How to Use the cPanel File Manager Print

File Manager lets you work with your website's files straight from your browser, without an FTP program. You can upload, create, edit, move and delete files and folders. Open it from cPanel under Files › File Manager. Your main website lives in the public_html folder.

Upload files

1. In the left-hand folder tree, open the folder you want to upload to, for example public_html.
2. Click Upload in the toolbar.
3. Drag your files into the upload window, or click Select File. Wait until each progress bar finishes, then click the link to go back to the folder.

Tip: to upload a whole website or many files, zip them on your computer first, upload the single .zip, then right-click it in File Manager and choose Extract. It's much faster and keeps your folder structure intact.

Create files and folders

1. Go to the folder where you want the new item.
2. Click + Folder or + File in the toolbar.
3. Enter a name, for example images or index.html, and click Create New Folder or Create New File.

Edit a file

1. Right-click the file and choose Edit. If asked about character encoding, keep the default and click Edit again.
2. Make your changes in the editor and click Save Changes.

Before you edit an important file, right-click it and choose Copy to keep a backup, for example wp-config.php.bak.

Change permissions

Right-click a file or folder and choose Change Permissions. The safe standard settings are:

• 644 for files
• 755 for folders

Never use 777. It lets anyone on the server write to the file and is a common cause of hacked sites.

Show hidden files

Files whose names start with a dot, such as .htaccess, are hidden by default. Click Settings (top right), tick Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) and click Save. See how to edit the .htaccess file.

Delete and restore from the trash

When you delete something, File Manager moves it to the trash unless you tick Skip the trash and permanently delete the files. To get it back, click View Trash, select the item and click Restore. Use Empty Trash to free up the disk space for good. Anything deleted permanently can only come back from a backup. See our backups.

For large uploads or regular work, an FTP program can be easier. See connecting with FileZilla.