FTP Accounts

Valid for versions 84 through the latest version

Version:

84

Last modified: October 22, 2024

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.

Log in to FTP

You can only access this interface if your hosting provider has enabled FTP access for your account. If your hosting provider has not enabled FTP access for your account, you can use the File Manager interface (cPanel » Home » Files » File Manager) to manage your site’s files instead.

If your cPanel 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 ([email protected]) and password to log in to FTP.

Add FTP Account

To create an FTP account, perform the following steps:

1. Enter the desired username in the Log In text box.

2. Select the desired domain from the Domain menu.

3. Enter and confirm the new password in the Password and Password (Again) text boxes. Some web hosts require a minimum password strength. You can also 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, where account represents the username that you entered in the Log In text box and domain.tld represents the domain you selected in the Domain menu.

   Important:

   You cannot use symbolic links (symlinks) to upload data outside of this directory.

5. Enter the disk space quota, or select Unlimited. If an FTP account experiences problems with uploads, you may need to increase the Quota value.

   Note:

   If your server uses the ProFTPD FTP server, you cannot use quotas. For more information about your server’s FTP server daemon, contact your hosting provider.

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:

1. Click Change Password for the desired FTP account.
2. Enter and confirm the new password in the Password and Password (Again) text boxes. Some web hosts require a minimum password strength. You can also 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:

1. Click Change Quota for the desired FTP account.
2. Enter the disk space quota, or select Unlimited.
3. Click Change Quota.

Delete

To remove an FTP account, perform the following steps:

1. Click Delete for the FTP account that you wish to remove.

2. 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.
     Warning:

     Only use this option with extreme caution. If the FTP account that you delete can access the 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 an FTP client on your computer before you download and run the configuration script file in step 3 below. Some options for FTP clients are Core FTP for Windows® computers or Cyberduck for macOS® computers.

To configure an FTP client, perform the following steps:

1. Click Configure FTP Client for the desired FTP account.
2. Click FTP Configuration File under the desired FTP client’s logo. You can choose between Core FTP and Cyberduck.
   Note:

   • 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.
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.

To log in to a special FTP account, you must use the account’s FTP configuration file. The system automatically configures the client for these accounts. For more information about FTP client configuration files, read the Configure FTP client section.

Primary FTP account

This account has FTP access to all files in your cPanel account. It also has access to files that exist outside of your account’s public_html directory. When logging in to this account, you should always use the SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) protocol.

Log access account

This account lets you download your website’s raw access logs. The logs are available in the /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. You do not need to log in to this account to access the FTP transaction logs.

Anonymous FTP accounts

You can only access these accounts if your hosting provider has enabled this feature. These accounts allow users to anonymously connect via FTP to access your website’s files. You can manage this access in cPanel’s Anonymous FTP interface (cPanel » Home » Files » Anonymous FTP). When you disable anonymous FTP, the system does not remove these accounts.