Uploading Files with FTP

What FTP is for

FTP, File Transfer Protocol, is the traditional way to move files between your computer and your hosting: uploading a website, downloading a backup, editing files in bulk. If you are building a site by hand, or a developer has given you files to put live, FTP is how they get onto the server.

Worth knowing up front: for many tasks you do not actually need FTP at all. cPanel's File Manager, covered in our cPanel tour, does the same job in your browser with nothing to install, and for a few files it is often quicker. FTP earns its place when you are moving a lot of files at once, or working with a program that expects it.

FTP versus SFTP: use the secure one

There are two versions, and the difference matters:

• FTP is the original, and it sends everything, including your password, unencrypted. On a shared or public connection that is a genuine risk.
• SFTP is the secure version, encrypting the whole connection the way https secures a website. It does the same job, safely.

Use SFTP whenever you can. It protects your login and your files in transit, and there is rarely a good reason to choose plain FTP over it. The settings are nearly identical, SFTP simply uses a different port, which your connection details will specify.

What you need to connect

Your FTP details come from your welcome email and your cPanel:

• Host: normally your domain, yourdomain.tld, or the server address from your welcome email.
• Username and password: your cPanel login acts as your main FTP account, and you can also create additional, restricted FTP accounts in cPanel under FTP Accounts, useful for giving a developer access to one folder without handing over everything.
• Port: your client's default is usually correct, and SFTP uses its own port, again per your welcome email.

Connecting before your domain has propagated

Here is a common situation: your hosting is brand new, or your domain is still pointing at the old host while it propagates, and you want to upload your site now rather than wait up to 48 hours. You can, because the domain name is not the only way to reach the server.

Your welcome email includes your server's IP address. Use that IP as the FTP host instead of your domain name, with the same username and password, and you connect straight to the server regardless of where the domain is currently pointing. This lets you get everything uploaded and ready during the propagation window, so the moment the domain resolves to us, your site is already there. Our article on what happens after you place your order explains where to find this IP.

Which program to use

An FTP program, called a client, does the connecting. FileZilla is the one we most often point people to: free, reliable, available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and it handles SFTP without fuss. It is not the only good one, WinSCP and Cyberduck are also popular, and many code editors have FTP built in, so if you already have a tool you trust, it will work fine with the details above. FileZilla is simply a safe default if you have no preference.

The "too many connections" error

One error comes up often enough to explain here, because it looks alarming and is usually harmless. If you see a message about too many connections, it means your FTP client has opened more simultaneous connections to the server than it allows. Servers cap this deliberately, both to keep things stable and because a flood of connections from one place looks like an attack.

The usual causes and fixes:

• Your client is set to use too many simultaneous transfers. In FileZilla, this is in the settings under Transfers, set the maximum simultaneous transfers down to a low number, such as 2. This alone solves it most of the time.
• Old connections have not closed. A previous session that did not end cleanly can leave connections lingering. Wait a few minutes for them to time out, then reconnect.
• It keeps happening regardless. If you have lowered the connection count and still hit the limit, open a support ticket and we will check whether stale connections are stuck open on the server side and clear them.

Good to know

If you only ever move the odd file, you may never need an FTP client at all, cPanel's File Manager covers it from your browser. FTP comes into its own for bigger jobs and for developers, and when you do use it, reach for SFTP over plain FTP every time, and keep your simultaneous connections modest. If a developer needs access, create them their own restricted FTP account in cPanel rather than sharing your main login, the same principle of handing out keys deliberately that runs through our article on understanding your logins.