Skip to content

how to ...

Filezilla ftp tool

FTP stands for “File Transfer Protocol” but don’t worry about that. Basically it is a method of transferring your website files to and from your web server.

FileZilla is a free FTP solution from Mozilla. Both a client and a server version are available. FileZilla is open source software distributed free of charge under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Download the latest version from http://filezilla-project.org/ and install it on your PC. (Note: you need to download the CLIENT version).

Official Filezilla tutorial


Quick Guide to using Filezilla

(extract from the official Filezilla user quide)

This guide gives you a short overview on how to use FileZilla. By default you don’t have to configure FileZilla, so you can start directly working with the program.

Connecting to an FTP server

Using the Quick Connect bar

To connect to an FTP server, enter the address of the server into the host field of the Quickconnect bar (i.e. domain.com – see image below). If it is a special server type like an SFTP server, add the protocol in front of the address. In case of an SFTP server, start the address with ‘sftp://’ (i.e. sftp://domain.com). Enter the port of the server into the port field if it is not the default port (21 for FTP, 22 for SFTP). If a username / password is required, enter it in the corresponding fields, otherwise the default anonymous logon will be used. Click on Quickconnect or press Enter to connect to the server.

Image:Enter-info.png

Please notice that the Quick Connect is for… quick connections – so there is no way to edit the quick connections list which stores the last 10 entries. To store FTP server names you should use the Site Manager, instead.

Quick Connect is good for testing the login info before making a site manager entry. Once you connect, you can choose File -> “Copy current connection to Site Manager…” to make a permanent entry. It is usually best to check your login info with Quick Connect before making a permanent entry.

Using Site Manager

You can use the FileZilla Site Manager to specify specific site parameters and connect to the targeted FTP site. The Site Manager allows you to store entries and configure more parameters than the Quick Connect allows.

Navigating on the server

After a successful connection attempt, a list of files and folders appears on the right side of the main window. The current folder is listed in the edit field on the top. Below you will see the remote directory tree and below that, the contents of the current remote folder. There are three ways to change the folder. First, you can double-click a folder in the file list. Second, you can change the current folder by clicking a folder in the directory tree. Last but not least, you can always enter the folder name into the edit field and press enter. You will notice a folder called “..” displayed in virtually all directories. This folder allows you to go up to the parent directory of the current folder.

Image:Navigating-remote.png

Navigating on your machine

Navigating on your machine works almost like navigating on the server. The current local folder and the local directory tree are displayed on the left side of the main window by default.

Image:Navigating-local.png

Synchronized Browsing

If you have an identical directory structure on the local machine and the server, you can enable synchronized browsing. This means that any directory navigation on one machine is duplicated on the other.

To enable synchronized browsing, create an entry in the Site Manager, and on the Advanced tab, ensure that the Default local directory and the Default remote directory have the same structure. Then check “use synchronized browsing,” save your settings, and connect.

Directory Comparison

To quickly see differences between files on the local machine and the server, choose View > Directory Comparison, and choose either “compare file size” or “compare modification time.” (You also hide identical files by checking that option.) Then choose “Enable.”

You will now see color-coded differences between copies of the same file on the different machines. See their meanings here.

Transferring files

You can upload or download a file by double-clicking on it. It will be added to the transfer queue and the transfer starts automatically. To transfer folders and/or multiple files, select them and right-click the selection. Then you can click on Upload/Download in the popup menu.

Image:Transfer-rightclick.png
You can also drag the files from one side and drop them on the other side. To add files to the queue so that they will be transferred later, select them and click Add to Queue from the popup menu. You may also drag the files directly into the queue. Click on the Image:Process-queue-button.png button on the toolbar to start the transfer.

Or, you can click on a file, then drag the file (a box is added to the arrow cursor) to the folder where you want to move it. The folder will be highlighted when you are over it. Let go of the mouse button and the file will be moved to the folder.

Image:Transfer-drag.png

Further information

FileZilla Client tutorial. In this tutorial, you will learn how to

  • connect to an FTP server,
  • download and upload files,
  • use the site manager.
Back To Top