How to Use Hostinger File Manager

Introduction

File Manager is a tool available at most hosting platforms. It allows managing your site’s content through HTTP, rather than FTP clients, SSH, or 3rd party applications. Uploading, editing, creating, deleting files and directories, changing file permissions, extracting archives are some of the few things that you’ll be able to do using Hostinger’s File Manager. While the functionality and limitations are not as flexible as many FTP tools, File Manager will give all the core functions for efficient website management.

What you’ll need

Before you begin this guide you’ll need the following:

• Access to Hostinger control panel

Step 1 — Finding the File Manager

File Manager is located under the Files category in the hosting control panel. Simply click it, and the tool will open in a new browser tab.

By default, it will open the public_html directory and you will be presented with a similar view:

Step 2 — Navigating and using the File Manager

To better understand how Hostinger’s File Manager works, we will split it into 4 sections and analyze each one in more detail.

Navigation menu

The navigation menu is at the left-side of the screen. It allows you to see your current location and quickly jump through different directories within your account. In addition, the highlighted folder shows your current working directory. In this case, it is public_html.

File manager bar buttons

At the top-right corner, you will see a variety of bar buttons.

Let’s quickly overview what functions they provide:

1. New File allows you to create a file in the directory you’re browsing at the moment.
2. New Folder lets you create a new directory.
3. Click on Search button if you’d like to find particular file or folder. 
4. Click on Upload Files. You will get a pop-up window which will let you select what should be uploaded to your storage. 
5. If you want to refresh the directory you’re looking at – click on Reload File List. 
6. Icons and List change the way you see the files.

    

7. Click on the Language icon to translate File Manager to your local language. 
8. Click Log Out when you’re finished. 

File management area

The file management area presents a list of files and folders within your working directory. It will also display the size, creation date, and permissions.

Context menu

The context or right mouse click menu will open up for the file or directory when the right mouse button is clicked on it.

Let’s see what each of these functions does:

1. Download – simply downloads the selected file.
2. Rename – lets you choose the new file name.
3. Move – lets you transfer selected file or folder to another directory. Click on Change to select your Destination directory:Find the desired folder and click on Select This on the right side to choose it. Clicking on Select This at the left bottom will select the current directory as a destination: After this step, you will see where the file will appear when moved: 
4. If you want to duplicate your file to the same or another location – click on Copy. You will be asked to provide a copied file name as well as the destination directory:
5. You can Edit file inside the File Manager. Only text files are editable so you won’t see this option in a context menu for videos, pictures, etc. 
6. Click on this option if you wish to change your file’s Permissions. Simply check the boxes you need and click on Change: 
7. Delete will erase the selected file: Be careful as the file cannot be recovered after this step.

Conclusion

In this short tutorial, we have learned the functions and features of Hostinger’s File Manager. It is a convenient and efficient tool that can find a place in every website enthusiast’s heart.

If you have any tips or tricks that you wish to share, feel free to do so in the comments.