WordPress is such a powerful Website Creation platform that powers more than 42% of the Web today. It is a one-stop solution for bloggers, small business owners, eCommerce stores, and even some of the Fortune 500 Companies.
At times, you would want to upload files from your computer to your WordPress hosting accounts. A seamless approach to achieve this is using the FTP WordPress Integration. Using the FTP(File Transfer Protocol) Client application you can simply connect to your website and transfer files via the FTP WordPress Integration. There are various free FTP Clients available such as WinSCP for Windows, Cyberduck for Mac, and FileZilla that support both Mac and Windows.
In this article, you will learn how to set up the FTP WordPress Integration and effectively transfer files from your workstation to your WordPress Website using FileZilla.
What is WordPress?
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WordPress is a Free, Open-Source Content Management System(CMS) i.e. a brilliant Website Creation Platform. Owing to its versatility, it can handle blogging, eCommerce business, and portfolio websites. From a technical perspective, WordPress is written on PHP that uses a MySQL database and is licensed under GPLv2, allowing you to use or modify the website for free.
WordPress eliminates the need for technical programming language expertise to design and build your website. With just a few clicks, you can change the whole layout and feel of your website by choosing from a vast collection of WordPress Themes. You can select from a sea of plugins( for example WooCommerce plugin for setting up an E-Commerce Store) available in WordPress and increase your Website functionalities manifold. For any support, the WordPress Community can help you solve your queries and assist you in progressing with your ideas.
What is FTP?
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File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a method of transferring information between a server and a client. Acting as File Management Tool for the internet, using FTP you can easily transfer files from your computer to your Web Hosting Account. If your host supports SFTP(Secure File Transfer Protocol), you can use it to transfer files and passwords over a secured network.
To get started, you need to install an FTP Client software package to get files onto your site, and once there, change them. One of the recommended FTP clients by WordPress is FileZilla. This FTP Client is freely available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and allows you to manage your WordPress site by uploading and downloading files and images.
Why do you need FTP WordPress Integration?
To upload files onto your website, you can also use the File Manager provided in your host’s control panel such as cPanel, DirectAdmin, Plesk. Then, an obvious question arises that why do you need the FTP WordPress Integration for uploading files to your WordPress Website? FTP WordPress connection can be particularly useful in the following situations:
- For cases when you are locked out of WP-admin Dashboard due to some error, you can try to access your files via FTP and fix the bug.
- You can save time as FTP allows you to upload media files in bulk rather than one at a time.
- FTP applications allow editing important files such as the .htaccess or wp-config file for implementing customizations and extra security measures.
- At times in-dashboard uploads for large themes and plugins time out, you can manually upload new themes or plugins using FTP. It also allows you to Deactivate plugins and themes if they are causing problems on your website.
- You can also identify and troubleshoot common errors such as internal server errors, compatibility issues, etc.
How to set up the FTP WordPress Integration?
To start your FTP WordPress Integration, you need to download and Install the FileZilla FTP Client. To completely understand the FTP WordPress Integration, let’s go through the following substeps:
A) Setting up the FTP WordPress Connection
To connect and transfer your files securely, you will need the following FTP account details:
- Website FTP address (for example ftp://sample.com if your URL is http://sample.com)
- FTP Account Username
- FTP Account Password
All of these details are sent to you via email when you created your WordPress Hosting account. However, you always view your FTP accounts information in your hosting account’s cPanel dashboard or you can set up a new account also. You can also contact your hosting provider to assist you with the FTP Account details.
After you have downloaded and installed FileZilla, follow the simple steps given below to set up the FTP WordPress connection:
- Step 1: From the FileZilla Main Window, navigate to File>Site Manager.
- Step 2: A Site Manager Window will pop up on your screen. Click on the New Site button and name your Website.
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- Step 3: Now, you can enter the FTP Account details you found earlier such as the Website FTP address, FTP account username, and password. In the Protocol field, you can select SFTP if your Hosting provider supports it else choose FTP.
- Step 4: You can leave the PORT field blank. A default value of 21 is assigned to it automatically. Only change this if your FTP Account details mention the modifications explicitly.
- Step 5: In the Logon Type field, select Normal from the drop-down menu.
- Step 6: After you have all the details, click on the Connect Button. These settings will be saved for future connections in FileZilla.
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- Step 7: If you are connecting to your Website for the first time from your computer, then a Certificate will pop up. Click on the ‘Always trust certificate for future sessions’ box to prevent this window from appearing in the future connections and click on the OK button to continue.
FileZilla will now attempt to establish the FTP WordPress connection. On the Successful FTP WordPress Integration, two columns will be displayed containing files and folders. The left column contains the files from your computer whereas the right one has files on your Website.
Note: For future connections, you connect quickly by selecting the down arrow of the most left icon “Open the Site Manager” in the Toolbar of FileZilla main window, and choose your FTP server from the drop-down list. You can also navigate to File > Site Manager, select your FTP server, and click on the Connect button.
B) Uploading Files to WordPress
To send a file from your computer to your Website server, navigate to the folder in the left column that contains the file you want to upload. Similarly, navigate to the folder in the right column where you want to store your files.
Right-click on the file you want to transfer and click on the Upload option, thereby starting the transfer process.
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You can also transfer plugins and themes via FTP WordPress Integration. Once the plugin has been transferred, go to the Plugins page in your WordPress Admin area and activate the plugin.
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C) Downloading Files from WordPress
Similar to the Uploading FTP WordPress process, navigate to the desired folder in your computer as well as in your website server in the left and right columns respectively. In the right column, right-click on the file you wish to download and click on the Download option to start the download process. You can also bulk download and upload files by selecting all the desired files together.
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Conclusion
In this article, you have learned how to set up the FTP WordPress Integration for your WordPress Website. Using the FTP Account credentials you get when you sign up for the Website Hosting Account, you can easily initialize the FTP WordPress Connection via the FileZilla FTP Client.
Using this you easily upload files, themes, images, plugins, etc to your Website Server from your computer. FTP is extremely helpful in fixing errors, deactivating plugins, and much more when you are locked out of your WordPress Dashboard. The bulk files transfer feature is another advantage of using the FTP WordPress Integration.
Share with us your experience of setting up the FTP WordPress Integration. Let us know in the comments section below!
Sanchit Agarwal is an Engineer turned Data Analyst with a passion for data, software architecture and AI. He leverages his diverse technical background and 2+ years of experience to write content. He has penned over 200 articles on data integration and infrastructures, driven by a desire to empower data practitioners with practical solutions for their everyday challenges.
