Resolve FTP EAI_NODATA error

In this article I’m going to review why you might be encountering an EAI_NODATA – No address associated with nodename error in your FTP client. Sometimes an EAI_NODATA error is also related to either a EHOSTUNREACH error, or an ECONNABORTED error as well.

These are common FTP errors that occur when your domain name is not registered and pointing to a web server. Also sometimes if you just recently changed where your domain name is hosted at, your FTP client can cache private data settings from the old connection. This could prevent you from connecting to the correct server.

When DNS changes are made to your domain name, this changes the physical server your domain’s website files are hosted on. These changes can take up to 24 hours to fully propagate, and especially after updating your domain’s name servers you might get the EAI_NODATA error within your FTP program

Fixing EAI_NODATA error

The steps below should be able to resolve the EAI_NODATA – No address associated with nodename error from happening. There are two methods in which you can utilize to try to prevent this error from happening to you.

1. The easiest method would simply be to find your server name in cPanel, then in the hostname field of your FTP client, use that server name.

   This would ensure that your FTP client is directly connecting to our web server that hosts your website, and it wouldn’t have to rely on any recent changes to your domain name’s DNS setting.

   If your server was biz104 for instance, you would want to use the hostname biz104.inmotionhosting.com to be able to connect.

2. To try to resolve the EAI_NODATA error and keep using your domain name, you’d want to clear out the private data associated with that connection in your FTP client.

   In this example we’re going to be using FileZilla.

   • In FileZilla’s menu click on Edit then select Clear private data…
   • Ensure that Clear quickconnect history and Clear reconnect information and selected then click on OK.
   • If you get a Reconnect information cannot be cleared while connected to a server. pop-up, go ahead and click on OK to re-connect your FTP session to try again.

Hopefully this fixes any common FTP errors like EAI_NODATA, EHOSTUNREACH, or ECONNABORTED. If for some reason you’re still having issues you should still be able to upload a file using File Manager in cPanel as well.