Uploading files with File Manager

Get files onto your website without FTP software — plus the one folder you need to know about.

Category: cPanel BasicsDifficulty: EasyTime: ~5 minutesUpdated: Aug 2026

File Manager is a file browser for your hosting account, built into cPanel. For occasional uploads it is quicker than setting up FTP software.

The one thing to know

public_html is your website. Anything inside it is publicly visible on the internet.
Files outside public_html are not reachable by visitors — useful for storage, useless for a web page.
Your homepage is public_html/index.html or index.php.

Uploading

Open File Manager

In cPanel, click File Manager under Files. It opens showing your home directory.

cPanel › Files

📁File Manager

💾Backup

🔑FTP Accounts

📊Disk Usage

File Manager sits at the top of the Files section

Navigate to public_html

Double-click public_html in the left sidebar or file list. If your site should appear at yourdomain.com.au/somefolder, create or open that folder inside public_html.

Click Upload

The Upload button opens a new tab. Drag files onto it or click Select File. Multiple files can be dragged at once, and you will see a progress bar for each.

File Manager › Upload

Drop files here or click Select File

Overwrite existing files Unticked by default

Untick overwrite unless you intend to replace files

Go back and refresh

Close the upload tab, return to File Manager and click Reload. Your files should be listed. Visit the URL to confirm.

Uploading a whole website

Uploading hundreds of files individually is painful. Instead:

Zip the entire site on your computer
Upload the single .zip into public_html
Select it, click Extract in the toolbar
Delete the .zip afterwards

Watch for double folders. Zipping a folder called "mysite" often extracts to public_html/mysite/ rather than into public_html itself. If your site loads at yourdomain.com.au/mysite instead of the root, move the contents up one level.

Other things worth knowing

Editing files directly

Select a file and click Edit to change it in the browser. Handy for a quick text change — but take a copy first, because there is no undo.

Showing hidden files

Files beginning with a dot (like .htaccess) are hidden by default. Turn them on via Settings in the top right and tick Show Hidden Files.

Permissions

If something will not load, permissions may be wrong. Files are usually 644 and folders 755. Change them with Permissions in the toolbar — but if you are unsure, ask us rather than experimenting, since wrong permissions can expose files or break the site.

When to use FTP instead

For large sites or frequent updates, proper FTP software (FileZilla and similar) is faster and resumes interrupted transfers. Create credentials in cPanel under FTP Accounts.

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