Guide CyberPanel File Manager and FTP: Upload Files, Fix Permissions, Create FTP Users

**JAY**

CyberPanel File Manager and FTP: Upload Files, Fix Permissions, Create FTP Users

Two ways to get files onto a CyberPanel website without SSH: the built-in File Manager in your browser, and FTP accounts for apps like FileZilla. We used both on our test site cyber.adminslab.com, and the FTP screen showed one confusing detail worth knowing before you hand a login to someone.

Watch it: Part 9 of the CyberPanel course, FTP, SSH & File Manager

This is Part 9 of 10 in our free CyberPanel Full Course. The written steps below go into more detail.

File Manager
Open your site in Websites, go to the Files tab and click File Manager. It opens in the site's home folder:
[Image: attachment.php?aid=561]

The current path is

Code:

/home/cyber.adminslab.com

. Your website lives in

Code:

public_html

;

Code:

logs

has the access/error logs and

Code:

backup

the backups you create in the panel. The other folders in our screenshot came later from our other guides:

Code:

blog

,

Code:

laravel

and

Code:

staging.cyber.adminslab.com

are child sites, and the dot-folders (

Code:

.cache

,

Code:

.config

,

Code:

.wp-cli

...) belong to tools like Composer and WP-CLI run as the site user. The toolbar covers everything you normally need:

Upload: for many files, upload one .zip and use Extract. It's much faster than hundreds of small uploads.
New File / New Folder / Rename / Move / Copy / Delete.
Edit: a text editor for
Code:
.htaccess
,
Code:
wp-config.php
and the like.
Compress: zip a folder to download it.
Fix Permissions: puts the site's file permissions back to CyberPanel's defaults. Use it after uploading files as root over SSH, or when WordPress says it can't write files.

Big uploads failing? The upload goes through PHP, so

Code:

upload_max_filesize

and

Code:

post_max_size

apply. See changing PHP settings in CyberPanel, or use FTP/SFTP for large files.

Create an FTP account
Open Databases & FTP > Create FTP Account and pick the website. Type a user name, click Generate for a password:
[Image: attachment.php?aid=550]

Leave Path empty to give access to the site's home folder, or type

Code:

public_html

(or a subfolder) to keep the user away from logs and backups. For a developer who only needs the website files,

Code:

public_html

is the safer choice. Click Use This Password and save it.

Which username do you log in with?
After clicking Create FTP Account, look closely at the message:
[Image: attachment.php?aid=477]

The success message said

Code:

cyber.adminslab.com_cyberftp

, while the form showed the prefix

Code:

admin_

. Which one is real?
Databases & FTP > List FTP Accounts shows the real login name and folder:
[Image: attachment.php?aid=478]

The account list and the FTP server's own user table both said

Code:

admin_cyberftp

:

Code:

mysql cyberpanel -e 'select User,Dir from users'

So the login is owner name + underscore + what you typed (our site belongs to the

Code:

admin

user). Trust List FTP Accounts, not the success message. Use Change Password there if a password is lost.

Connect with FileZilla

Host: your domain or
Code:
YOUR-SERVER-IP
, port 21.
Encryption: Require explicit FTP over TLS. Plain FTP sends the password unencrypted.
User: the full FTP username (
Code:
admin_cyberftp
in our case) and its password.
Transfer mode: passive (the default).

What we found on the server (

Code:

/etc/pure-ftpd/conf/

): Pure-FTPd listens on port 21,

Code:

TLS

is set to

Code:

1

(TLS allowed but not required), the passive ports are

Code:

40110-40210

and are open in the firewall, and every user is locked into their folder (

Code:

ChrootEveryone yes

).

To force encrypted FTP for everyone, set TLS to 2 and restart:

Code:

echo 2 > /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/TLS
systemctl restart pure-ftpd-mysql

FileZilla may warn about the certificate the first time; check it and accept.

Even better: SFTP
If you have SSH access, SFTP (port 22) needs no FTP account at all, is always encrypted and works in FileZilla too (protocol SFTP). Upload as the site user, or fix ownership afterwards:

Code:

chown -R cyber2602:cyber2602 /home/cyber.adminslab.com/public_html/*

(use your own site user;

Code:

ls -la /home/yourdomain.com/public_html

shows it).

Common problems

530 Login authentication failed: wrong username (missing the owner prefix) or password. Check List FTP Accounts and reset the password.
Connects, then the directory listing times out: passive ports
Code:
40110-40210
blocked by your provider's firewall or a network firewall. See the CyberPanel firewall guide.
Uploads work but the site shows 403 or WordPress can't update: wrong file owner. Use Fix Permissions in File Manager.
FTP doesn't connect at all: check the service:
Code:
systemctl is-active pure-ftpd-mysql
. See checking CyberPanel services.
No longer need the account: delete it. Unused FTP logins are an easy way in for attackers.

More CyberPanel guides

Tested on CyberPanel 3.0 (build 8, OpenLiteSpeed edition) on Ubuntu 24.04, October 2026. Menu names can change slightly between versions.

Guide CyberPanel File Manager and FTP: Upload Files, Fix Permissions, Create FTP Users

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