{"id":59205,"date":"2020-08-31T19:16:56","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T23:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inmotionhosting.com\/support\/?p=59205"},"modified":"2026-04-23T17:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:50:19","slug":"transfer-website-with-ftp-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inmotionhosting.com\/support\/website\/website-transfers\/transfer-website-with-ftp-account\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping your Developer Transfer your Website with an FTP Account"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"title<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re helping your designer transferring a website to InMotion<\/a>, your developer may want to upload the files using the File Transfer Protocol<\/strong>, or FTP<\/strong>. Here are some useful things to know and do to help your developer out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Overview of FTP in the Site Transfer Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

FTP is simply a way to easily upload and download files from a server. By installing an FTP client<\/strong>, you or your developer can connect to your InMotion Hosting account and upload a copy of a site\u2019s files in the appropriate site directory<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out our In depth guide to getting started with FTP<\/a> for a closer look at the topic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While setting up an FTP client like FileZilla<\/a> will take a bit more time than logging in to cPanel, there are a number of benefits to providing your developer FTP access. Most importantly, using FTP allows you to limit a developer\u2019s access. When you create an FTP account<\/a>, you are free to provide access only to a single site folder instead of giving your developer access to every site on your cPanel. This is great for security, especially if you hire multiple developers to work only on specific sites!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When setting up an FTP connection in FileZilla, there are four key pieces of information you must provide: The hostname<\/strong>, the FTP account login<\/strong> and password<\/strong>, and port number<\/strong> (usually 21).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Tip when Creating a Developer Account<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When making an FTP account, cPanel\u2019s default behavior is to limit access to a directory within<\/strong> the associated domain, rather than the actual document root of the domain. If you were making an account called dev123@exampledomain.com<\/code> on the examp456<\/strong> cPanel, then cPanel would attempt to limit the account\u2019s access to \/home\/examp456\/exampledomain.com\/dev123<\/code>.
While this is a good security feature, it is counter-productive when you\u2019re trying to transfer a website! After entering the login of your choice for the appropriate domain, remember to remove the extraneous directory off the end In the above example, removing dev123<\/code> so that you\u2019re left with \/home\/examp456\/exampledomain.com\/<\/code> would give your developer access to the site directory in question!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"FTP
In many situations, the \u2018extra\u2019 directory on the FTP account\u2019s path will not be required.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Remember, if you\u2019re working on your account\u2019s primary domain, be sure to use the public_html<\/strong> directory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Comes Next?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If all goes well, your developer should be able to upload your website\u2019s files to your InMotion Hosting account and have everything up and running soon after. Depending on your specific website, you may need to take further steps to finish restoring the website.<\/a>. If your site uses WordPress, you may need to take further steps in cPanel to finish migrating your WordPress database<\/a>. If you have not already done so, now would be a good time to set up an SSL<\/a> and point your domain<\/a>.
Beyond a few finishing touches, though, your site should be good to go! Remember, when you\u2019re done with the transfer, you can always go back and delete the FTP account you created<\/a> if it is no longer needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get the full suite of cPanel tools with one of our cPanel Hosting plans<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re helping your designer transferring a website to InMotion, your developer may want to upload the files using the File Transfer Protocol, or FTP. Here are some useful things to know and do to help your developer out! An Overview of FTP in the Site Transfer Process FTP is simply a way to easily Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57014,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4625],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-website-transfers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTransfer your Website with FTP Access<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you're working with a developer or designer to transfer your website to InMotion Hosting, here are some tips for using FTP access to do so.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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