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FTP Tutorial: MacOS

Our preferred solution for uploading and downloading files to and from Files.com on macOS is the Files.com Desktop App. It provides the fastest and most reliable transfers, handling both very large files and large volumes of files with ease. The Desktop app is optimized for speed with features like parallel transfers and automatic retries, while still offering a simple drag-and-drop interface that integrates seamlessly with macOS.

In a very small number of situations, it may not be possible to use the Desktop App or one of our other preferred apps for file transfer. In those cases, FTP can be used as an alternative method. The steps in this tutorial explain how to connect with FTP when no preferred app is an option.

FTP Tutorial

The program we will use to connect to Files.com will be Cyberduck. It’s free and easy to use for the purposes of this tutorial, though any FTP program will work just fine.

You can download the Cyberduck client for free from the App StoreExternal LinkThis link leads to an external website and will open in a new tab, or directly from their websiteExternal LinkThis link leads to an external website and will open in a new tab.

Once you’ve downloaded Cyberduck and open it for the first time, you will need to click Open Connection from the menu bar on the top left.

Normally you would choose Files.com from the drop down, but since this is a tutorial about FTP, you will instead be choosing FTP-SSL (Explicit AUTH TLS) from the drop down.

Because you selected FTP and not Files.com, you now have to manually configure a number of settings that would otherwise be automatic.

Enter the address of your Files.com site into the Server field and your username and password into their respective boxes.

You may want to select Add to Keychain to save your credentials to your Mac’s password manager. Next, hit Connect.

If you entered everything correctly you’ll see your Files.com site and its content. You can do most things from the Action menu, including uploading and downloading.

You can add files by dragging and dropping them directly into the Cyberduck window.

You can also download files by double-clicking on a file name or by dragging them out of the Cyberduck window.

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