> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.noxity.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# File Manager

> Browse, upload, edit, and organize the files in your cPanel account from a web interface. No FTP client needed.

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**.

<Frame caption="The File Manager interface">
  <img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/noxity/images/cpanel/file-management/file-manager/interface-light.png" alt="File Manager showing toolbar, directory tree on the left, and file listing on the right" className="block dark:hidden" />

  <img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/noxity/images/cpanel/file-management/file-manager/interface-dark.png" alt="File Manager showing toolbar, directory tree on the left, and file listing on the right" className="hidden dark:block" />
</Frame>

## What's on the page

The interface has three regions:

* **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)
* **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

## What you can do

| Action                     | Where to click                                                                           |
| -------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Upload files               | **Upload** in the top toolbar. Drag and drop is supported                                |
| Create a file or folder    | **+ File** or **+ Folder** in the top toolbar                                            |
| Edit a file in the browser | Select a file, click **Edit** (plain text) or **HTML Editor**                            |
| Compress folders           | Select files or folders, click **Compress**, pick zip or tar.gz                          |
| Extract an archive         | Right-click an archive, or select it and click **Extract**                               |
| Change permissions         | Select a file, click **Permissions**, set the numeric mode                               |
| Rename or move             | **Rename** or **Move** with the file selected                                            |
| Delete or restore          | Files go to `.trash` first. **View Trash** to recover, **Empty Trash** to free the space |

## Tips

* **Hidden files.** cPanel hides dotfiles by default. Click **Settings** in the top right and tick **Show Hidden Files** to see `.htaccess`, `.env`, and similar.
* **Trash recovery.** Deletes go to `.trash` first, not straight to oblivion. Recoverable via **View Trash** until you empty it. The trash counts toward your disk quota, so 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 files over a few hundred MB, the browser uploader can stall. Use [Web Disk](/web-hosting/cpanel/file-management/web-disk) to mount your account as a network drive and copy files natively from Finder or File Explorer.

## Need a hand?

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Open a ticket" icon="life-ring" href="https://members.noxity.io/submitticket.php">
    Best for anything that needs an account check or a config change on our end.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Live chat" icon="messages" href="https://noxity.io/contact">
    Faster for quick questions during business hours.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>