How To Add an FTP Account to FileZilla

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Patrick Hawkins

Category: Technical Support | Tags: cPanel, Filezilla, FTP, SFTP

Reading Time: 2 minutes

FileZilla is one of the most popular cross-platform FTP clients around. Here’s how to add an FTP user to the client.

NOTE: Especially if you are running a cPanel server, it is best to ftp using a cPanel user account with shell access, in order to run SFTP (for security reasons).

Using QuickConnect

FileZilla’s Quickconnect bar is the simplest way to connect to a remote server. It asks for the following information:

Host
Username
Password
Port

right at the top of FileZilla. Once that information has been entered, click “Quickconnect”, and you should be connected.

If you are unsure about what to put in each of those fields, and you have a cPanel server, you can verify the correct FTP connection settings for the account in cPanel by clicking on FTP Accounts under the Files section.

FTP Accounts

On the FTP Accounts page, clicking on the Configure FTP Client link to the far right of the FTP account name will list the manual settings for the account as well as a number configuration files which you can download to automatically import the correct settings directly into several popular FTP clients.

FTP config

Troubleshooting

There are three common problems users run into when trying to connect with FileZilla.

The first common issue is with the FTP client not being able to find the Host, which usually means that DNS records are not set up the way cPanel thinks they should be.

There are two ways to resolve that: You could set up a DNS record for ftp.example.com, or you could simply use the hostname or IP address of your server.

The second most common issue is trying to use the SFTP (SSH over FTP) protocol with a cPanel-created FTP account. Because SFTP requires shell access, only the cPanel user itself (or root) will be able to use that protocol. Any FTP account created in cPanel (such as ftpuser@domainname.com) will be able to connect only via FTP/FTPS.

Finally, in some cases, you may find that the port you’re attempting to connect to is not open in the firewall.

If you’re using SFTP, ensure that you are attempting to connect to the same port used for SSH. In many cases, an alternate SSH port is used for security reasons, and the standard port is closed in the firewall. If you’re using an alternate port for SSH, all SFTP connections will need to use that alternate port as well.

If you still are having trouble connecting to your FTP account, contact your Heroic Support® Team for further troubleshooting.