cPanel & WHM supports the ProFTPD and Pure-FTPd FTP server daemons.
- On servers that use Pure-FTPd, the system will only return the first 2,000 files in each folder. Your hosting provider can adjust this number.
If the account uses a dedicated IP address, you can use your cPanel account’s username and password to log in to FTP. Otherwise, you must use the full FTP account username (account, at-symbol, and domain name) and password to log in to FTP.
You can use your cPanel account’s username and password to log in to FTP.
SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) allows you to transfer files over a secure connection. For more information about SFTP, read our How To Configure Your SFTP Client documentation.
To view past FTP connections to your site, navigate to the Raw Access interface (cPanel >> Home >> Metrics >> Raw Access).
Add FTP Account
To create an FTP account, perform the following steps:
- Enter the desired username in the Log In text box.
- Select the desired domain from the Domain menu.
- Enter and confirm the new password in the appropriate text boxes.
The system evaluates the password that you enter on a scale of 100 points.
0indicates a weak password, while100indicates a very secure password.Some web hosts require a minimum password strength. A green password Strength meter indicates that the password is equal to or greater than the required password strength.
Click Password Generator to generate a strong password. For more information, read our Password & Security documentation.
4. Enter the FTP account’s home directory.
The Directory text box defines the new FTP account’s top level of directory access. For example, if you enter example in the Directory text box, the FTP account can access the
/home/$user/example/directory and all of its subdirectories.The system automatically populates this text box with
public_html/domain.tld/account, whereaccountrepresents the username that you entered in the Login text box anddomain.tldrepresents the domain you selected in the Domain menu.
5. Enter the disk space quota, or select Unlimited.
6. Click Create FTP Account. The new account will appear in the FTP Accounts table.
FTP Accounts
The FTP Accounts table allows you to manage existing FTP accounts.
Change Password
To change an FTP account’s password, perform the following steps:
- Click Change Password for the FTP account for which you wish to change the password.
- Enter and confirm the new password in the appropriate text boxes.
The system evaluates the password that you enter on a scale of 100 points.
0indicates a weak password, while100indicates a very secure password.Some web hosts require a minimum password strength. A green password Strength meter indicates that the password is equal to or greater than the required password strength.
Click Password Generator to generate a strong password. For more information, read our Password & Security documentation.
3. Click Change Password.
Change Quota
To change an FTP account’s quota, perform the following steps:
- Click Change Quota for the FTP account for which you wish to change the quota.
- Enter the disk space quota, or select Unlimited.
- Click Change Quota.
Delete
To remove an FTP account, perform the following steps:
-
Click Delete for the FTP account that you wish to remove.
-
Click the desired deletion option:
-
Delete Account — Remove the FTP account only. This will not remove the files that the FTP account’s home directory contains.
-
Delete Account and Files — Remove the FTP account and all of the files that the FTP account’s home directory contains.
-
public_html directory, this option automatically removes the public_html directory and all of its contents, which will break your website.
- Cancel — Do not delete the account.
Configure FTP Client
You must install the FTP client on your computer before you download and run the script file.
For instructions, visit the Core FTP website for Windows® computers or the Cyberduck website for MacOS® computers.
If you encounter problems when you try to automatically configure your FTP client, ensure that your client is properly installed on your computer. If problems persist, consult your FTP client’s documentation.
To configure an FTP client, perform the following steps:
- Click Configure FTP Client for the desired FTP account.
- Click FTP Configuration File under the desired FTP client’s logo. You can choose between Core FTP and Cyberduck.
We only support auto-configuration for these FTP clients. To use another client, manually configure the client.
Click Instructions to view detailed instructions for your chosen client.
FTP does not support Server Name Indication (SNI). You must use the server’s hostname as the FTP server to connect with SSL. You can’t use your domain name. For more information, read our How To Configure Your SFTP Client documentation.
3. Open the configuration script file that downloaded to your computer. The FTP client automatically opens, configures itself, and connects to your FTP server.
Special FTP Accounts
The Special FTP Accounts table lists your cPanel account’s primary FTP account and the log access account. The system creates these accounts by default. Unlike other FTP accounts, you cannot modify or delete these accounts. This is because the system links these accounts to administrative aspects of your cPanel account.
Primary FTP account
public_html directory. When logging in to this account, you should always use the SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) protocol. Log access account
/etc/apache2/logs/domlogs/USERNAME directory, where USERNAME is the log access account’s username. This directory contains the FTP transaction logs for domains on webservers running EasyApache 4.