Every account can use the cPanel (Control Panel) username and password for FTP, but additional FTP Accounts can be created and removed from your cPanel at any time. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the creation and deletion of an FTP Account.
New to FTP? I recommend reading our full FTP Getting started guide. If you just want to change your FTP password, we have a helpful guide here.
Creating an FTP Account
- Login to cPanel.
- Click the FTP Accounts button in the Files section.
- In the Add FTP Account section, fill in the fields as needed. Below is a brief description of the options.
Option Description Login: Enter the username you want to use; it will be combined with your primary domain name to create the full username. For example, if you enter joeuser in this field, the FTP Username will be: [email protected] Password: Enter a strong password in this field. Need help creating a secure password? Use the Password Generator button, or see our full guide on Password Strength and Security. Password (Again): Enter the same password here, to confirm the spelling. Strength: This field tells you how secure your password is. Strength levels range from Very Weak to Very Strong Directory: When you create an FTP account, it is limited to the directory you set here. To give them full access to your file system, just enter a forward slash, like this: / To give limited access to your website files to an FTP account, enter public_html. Or as you name the FTP account it will try to automatically restrict access to public_html/username
Quota: You can limit the amount of space an FTP user can use here, or set them to Unlimited. - Click the Create FTP Account button. You will then see a message stating “Account Created“
Deleting an FTP Account
- Login to cPanel.
- Click the FTP Accounts button in the Files section.
- Find the FTP account you want to remove, and click the Delete button to the right.
- Two buttons will drop-down, choose if you want to Delete Account or Delete Account and Files. If you’re not sure which option to select, then choose Delete Account. If you need to, you can always go back and delete the unneeded files.
Then, the account will no longer be listed.
Congratulations, now you know how to create and remove an FTP account in your cPanel.
what type of credentials i should give to the agency who will be doing SEO for marketing purpose just to be one safe side specially when you trying to believe but till in hanging mode.
Type a message
Hello and thanks for asking. That depends on what the agency will be doing. They don’t need access to your account for SEO assistance unless they’re making changes. In that case, I recommend you create a backup before giving access. Then, give them a website account with only the access needed. This depends on your website and/or CMS environment.
Hi Everyone, I create an ftp acc with the following path /home/sightl…/public_html. gave access to a dev that no longer works with us. How can I remove his access? or should I just delete the account. Thanks
Hello [email protected],
You can simply delete the FTP account and then the access will be removed. When you delete the account you will be given the choice of deleting just the user or both the user and the associated folder that is created when the FTP account was created. You can delete the folder with no affect other than losing any files that the user may have uploaded. I hope that helps to answer your question! If you require further assistance please let us know!
What is the password for “Special FTP Accounts”? Thanks
The “Special FTP Accounts” utilizes the cPanel user and password combination. The reason why this is a special account is because it is the cPanel user’s FTP account. Using the same password as your current cPanel password will authenticate your FTP access and use the cPanel user’s home directory by default.
Good day. Trying to setup a guest FTP access to a specific folder within public_html. Have followed all the steps and set the directory to the correct folder but, once connected, all that is seen is an empty folder with a single file called .ftpquota. Please advise.
Hello, I hope you are well! It seems like the directory or files may have incorrect permissions. However, since you are seeing the “.ftpquota” file, it also seems like the directory is simply empty.
No permissions are fine and the folder does have content. Please advise. What is the correct directory path to use to link to an existing folder within the public_html folder? Any specific permissions that must be used or not?
To give limited access to your public_html files to an FTP account, enter “public_html” when creating the FTP account. You can also enter “public_html/existing_folder” to allow the FTP account access to ONLY the public_html/existing_folder. I’m not exactly sure how you have configured your FTP user, however, that is how you would provide the path. There shouldn’t be any special permissions to use. However, 755 is generally the permissions set for directories within your hosting account.
If you continue to have difficulty you can always reach out to our Live Support, to assist you further.
When trying to set up FTP account it only keeps saying “creating account”…i never get the “Account Created” message.
Larry, does the page continue to load? How long do you wait on the page with the “creating account” text? Have you contacted your website host regarding this issue?
If you delete the account and files, does it put the files in trash or any temp store?
FTP accounts are deleted permanently. There is no temporary location or trash.
