What is File Manager?
File Manager allows you to manage the files that exist on your hosting space, as well as any other files in your cPanel account. While we still recommend using an FTP client for large up/downloads, this tool is great for minor edits. The main features of File Manager are:
- Create new directories or files
- Uploading files from your computer
- Move or delete files
- Restore files
- Change file permissions
How do I access and use File Manager?
Step 1: Go to: https://manage.christianwebhost.com/ or click the "Login" button located at the top right of our website. Unless you change them, your login details are the email address and password used when the account was created.
Step 2: Once logged in, click the Services block and choose your cPanel service to access its management page.
Step 3: From the Actions menu on the left, click Login to cPanel (you do not need your cPanel credentials for this method).
Step 4: Navigate to the Files section and click File Manager.
Step 5: Once you are logged into the file manager, the top menu bar hosts several powerful tools:
- +File: Use this to create a new file.
- +Folder: Use this to create a new folder.
- Restore: Use this option while in the Trash folder to restore the file to its original location.
- Rename: Use this to rename the file.
- Edit: This will open a basic text editor that can be used to edit text-based files (e.g., .txt, .html, .php, etc.).
- HTML Editor: This opens an HTML editor that allows you to edit HTML files. It is a more advanced editor than the Edit button, but it only supports .html-compatible files. While you can create an entire website with this tool, it is not the most effective method for building websites.
- Permissions: You can set your file permissions using this tool. Unless you have experience with file permissions, it is best to leave this alone.
- View:
- Extract/Compress: Use these buttons to either extract an archive file (.tar, .zip, .7z, etc) or create a new archive using the selected files. This can be used to create backups of your site files.
Step 6: In addition to the top menu bar, you should see the Folder structure on the left and the file list on the right.
Step 7: Find the correct folder (if you are looking for the website files, you can find them in the public_html folder).
- You can click the + icon to the left of a folder to view its subfolders. You can then click the – icon to hide them again.
Step 8: Once you click a folder on the left, you will then see the files in that folder on the right. You can right-click any file to bring up an additional menu. These are mostly the same options that you will find in the top menu bar.
- Selecting Files:
- You can select files by single-clicking them, just as you would in any file manager.
- You can also click a file and then shift-click another file to select all the files between two clicks. Or you can hold down the Control key and select files individually.
- Once you select several files, you can then decide what to do with them. You can right-click for options, or you can drag and drop them into a folder on the left.
- Uploading Files: Once you navigate to the folder, you can upload files by clicking the Upload button on the top menu bar. This will open a new window or tab with the file upload tool, where you can drag and drop folders or files from your computer into the target area to upload them. Or, if you prefer, you can click Select File to open your computer’s file manager and choose what files to upload. The bars will turn green when the file has been successfully uploaded. Once you have uploaded your files, click the Go back link at the bottom to close this window or tab.
- Downloading Files: You can download your files by either selecting them and clicking the Download button in the top menu bar or by right-clicking a file and selecting Download from the menu. Either method will open your browser’s download dialogue.
- Copying Files: To copy files, simply select the files and then click the button in the top menu bar, or right-click the file and choose Copy from the menu. You will then need to enter the new folder. You will not be able to create a file with the same name as an existing file in the same folder.
- Moving Files: Moving files is just as simple using the cPanel file manager as it is with your computer’s file manager. You can drag and drop files or folders from the right window into folders on either the left or right. You can also move files by either right-clicking the file and selecting Move (or clicking Move in the upper menu bar). You can now pick the folder to which you want to move this file.
- Deleting Files:
- You can delete files by right-clicking the file and selecting Delete from the menu, or by selecting the file and clicking the Delete button in the top menu bar.
- Once deleted, the files will be moved to the Trash folder, unless they are too large. If you try to delete a file that is too large, you will be given the option to cancel or delete it permanently.
- If you deleted a file in error, you can recover it by clicking the View Trash button in the top menu bar.
- You can permanently delete your deleted files by clicking Empty Trash in the top menu bar.
Step 9: If you click the Settings button in the upper right, you can choose which folder is opened when the file manager starts. You can choose between the Home Directory, the web root (where the site files are stored), the public FTP folder, or the document root for any of your addon domains. There is also an option to show all hidden files and to disable the Character Encoding Verification Dialogs.