How to Add FTP File Manager in WordPress

If you are a WordPress user, chances are very high that you have already heard of or even used FTP. FTP is a very convenient way to manage your WordPress, theme, plugin or other website related files. While FTP clients are the most common ways to use FTP in WordPress, there are others. In this article, we will talk about one of these ways and this way you can add an FTP file manager to WordPress. We will also discuss some of the benefits of doing this to help you decide if this is the right option for you.

Why should you add an FTP File Manager to WordPress?

First of all, if you’re not familiar with the term, let’s explain what FTP is. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is a network protocol for transferring files and folders between a host and a client. It usually requires authentication in the form of a username and password, but in some cases you can also connect to your main server anonymously. For added security you can choose to use FTPs (FTP Secure) or SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) protocols instead. While these protocols are more secure, FTP is still used and has remained the generic term to this day.

That said, there are three main ways to use FTP in WordPress: using FTP clients, using the File Manager option in cPanel, or using a file manager WordPress plugin, which is the subject of this article. WordPress plugins for file management work similarly to the other two FTP options. Among other things, it allows you to edit, preview, upload, download or delete files and folders on your server. And they can be invaluable if you don’t have access to cPanel or an FTP client, haven’t set up your FTP credentials, or don’t know how to use an FTP client yet.

However, to use a WordPress file manager plugin, you need to log in to your WordPress admin dashboard. This is both a plus and a disadvantage. That is, you can login to the website and manage files and folders on your server, thanks to the user-friendly interface of the file manager plugin. However, if for some reason you are unable to login to your WordPress admin dashboard, you cannot use the FTP file manager plugin. In this case, you must use one of the other two possible methods to manage your website files.

How to add an FTP File Manager in WordPress

After explaining the pros and cons of FTP file manager plugins, let’s see how you can add and use them. There are several FTP-related plugins, but we’ll probably cover the most popular—File Manager (Also called WP File Manager).

Before we begin, we should note that this article is designed for WordPress.com users. list of unsupported plugins, contains plugins for modifying files and folders. Besides, SFTP access on WordPress.com reserved for Business and eCommerce pricing plans only. If you are using one of these plans, you must use an SFTP client. Having said that, let’s move on.

File Manager is a free WordPress plugin that also has a premium version. The free version of the plugin provides all important features only to users with admin user role. An administrator can create, move, copy, rename, edit, delete, archive and extract files and folders. There is no upload file size limit and files can be edited using a built-in code editor that comes with the syntax checker. You can preview the most common file types, use the search function to easily find the file you need, and get information about the file.

The premium version gives all users the functions described earlier. However, the administrator controls the upload size and which files can be uploaded. Also, the administrator can lock or hide certain files or folders for selected non-administrator user roles. The admin will also get notifications when a file is downloaded or edited, will have 24/7 premium support and have the ability to use the plugin with a shortcode from the frontend. Additionally, you can integrate the plugin with some of the most used services like Google Drive, Dropbox, AWS S3 or Git using some premium plugins.

Now that you have an overall impression of this useful plugin, let’s move on to explaining how you can use it. After installing the plugin, go to WP File Manager section in your admin control panel. Clicking on it will open the first subsection with the same name. Here you will be able to see all the files and folders of your WordPress installation. We will explain some aspects of using this plugin below.

On the left you will see the folder structure of your website. Simply click the folder to open it and view the subfolders it contains. You can continue to the desired subfolder from the folder structure by repeating the process. In addition, on the right you can see all the files and subfolders located in the currently open folder.

You will also see a toolbar above the main section with options available in most FTP clients. Using these options, you can preview, edit, delete, download or upload files and folders, among other things.

Another way to perform the same actions is to right-click on the folders or files you have selected and get a list of available options.

For example, if you want to edit a file, you can use two different methods. Either do this by clicking on the file and then clicking on it. edit file option from the toolbar. Or you can right click on the file after selecting it and click on it. Code Editor choice. Make sure to hit the Save button after you’ve finished editing. On the other hand, If you don’t want to make any changes to the file, you can preview it using the file. Preview choice.

You can also upload multiple files: placing yourself in the appropriate folder, right-clicking in itand electing Upload files choice. Then a file dialog will open where you can select or drag and drop the files you want to upload to the server folder you are in.

That concludes our article on how to add and use an FTP file manager plugin in WordPress. There are many more options in the File Manager plugin that we have not covered and that we invite you to explore. You can review the options on your own or review the add-on’s documentation first. Whatever you decide to do, we are sure you will find that managing files and folders using this plugin is quite simple.

final thoughts

Managing website files and folders via FTP is a common task for every website administrator. While FTP clients or cPanel are fairly common to use, you should also consider using a file manager plugin for ease of access. In this article, we explained how simple it is to use such a plugin. This ease of use makes plugins an excellent way to get started with a WordPress FTP file manager.