Upload files on Linux hosting: File Manager and Disk Access

Your website's files must sit in the right folder of your hosting account. You can work on them in the browser with File Manager, or open your hosting as a drive on your computer with Disk Access, over an encrypted HTTPS connection.

Where your files go

Use File Manager

Open File Manager on your service page. It opens in httpdocs.

• Move around: select a folder's name to open it. Back, Forward, Up One Level and the path above the list take you elsewhere, and Refresh reads the folder again. List View and Grid View switch between a table with size and date and large icons.
• Search: type in Search to filter the folder you are in. Press Enter to look in the folders below it too, and select Back To The Folder when you are done.
• Upload: select Upload for files or Upload Folder for a whole folder, or drag files and folders onto the panel. Large files go up in pieces, a bar shows the progress, and an upload that loses its connection tries again by itself. If a file already exists, you are asked before it is replaced.
• Create: New Folder and New File make an empty folder or file in the folder you are in.
• Select: tick the box on a file or folder, or select its row. The buttons above the list then act on the selection: Download, Rename, Cut, Copy, Paste, Compress and Delete.
• Download: a file downloads as it is; a folder or several items download as one zip file.
• Copy and move: Cut or Copy, open the target folder and select Paste. You can also drag selected items onto a folder to move them there.
• Delete: deleted files are removed for good.

The bar under the list counts the folders and files of the folder you are in and shows how much of your Disk space you have used.

Verify: the files appear in the list with the size you expect.

Edit, pack and unpack files

Each file and folder has a menu: the three dots on it, or a right-click. Next to Open, Edit, Download, Rename, Cut, Copy and Delete, it offers:

• Duplicate: a copy in the same folder.
• Copy To and Move To: choose the target folder in a window.
• Compress: packs the chosen items into an archive. Enter its Archive name and select Compress.
• Extract Here and Extract To, on an archive: unpack it into this folder or one you choose. Files with the same names are replaced.
• Properties: the location, size and dates of the item and, for a folder, how many folders and files it holds.

Edit opens a text file, such as .htaccess, a .php page or a .css file, in an editor with Find, Replace, Go To Line, Format, Word Wrap and an Editor Theme (Dark, Light or High Contrast). Select Save File to write your changes. Open shows images, videos and audio files in the browser.

The three dots at the end of the buttons above the list hold Copy To, Move To, Duplicate, Select All and Repair Permissions. Repair Permissions resets the owners and permissions of every file in your hosting account to their defaults; custom permissions you set are replaced. Use it when your site cannot read or write its own files.

File Manager also works from the keyboard: Enter opens the selected item, Delete deletes it, F2 renames it, F5 refreshes, Backspace goes up one level, and Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V select all, copy, cut and paste.

Connect with Disk Access

1. Open Disk Access on your service page. The main account is first in the list, marked Main account, uses your hosting password. Your address is https://webdisk.example.com/, with your own domain in place of example.com.
2. To give the account a password of its own, select Change Password in its row. Until then it uses your hosting password.
3. Connect from your computer with the address, the user name and the password:
   • Windows: in File Explorer, right-click This PC, choose Add a network location and enter the address.
   • macOS: in Finder, choose Go › Connect to Server, enter the address and select Connect.
   • Linux: in your file manager, open Other Locations and connect to davs://webdisk.example.com/.

The Guides button in the same tab has the steps for Windows, macOS, Linux and Other Programs, such as apps for phones and tablets. Disk Access speaks WebDAV over HTTPS, so any program that connects to a WebDAV address works. The address works once your domain points to the server; see first steps on Linux hosting.

Verify: your computer shows the folders of your hosting account, and a test file you copy there appears in File Manager.

Let the Setup Script connect it

Setup Script in an account's row makes a script that connects the disk on your computer for you:

1. Select Setup Script and choose your system: Windows, macOS or Linux. The window says what the script does. On Windows, for example, it starts the drive client, allows files up to 4 GB, stores the password and gives the disk a drive letter; it asks once for administrator rights.
2. Select Show Script. We may send a 6-digit code to your e-mail address first; enter it in Code within 10 minutes and select Confirm Code.
3. Select Download Script and run it as the window describes. Or type the commands yourself lists the same steps to copy one at a time.

If the panel does not know the account's password yet, you are asked to set one with Change Password first.

Add an account for someone else

Select New Account, enter the User name, a Password and the Folder the account may open, and select Create Account. An empty Folder means the whole hosting account. An account you limit to one folder has its own address, shown in its row, and opens only that folder. Use it for a designer or a developer who works on one site.

In each extra account's row:

• State: the switch turns the account off and on. Off, it cannot connect until you enable it again.
• The folder icon, Change Folder, gives the account another folder.
• The bin icon deletes the account. Your files stay where they are.

Troubleshooting

The Disk Access address does not open. Your domain must point to the server first. Check its A record; see point a domain to your server.

Windows stops copying a large file. The drive client built into Windows has a limit of about 50 MB per file. The Windows Setup Script raises it to 4 GB, or upload larger files with File Manager.

An upload stops. Check Disk space under the file list, then upload the file again.

Your site cannot write its own files. Select Repair Permissions in File Manager's three-dot menu.

Next steps

• More sites on one service: domains, PHP and .htaccess on Linux hosting.
• Secure the site: free SSL on Linux hosting.