How Do I Move Files on My Server?

When working with your website files, it is necessary to move files from one location to another. There are many ways you can move files around on your server. You can use the cPanel File manager, an FTP program, Shell using SSH, or and HTML editor like DreamWeaver. This tutorial will explain how to move your files in cPanel and using FTP (FileZilla).

NOTE!! If you do not know where your files are located on the server, please see our article on What directory should I put my files in?.

Moving Files Using cPanel File Manager

You can use the File manager to move your files on your server. The File Manager is a way you can move your files without having a program installed on your local computer like FileZilla or CyberDuck. This allows you to move your files from any location that has internet access. The following will explain how to drag files to move them and how to use the “Move” button to move files to a specific directory path.

Dragging files in cPanel File Manager

1. Login into your cPanel. Go to the File Manager, select your directory and click Go.
2. Navigate to the directory that contains the files your want to move. In this case we are moving .png images to the “test” folder.Select the files and drag them into the directory you want to move them to on the left side.
   

   Now the files will show in the “test” folder.
   

Moving files to a specific directory with the move button

1. You can also use the “Move” button to move your files if you know the path to the file location.Select the files you want to move. Right click one of the files to show the options pop up.
   
   
   
2. Type the path to the folder you want to move the files to. In this case we are moving the files to the /test/images folder.Click “Move file(s)”.Now the files will show up in the “images” folder.
   

Moving Files Using FileZilla

There are many different FTP programs you can use to move your files around. Most FTP programs work the same way. For tutorial purposes, this section will focus on how to move your files from one folder to another using FileZilla.

1. Open your FileZilla FTP program.
2. Navigate to the folder where you want to move your files. In this case ware are moving a template from a subdirectory called “templatemo_353_beauty_class” to the “test” folder one directory above.The “Remote site” is where the files are on the server. The “Filename” box underneath the “Remote Site” box is where your files are for on the server.
   
3. You can drag files from one folder location to another. In the image below you will see how all the files in one directory are selected and dragged into another folder in the server.In this example, the files and folders in the “templatemo_353_beauty_class” folder are being dragged to the “test” folder.Drag the files you selected to the folder you want to move them to. The files will automatically move to that location.
   

   Now when you navigate to the folder you will see the files in that directory.
   
4. To move files from a folder to a subfolder, You can select the files and drag them into the folder within the “Filename” box under the “Remote site” box. See the image below. In this example we moved the images in the test folder to the images folder.
   

   Now the files will be found in the images subfolder.
   

To learn how to edit a file see our tutorial on How do I edit a file on my server?. Also, see our aticles on How to create a new file and How do I upload a file to my server?. To see other articles available on how to manage your files, please visit How to manage your files on your server?.