Choose the Go menu, then Connect to Server.Choose whether to allow access to all users or only users you choose.Įnabling remote login allows SFTP access to your Mac using the username and password of an account you have allowed access to.Click on the Apple menu and choose System Preferences.The simplest way to use FTP on your Mac is to use Finder to connect to a remote server and Sharing to set your Mac up as an FTP server. That could be SFTP or FTPS, as long as it encrypts files as they are transferred. However, you should use a secure version wherever possible. The introduction of SFTP (secure file transfer protocol) and FTPS (FTP over SSL) have improved security by using encryption. Many FTP servers have been compromised using ‘man in the middle' attacks, where data is stolen while being transferred to and from an FTP server. While most FTP servers require you to log in using a username and password, these aren’t encrypted. While you can connect to an FTP server in Finder (see below), you'll need to use a third-party client if you want to make the most of FTP. So, depending on the FTP client you use, you could open a file on the remote server, work on it on your Mac and then save it without ever having to transfer it to your Mac. Benefits of FTPįTP is particularly useful for transferring large files because some content management systems place limits on the maximum size of files that can be uploaded.Īnother benefit of FTP is that once you have connected to a server from your Mac, it is treated as a local disk. FTP is particularly useful for transferring large files because some content management systems place limits on the maximum size of files that can be uploaded. For example, if you run a website and have a hosting account, you can use FTP to copy files from your Mac to the web server that hosts your website. Where HTTP allows you to connect to websites and move between them using hyperlinks, FTP allows you to quickly and easily move or copy files to and from a remote server or between two remote servers. The easiest way to understand it is that it sits alongside other internet protocols like HTTP. What is FTP?įTP stands for file transfer protocol. In this article, we’ll take a look at what FTP is and how you can use it on your Mac. However, it’s really quite simple, and even these days, when many people use much friendlier tools like content management systems to run websites, FTP can still prove useful. But for those who aren’t, it can seem like an arcane and difficult to understand system. But to help you do it all by yourself, we’ve gathered our best ideas and solutions below.įeatures described in this article refer to the MacPaw site version of CleanMyMac X.Īnyone who ran their own website in the 90s or early 2000s is probably familiar with FTP. So here's a tip for you: Download CleanMyMac to quickly solve some of the issues mentioned in this article.

Mac ftp server software