File Manager

File Manager is cPanel’s built-in file browser. It opens at your home directory (/home/<username>) and lets you do everything you’d normally do over FTP, without installing anything. Open it from cPanel home → Files → File Manager.

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What’s on the page

• Top toolbar with the actions you take on selected files: + File, + Folder, Copy, Move, Upload, Download, Delete, Restore, Rename, Edit, HTML Editor, Permissions, View, Extract, Compress
• Navigation row just below it: Home, Up One Level, Back, Forward, Reload, Select All, Unselect All, View Trash, Empty Trash
• Search in the top right, scoped to all your files, only public_html, or the current directory
• Left sidebar with the directory tree of your account
• Right pane with the contents of the current folder, showing Name, Size, Last Modified, Type, and Permissions

Right-click a file for the same actions in a context menu, plus Password Protect, Leech Protect, and Manage Indices.

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What you can do

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Tips

• Hidden files. cPanel hides dotfiles by default. Click Settings in the top right and tick Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) to see .htaccess, .env, and similar.
• Trash recovery. Deletes go to .trash first, not straight to oblivion. That’s a folder in your home directory, so the files keep taking up your disk space until you clear it. Recover them from View Trash. Empty it once you’re sure.
• Editing config files. For a single .htaccess or .env line change, File Manager is faster than SSH or FTP.
• Large uploads. For a big transfer or a lot of files at once, Web Disk mounts your account as a network drive so you can copy files natively from Finder or File Explorer.

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Need a hand?