Hello Support
I’m new in the web development world so bear with me 🙂
I followed the directions provided to set up FTP account access for my web guy. My issue is I don’t know what info I’m supposed to give him? Please clarify how a 3rd party such as my web guy gains access to my site, and what info do they need to use for access. I figure they’ll need the password I set up, but what else?
Thank you in advance for clarifying this process.
Blessings,
Sean
Sean, your developer will need the FTP user name, password, and the host. Most often the host can be your domain name, or server hostname with us.
I’ve been able to create the accounts I need; but I do have one issue. For one particular account rather than creating a folder I want to have them default to an existing folder. It lets me specify the folder in the “Directory” under the “Add FTP Account”; however, logging into that account doesn’t show the existing subfolders/files. What am I doing wrong?
Hello Chuck,
When you create an FTP account, you have the option called DIRECTORY that lists the default path seen by the user when they login. If you want to give that user different access, you would need to change that path. However, it is limited to the home directory of the user. Also, please be cautious with providing this access. Basically, if you give total access to all of the folders in FTP, that user can affect almost any installation on your server. I hope this helps to explain the issue. If you have any further questions or comments, please let us know.
Regards,
Arnel C.
I can’t delete an ftp account it says I don’t own it
If you are one of our customers, you will need to contact Live Support for assistance in this matter.
My developer wants me to send FTP details to make changes in web my files. Is setting up a FTP account in cPanel the way to do this? Will that give him what he needs?
Hello!
You can setup an FTP account, but you would need to make sure that the account can access the public_html folder – by default it is set up to access only the folder created for the FTP account. Otherwise, you can always give access to your cPanel user – it’s the master FTP account user.
If you have any further questions or comments, please let us know.
Regards,
Arnel C.
How can i change “ftp root” in hostinger? I need to transfer some php-files outside public_html.
You cannot change the ftp root in cPanel after an FTP account has been created. You can create a new account with the necessary access.
Thank you,
John-Paul
Trying to create FTP account and give access to public_html for our web guy. I believe I’ve followed the instructions correctly; but trying to access the account simply shows a folder with only .ftpquota in it.
Hello Chuck,
By default, cPanel automatically creates a subfolder based on the name you’re using for the FTP account. You would need to remove the name that is added in the path. The path for the DIRECTORY should indicate the public_html and nothing after that.
I hope that helps to answer your question! If you require further assistance, please let us know!
Regards,
Arnel C.
Hi,
we need to give acreate FTP account just to restrict someone to read our email via default webmail . How to set the restricction.
Thanks
FTP accounts cannot see email account folders unless they are set to the home directory. In that case, they can see every folder, on the account, including every single email account. So to do what you are asking, that cannot be done via FTP.
You should be EXTREMELY cautious with an account deletion!!!
If an ftp account “touches” the website directory, then if you delete account and files, the website will BREAK!!!!
How to restore a deleted FTP account in cPanel?
Hello raj,
Thank you for contacting us. You can just recreate the account as described above.
If you need files/folders restored, you can restore a backup if available.
Thank you,
John-Paul
In Cpanel i’m not getting file manager…
plzzz tell me the solution
Hello Prasad,
Every cPanel should have a File Manager tool within it. If it does not, and you are one of our customers, you will want to contact our Live Support team in order to have them take a look.
Kindest Regards,
Scott M
Thanks for an excellent instruction, I was able to give my classmates subdomain access within 5 minutes.
Cheers
Philip
Hi, I created an ftp account for s develoiper as above, but he has informed me he gets this message:
220———- Welcome to Pure-FTPd [privsep] [TLS] ———-
USER msga01
331 User msga01 OK. Password required
PASS **********
421 Home directory not available – aborting 220———-
It has something to with an ftp home directory – how do I overcome this?
Cheers,
Pete
Hello Pete,
Thank you for contacting us. When you create an FTP account, it is given permission to access a specific “Directory.”
Make sure the “Directory” still exists and has not been moved, or deleted. You can view the Directory in cPanel, by clicking FTP Accounts, then you will see it listed as the “Path.”
Next, have your developer check their “Home Directory” (or “Home”) setting. In most cases, you would leave this blank.
When you test the settings, are you getting the same error?
Thank you,
John-Paul