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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. Here are some of the actions you can perform there:

To open a directory in the File Manager, simply click on the name or the folder icon next to the directory. To go up a level, click on the "Move up a directory.." button.

Creating new files/directories

You can create new files using the File Manager by:

  1. Navigating to the directory where you want to create the new file.

  2. Entering the name of the new file in the Create file field.

  3. Clicking on the Create File 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 a directory:

  1. Navigate to the parent directory where you want to create the new directory.

  2. Under Tools, enter the name of the new directory in the Create directory input field.

  3. Click on the Create directory 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 File field or the Select folder (Browse) button next to it, select the files from your device you wish to upload, and press the Upload button once ready.

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 via the File Manager:

  1. Navigate to the directory where the file is located.

  2. Click on the name of the file or the Edit (Edit) button next to 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.

  3. Edit the contents of the file as needed. Syntax highlighting for the most popular scripting languages can also be enabled via the Syntax highlighting drop-down 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

You can use the Preview (Preview) button next to a file within your publicly accessible directories (e.g. ~/www/www/page.html) to 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

The File Manager allows you to change the name of a file or directory. To rename a file or directory:

  1. Navigate to parent directory where the file or directory you wish to rename is located.

  2. Click on the Rename (Rename) button next to the file or directory.

  3. Enter the desired file/directory name.

  4. To save the file/directory with the new name, click on the Confirm (Save) 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 using the File Manager:

  1. Navigate to the parent directory of the file or directory whose permissions you wish to change.

  2. Click on the permissions value under the Permission column.

  3. 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 via the checkbox in front of each item. You can click on the topmost checkbox to select/deselect all items in the directory.

  3. Click on the Change permissions button.

  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 selecting the checkboxes in front of their names. You can click on the topmost checkbox to select/deselect all items in the directory.

  3. Click on the Move selected or Copy selected button 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. You can also enter the path to the directory directly in the Target directory field.

  5. Click on the Select button to initialize the moving or copying process. A notification message will be displayed once the process finishes.

Adding files to an archive

You can combine multiple files in an archive with the File Manager in a few easy 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 via the checkboxes in front of their respective names. To select all files in the current directory, use the topmost checkbox.

  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 Add to archive 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

The File Manager allows you to extract archives very easily. All you need to do is:

  1. Click on the name of the archive file or click on the Extract (Decompress) button next to it.

  2. 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.

  3. Click on the Next button, and a summary of the extraction process will be displayed.

Downloading files/directories

You can download a single file by clicking on the Download (Download) button next to the file, and a new window will appear allowing you to specify the destination and name of the file on your device. If the file cannot be edited with the File Manager, clicking on it will open a download prompt.

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

You can delete a file or a directory by clicking on the Delete (Delete) button next to it.

If you wish to delete multiple files and/or directories at once:

  1. Navigate to the parent directory of the files or directories that you wish to delete.

  2. Select the files and directories you wish to delete using the checkboxes in front of each file/directory name.

  3. Click on the Delete selected button.

Searching for files/directories

To find a specific file or directory by its name, you need to do is enter the full or a part of the name of the file or directory you are looking for in the search box above the file/directory list. After that, click on the Search(Search) button. A list of the files and directories whose names match your search string will be displayed. The search is case-insensitive.