FTP is short for File Transfer Protocol which allow you to transfer files to the web server from your computer. It is very useful software for the bloggers which makes the uploading and transfers process quick and easy. In this tutorial you will learn how to use FTP to upload files to the WordPress Site.
What is FTP?
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a software that makes easy to upload plugins and themes manually to the website.
WordPress is easy and flexible CMS but something uploading files from the WordPress dashboard will failed and needs to increase the maximum file upload size limit to fix which can be frustrating. FTP allows you to upload the files manually to your website easily.
How to use FTP?
FTP is simple and easy to use, you need to configure your web server FTP login credential to access the files of your website. You can either get the FTP login credential from the control panel or need to contact your website hosting provider for the FTP login details.
To Find the FTP details you need to login to the cPanel and under files, click on FTP Accounts. Click on Configure FTP Client to expand. You will see login details below Manual Settings.
Once you get the login credentials, you need to download FTP client such as FileZilla, Cyberduck or CoreFTP which are popular software and makes things easy. In this tutorial, we have use FTP client FileZilla as an example.
After downloading FileZilla, install it into your computer and click on File menu then Site Manager.
You will see the dialog box in the screen where you have to click on New Site button then provide the title. It will add your website to access the files of you website.
Now, you need to enter your website FTP login credentials in the General tab fields. In the Host field type your website address and in the login type field choose Normal.
Provide the FTP username and password then click on Connect button.
You may see the message that says Untrusted Certificate. Select the box Always trust certificate in future sessions and click on OK button.
FileZilla will try to connect to your web server using your login credentials. Once connected you will see list of the files and folder in Remote Site section at the right side which is Server section and at the left side you will see Local site section which is PC section.
To upload the files and folder in your website you need to open public_html or www folder in Remote site section where your WordPress site is installed. This folder is also called root directory.
How to Uploads Files?
You can upload files from computer (local site) to the web server (Remote Site) by right clicking on the files then Upload. It will upload to the web server where you have specify the location.
Open root directory e.g. public_html at the remote site section and navigation the file location in Local site section which you want to upload. Right click on the file and click on upload. It will transfer the files to your website.
You will find WordPress core files and folder such as wp-contain in root directory. Inside wp-content folder you will find themes folder that contains all the installed themes in your website and plugins folder that contains all the plugins whereas upload folder contents your website media files such as images and videos.
You need to upload certain files and folder to specific folder location to work.
If you want to upload plugins in your WordPress then you need to go to /public_html/wp-content/plugins folder.
Likewise, paid themes needs to be upload using FTP. You can upload it by going to /wp-content/themes folder.
FTP is useful for keeping WordPress site backup manually. You need to backup WordPress core folder and a database. You can see this guide on how to backup WordPress site.
We hope this guide on how to use FTP to upload files to WordPress site is helpful. You may also like to see the 5 Best WordPress backup plugins. If you find this guide helpful, please share and follow us on facebook and twitter.
