An FTP account is used for uploading and managing files on your website. It is automatically created in cPanel when you sign up for hosting, create a cPanel, create an addon domain or subdomain, or enable anonymous FTP. So, by default, you already have an FTP account in your cPanel. Use your cPanel username and password to log in to it.
Why create separate FTP accounts?
Say you have hired a developer or a designer to help you with your website. They need to have FTP access to your files but you do not want to give them your cPanel username or password, as this way they’ll get full access to your whole account, including emails, server information, statistics, etc. In this case, you can create a separate FTP account, which will have its own user and password and restrict their access only to your files, or even a specific folder within your files.
Creating FTP account in cPanel:
- Login to cPanel
- Under the Files section, select the FTP Accounts icon.
- In the Add FTP Account section, fill in the fields as needed.
- Check below the details description for each field:
- In the Log in field, type the name of the FTP user. A full FTP user name will always be formatted as user@yourdomain.tld.
- Choose the domain where you wish to create the FTP account by selecting it from the Domain dropdown menu. You cannot create an FTP account without your domain name in it, regardless of the publish destination.
- In the Password fields, enter a password that will be used to authenticate this FTP account. Use the Password Generator for created a unique password.
- Enter the same password as above to confirm the spelling.
- In the Directory field, cPanel will auto-populate an assumed directory based on the FTP username, but that is normally incorrect. So, we recommend providing the directory you would like the user to access.
- If you erase everything and type a single “/”, the user will have access to your home directory (anything outside of the public_html folder).
- Set a Quota for the FTP account. The quota is the maximum amount of bandwidth the FTP user may use. If you leave the quota as unlimited, the FTP user will have the ability to use the total amount of bandwidth for the cPanel account.
- Finally, click on Create FTP Account button. A notification of Account Created will be displayed.
Deleting an FTP Account:
- Login to cPanel
- Under the Files section, select the FTP Accounts icon.
- In FTP Account List, Find the FTP account you want to remove and click the Delete button to the right.
- You will get two options on this, choose if you want to Delete Account or Delete the User’s Home Directory. 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.
- All done, you FTP Account has been deleted.
Special FTP Accounts:
At the bottom of the FTP Account page, there is a section for Special FTP Accounts. These users are created automatically, correspond to your cPanel username, and cannot be modified or removed.
- The first account that has the log in as your cPanel username has FTP and if SSH is enabled, SFTP access to your entire cPanel account.
- The second account that ends in “logs” goes directly to where log files are stored for your cPanel account.