Manage a website's files in the browser

The file manager is a browser for one hosting’s web root. Use it for a quick edit or a single upload. For large or bulk transfers, use FTP or SFTP.

Before you start

• Reading files needs access to the site. Changing them needs manage access to the site and the File manager permission. A Read-only user sees the files and cannot change them.
• The file manager covers htdocs/ and nothing above it. The logs and tmp folders of the site are not reachable here. Read logs on the Monitoring & logs tab.

Steps

Open the file manager

1. Open Hostings in the sidebar and click the site.
2. Click Files in the top bar. The FTP & SFTP tab also has the link Edit files in the browser →.
3. Click a folder to enter it, and Up one level to go back. The Path line shows where you are, and each part of it is a link.

Folders are listed first, then files, with Size and Modified. Hidden files such as .htaccess, .user.ini and .env are shown. Untick Show hidden files to hide them while you work. The browser remembers that choice.

View or edit a file

1. Click a file’s name to view it. Text files up to 1 MiB open in the panel. Any other file is not a link: use the download arrow instead.
2. Click the pencil on the file’s row, then change the text.
3. Click Save changes. The page reports “Saved”.

Upload a file

1. Go to the target folder.
2. Choose the file and click Upload file. The limit is 64 MiB per file.

Before you upload over an existing file

A file with the same name is overwritten without a question. There is no copy of the old version in the file manager. To be able to undo it, confirm a backup first: open the site’s Backups tab and check that the newest archive has the state ok, or download the old file first. To undo, upload the old file again or restore the files from a backup.

Create, rename and download

• Enter a name in New folder name and click Create folder. A name cannot contain a slash.
• Click the row’s ⋯ and choose Rename…. A name cannot contain a slash, so rename does not move a file to another folder.
• Click the arrow on a file’s row to download it.

Delete a file or folder

Before you delete

The file or folder is removed from disk. A folder must be empty first. Confirm a backup: open the site’s Backups tab and check that the newest archive has the state ok. To get the file back, restore the files from that backup. Otherwise this cannot be undone.

1. Click the row’s ⋯ and choose Delete.
2. Type the file’s name in the dialog and click Delete permanently.

Check that it worked

The change shows in the list at once, and a green line at the top confirms it. Open the site’s address to see the effect. A file you created here is owned by the site’s system user:

ls -l /home/<system-user>/<domain>/htdocs

If it fails

• “Upload failed — file too large (max 100 MB) or malformed”: the upload did not reach the node whole. Keep files at 64 MiB or below, or use FTP or SFTP.
• “viewer role cannot modify files”: your role is Read-only.
• A symlink cannot be followed. The node refuses paths that leave htdocs/ and refuses symlinks. Use SFTP to look at what it points to.
• A file edited here is overwritten by the next deploy from GitHub on a site connected to a repository. Commit the change to the repository instead.