The File Manager section of the Control Panel allows you to browse the files on your hosting account and perform various actions with them. It has almost all the features you might need from an FTP program.

The File Manager Toolbar

At the top of the File Manager, there is a toolbox that contains quick-access buttons for performing common file operations:
Toolbox

Here are the available controls from left to right:

  • Upload Upload
  • Download Download
  • Create directory Create directory
  • Create file Create file
  • Rename Rename
  • Copy selected Copy
  • Move selected Move
  • Delete selected Delete
  • Edit file Edit
  • Add to archive Archive
  • Decompress Decompress
  • Change Permissions Change permissions

You can also use the Search field to the right to search for files/directories.

The second row is the navigation. For example, to go to the above directory in the directory tree (from /www/www/ to /www/), click on the arrow pointing up.

Creating new files/directories

To create afile, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the directory where you want to create the new file.
  2. Click on the Create File icon.
  3. Enter the name of the new file.
  4. Click on the Submit button.

If you create a file with an extension that contains text/code (e.g. .html, .pl, .php, .txt, .htaccess, and .htpasswd), you will be able to edit the file.

Directories are very useful to keep your website structure and files organized. They make the maintenance of the website much easier. For example, you can use a directory named images to store all of your image files and keep them separate from the HTML files in the root directory of your website.

To create adirectory, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the parent directory where you want to create the new directory.
  2. Click on the Create directory icon.
  3. Enter the name of the new directory. 
  4. Click on the Submit button.

Uploading files/directories

You can use the File Manager to upload files and directories to your website and account. There is no limit on the number or size of the files/directories you upload to the account as long as there is sufficient disk space available on the account.

To upload files/directories to your account:

  1. Navigate to the directory you want to upload your files.
  2. Drag the files/directories you wish to upload from your device, and drop them anywhere on the browser window where the File Manager is open.
    Alternatively, you can click on the Upload button and follow the instructions there.

Once you initiate the upload process, a page showing the files queued for upload and the upload progress will be displayed. On this page, you can cancel the upload entirely or remove specific files from the queue by clicking on the X button next to them. If a file cannot be uploaded, a notification will be displayed indicating the problem. When a file upload gets interrupted for some reason mid-transfer, the partially uploaded (incomplete) file will remain on the account.

Editing a file

The File Manager allows you to make changes to your files anywhere without having to use a dedicated text editor on your local device, and then upload the new version of the file to the server. Only files that contain text/code with a size under 1 MB can be edited.

To edit a file, follow these steps::

  1. Navigate to the directory where the file is located.
  2. Click on the name of the file. You will be redirected to the Edit file page where you will be able to edit the contents of the file. Files will be loaded with UTF-8 character encoding by default; however, you can reload the file using a different character encoding option. You can do that through the Settings icon to the right.
  3. Edit the contents of the file as needed. Syntax highlighting for the most popular scripting languages will be enabled by default. This can be controlled through the Settings menu.
  4. Once ready, click on the Save button to save your changes to the file and remain in the editor. If you are satisfied with the changes and wish to save them, and exit the editor, use the Save and Exit button. To exit the editor without saving any changes made to the file, click on the Exit button.

Previewing a file

To preview a file, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the directory where the file is located.
  2. Right-click the file.
  3. Click on Preview.

If the file is within your publicly accessible directories (e.g. ~/www/www/page.html), this action will open the URL of the respective page on your website directly in your browser (e.g. http://your_domain.com/page.html).

Renaming a file or directory

To rename a file or directory, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to parent directory where the file or directory you wish to rename is located.
  2. Click on the line containing the file. This will select the file. Be careful not to click on the file name, as it will open the edit menu, or navigate inside the directory.
  3. Click on Rename icon in the toolbar.
    You can also right-click the directory and click on Rename.
  4. Enter the desired file/directory name.
  5. To save the file/directory with the new name, click on the Submit button.

Changing file/directory permissions

All files on UNIX (including Linux and other UNIX variations) machines have file system access permissions. They tell the operating system how to deal with requests to access these files. To get a better understanding of file and directory permissions, please refer to the File and folder permissions category from our online documentation.

To change the permissions of a single file or directory:

  1. Navigate to the parent directory of the file or directory whose permissions you wish to change.
  2. Click on the line containing the file or directory. This will select it. Be careful not to click on the name, as it will open the edit menu.
  3. Click on the permissions value under the Permission column.
  4. Select a new value from the drop-down menu, and it will be applied immediately. If you are changing the permissions of a directory, they will be applied recursively for all files and subdirectory.

If you wish to change the permissions of multiple files/directories, you need to:

  1. Navigate to directory where the file or directory whose permissions you wish to change resides.
  2. Select the items whose permissions you wish to change by clicking on their lines. You can select all using the checkbox at the top.
  3. Click on the Change permissions icon.
  4. A new window will appear allowing you to choose the new permissions for the selected files/directories and other options (e.g. if the permissions should be added recursively).

Moving/copying files/directories

To move or copy files and/or directories, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the directory where the files or directories you wish to move or copy are located.
  2. Choose the items you wish to move or copy by clicking on the lines of the files/directories. You can select all using the checkbox at the top.
  3. Click on the Move selected or Copy selected button in toolbar depending on the desired action.
  4. A new window will open where you can navigate to the destination where the selected items will be moved or copied.
  5. Click on the Use selection button to initialize the moving or copying process. A notification message will be displayed once the process finishes.

Adding files to an archive

To add files/directories into an archive, please follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the directory where the files or directories you wish to add to an archive are located.
  2. Select the files and directories you wish to include in the archive by clicking on their lines in the list. You can select all using the checkbox at the top.
  3. Click on the Add to archive button.
  4. Select your location where the archive will be stored. You can choose from the current directory or the account's Private directory.
  5. Choose the archive name and type (.tar.gz or .zip), and select if you wish the new archive to overwrite existing archives with the same name.
  6. Click on the Submit button. Once the archive is ready, a notification message will be displayed, and the archive will be listed in the specified location.

Extracting an archive

To extract an archive, please follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the directory where the files or directories you wish to extract are located.
  2. Click on the name of the archive file.
    You can also right-click the archive > click on Decompress, or select it by clicking on its line, and click on the Decompress button in the toolbar.
  3. A new page will load where you can select the files you wish to extract from the archive, whether the archive contents should be extracted in a subdirectory with the archive's name, and whether the files from the archive should overwrite existing files with the same names.
  4. Click on the Next button, and a summary of the extraction process will be displayed.

Downloading files/directories

To download a file, please follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the directory where the file you wish to download is located.
  2. Click on the line of the file, and then click on the Download button in the toolbar.
    You can also right-click the file, and click on the Download button.

To download multiple files, a directory or multiple files and directories, you should consider adding them to an archive, downloading the archive, and extracting it on your device.

Deleting files/directories

To delete a file, please follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the directory where the file you wish to delete is located.
  2. Click on the line of the file, and then click on the Delete Selected button in the toolbar.
    You can also right-click the file, and click on the Delete Selected button.

If you wish to delete multiple files and/or directories, just select all of them before clicking on Delete Selected.

Searching for files/directories

Please use the toolbar at the top to search for files. There is a search field to the right. The search is case-insensitive.