Why Can't We Download Files with File Manager?

[jcncnc]

I've seen this talked about since at least 2006 on these forums. There's a DOWNLOAD button in the File Manager - but it's always greyed out. Why is it there if it doesn't work? And why doesn't it work? What good is a web-based file manager if you can't upload AND DOWNLOAD files with it!?

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Sorry - I mean why can't we download Directories?

 

[JaredR.]

The download function should work. On a test server, I selected a file by clicking it, and the download button turned to color. I clicked it, and I was prompted by the browser for where I wanted to save the file. If you are a server administrator, you can submit a ticket using the link in my signature, and we will be happy to look at why it is not working on your server.

If you are a site owner with a cPanel account, you can ask your hosting provider to submit a ticket to us on your behalf, and we can look at the problem that way.

 

[Bob Weaver]

It works for files, but not directories.

In the File Manager, if you're in a directory with files in it, you can manually select one or more files, and the Download button works. If it is more than one file it will ask you, "You are about to download multiple items at once. Are you sure you want to do this?" and if you click "OK," then it downloads each file to your download folder. You see a parade of the download icons flying across your screen, one by one. You end up with all those files in your Downloads folder.

But if you click on a directory, the Download button is greyed out and won't work. What would be really nice is if it did work, and you could download an entire directory of files by clicking on it, and it would create that directory on your local disk and put the files into it. And if there were subfolders in it, with their own files, it would download the whole thing, keeping the subdirectory structure intact, and all the files in their proper subfolders. Much like an FTP program works.

I have thousands of small images of products in subfolders, and I was trying to use the Cyberduck FTP application to download the whole thing with one command, but I kept getting timeout errors. I don't know if it would be any better if File Manager could do the same download, but it would be really nice to have that as an option in File Manager.

 

[JaredR.]

You can submit a feature request for the ability to download a directory in the File Manager here:

cPanel Feature Requests

Something that you can do now is use the Compress function in File Manager to make an archive of the directory, then download the archive and extract it on your local system.

As a point of reference, FTP clients actually do not download a directory either. They make it look like that is what is happening, but what the client actually does in the background is download all of the contents of a directory, file by file, and create the directory on your local system and put the files it downloaded in that directory. The ability to download a directory is not part of the FTP protocol. Some FTP clients do offer that feature to the user, but what the client is really doing is automating the process of getting all of the files and creating the local directory for them.

My suggestions would be to use the Compress feature to make an archive of the directory, which will also compress its subdirectories, that you can download, and also to submit a feature request for a feature that would automate this process in the File Manager.