Per-User Folders

Per-user folders for FTP control what a user sees as the root of your site and where they start after login through FTP.

This matters when users connect with an FTP client or script and you want a clean, restricted directory tree. Some legacy FTP clients cannot easily switch directories, so when users log in with those clients, their session needs to start in the appropriate folder.

The settings for a user's client root folder and default home folder only change how their FTP sessions interact with the site. To restrict how a user sees your site's folders across all connection types, configure their File System Layout settings instead.

What Per-User Folders Control

How a user's FTP session interacts with your site's folder structure is controlled by 2 optional settings on each user: FTP/SFTP client root folder and FTP/SFTP client default home folder. These settings affect how folders are displayed when a user connects with FTP.

Both settings exist on each user record to support different requirements for each FTP connection.

Client Root Folder Setting

The FTP/SFTP client root folder defines a virtual root folder for the user, which they see as the top of the folder tree during an FTP session. Use this setting when you want to prevent the user from navigating to parent folders above a particular folder during FTP.

Client Default Home Folder Setting

The FTP/SFTP client default home folder setting chooses the folder the FTP session "starts" in for that user. Use this setting when FTP users always interact with a specific subfolder of their root folder, so that the FTP client does not need to navigate to that subfolder.

Per-User Folder Settings Have Limited Effect

These FTP folder settings do not change what users see when they connect through the web interface or any of the Files.com client applications. Users with a FTP/SFTP client root folder will still see all the folders granted by their folder permissions when they connect outside of FTP.

Setting FTP/SFTP client root folder or FTP/SFTP client default home folder does not change a user's permissions, and does not grant them access to any new folders.