How to connect to your server over SFTP on Windows and macOS

The web file manager in the panel is fine for editing a config file. It is not fine for uploading a 400MB world or dragging in forty mod files. For that you want SFTP, which is a proper file transfer protocol with a proper client.

This covers Windows 10 and 11 and macOS, with the exact fields to fill in. It also covers the two mistakes that send people round in circles for an hour, both of which come from guides that are quietly wrong.

SFTP, not FTP

They are unrelated protocols despite the similar names. FTP sends your password and your files in the clear, so anyone between you and the server can read both. SFTP runs over SSH and encrypts everything.

Every server here speaks SFTP and none of them speak FTP. If a client is asking you to choose, choose SFTP. If a guide tells you to use plain FTP for a game server in 2026, stop reading it.

First, get your credentials

Everything below needs four values, and the panel shows you all of them.

Open your server in the panel and go to the Settings tab. There is an SFTP block with the connection address and your username. Copy them rather than typing them from memory, because the username is not just your account name: it has your server identifier appended to it, which is what tells the server which of your services you are connecting to.

• Host and port: shown in the panel. The port is not 22.
• Username: shown in the panel, in the form youraccount.serverid.
• Password: your panel password. There is no separate SFTP password to set or lose.

If you gave someone a sub-user account, they connect with their own credentials and get exactly the permissions you granted them. Do that rather than sharing your login, because your login can also change billing details.

Windows

The mistake to avoid first

Windows File Explorer cannot do SFTP. It has supported FTP for twenty years, which is why so many guides tell you to type an address into the Explorer address bar, and it will look like it should work. It will fail, or worse, it will connect over plain FTP to something else entirely.

There is no "map a network drive" route to SFTP in Windows without extra software. Ignore any guide that says otherwise.

WinSCP, the one to use

WinSCP is free, open source, Windows-only and the best option here. Download it from winscp.net and nowhere else.

On first launch you get a Login dialog. Fill in:

• File protocol: SFTP
• Host name: the address from the panel
• Port number: the port from the panel
• User name: youraccount.serverid
• Password: your panel password

Click Save before Login so you do not retype it every time. Leave "Save password" unchecked unless the machine is only yours.

The two-pane layout puts your PC on the left and the server on the right. Drag files across. For a world folder, drag the whole directory rather than its contents, and let it finish before touching the server.

Set Options -> Preferences -> Transfer -> Binary if you are moving anything other than text. WinSCP defaults to automatic and gets it right almost always, but a corrupted .jar from a text-mode transfer is a confusing hour you do not need.

FileZilla, if you already have it

Works fine, with one warning: download it from filezilla-project.org only. FileZilla is one of the most repackaged-with-adware programs on the internet, and the top search result is not always the real one.

Use File -> Site Manager -> New Site, then set Protocol to SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol. Do not use the Quickconnect bar with a bare hostname, because it defaults to FTP.

The command line, already installed

Windows 10 (version 1803 and later) and Windows 11 ship the OpenSSH client, so this works in PowerShell with nothing to install:

sftp -P 2022 youraccount.serverid@your-server-address

Note the capital -P for the port. The ssh command uses lowercase -p and sftp uses uppercase, which is a genuine inconsistency in the tools and catches everyone at least once.

Once connected:

ls                      list files on the server
cd plugins              change directory on the server
lcd C:\Users\you\Downloads    change directory on your PC
put myplugin.jar        upload one file
put -r myworld          upload a directory
get -r world            download a directory
bye                     disconnect

The l prefix means local. cd moves around the server, lcd moves around your own machine.

macOS

The mistake to avoid first

Finder cannot do SFTP either. Finder's "Connect to Server" dialog accepts smb://, afp://, ftp:// and a few others. It does not accept sftp://. Apple removed the last of its SFTP handling years ago, and typing an sftp:// address there produces an unhelpful error.

As on Windows, you need a client.

Cyberduck, the one to use

Cyberduck is free and native-feeling. Download it from cyberduck.io.

Click Open Connection, then in the dropdown at the top choose SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol). Then:

• Server: the address from the panel
• Port: the port from the panel
• Username: youraccount.serverid
• Password: your panel password

Use Bookmark -> New Bookmark to save it.

Cyberduck's single-pane view is a normal Finder-like window showing the server. Drag files in from a Finder window beside it.

FileZilla or Transmit

FileZilla works identically to the Windows instructions above, same download warning. Transmit is paid, Mac-only, and genuinely nicer if you do this often.

The command line, already installed

macOS ships OpenSSH. Open Terminal:

sftp -P 2022 youraccount.serverid@your-server-address

The same commands apply as in the Windows section above. On macOS, lcd ~/Downloads gets you to your downloads folder.

The host key prompt, and why you should read it

The first time you connect, every one of these clients will show something like:

The authenticity of host '...' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:...
Are you sure you want to continue connecting?

This is not a nuisance dialog. It is SSH telling you it has never seen this server before and cannot vouch for it. Clicking yes records the fingerprint, and from then on your client will warn loudly if it ever changes.

On a first connection, accepting it is normal and reasonable. What matters is the second time: if you are ever warned that the host key has changed and you did not expect it, stop. Either the server was rebuilt, or something is sitting between you and it. Ask before clicking through. On a fresh server rebuild the change is expected and you can clear the old entry; otherwise it deserves an email.

When it does not work

"Connection refused" usually means the port is wrong. SFTP here is not on port 22. Check the panel.

"Permission denied" or "Authentication failed" is almost always the username. It is youraccount.serverid, not just youraccount. Copy it from the panel's Settings tab rather than typing it.

It connects and then hangs listing files. Try switching the client to passive mode, or in WinSCP untick "Optimize connection buffer size" under Advanced. Rare, but it happens behind some routers.

Uploads succeed but the server ignores the files. You uploaded while the server was running and it overwrote them on shutdown, or you put them in the wrong directory. Stop the server first for anything that matters.

Everything is slow. SFTP is slow with many small files, because each one is a separate round trip. A modpack with 8,000 config files can take twenty minutes. Zip it locally, upload the single archive, then unzip it using the web file manager, which does it server-side in seconds.

Two practical habits

Stop the server before you upload a world. A running server holds the world in memory and writes it out periodically. Upload underneath it and your files will be overwritten by whatever the server thinks the world is. Stop, upload, start.

Pull a copy down occasionally. The world directory is the only thing on your server that cannot be regenerated. Server binaries, plugins and configs can all be downloaded again from their sources. There are backups on the platform with a deep retention, and those protect you against the platform failing. A copy on your own machine protects you against everything else, including a mistake you do not notice for a year.

Both take about a minute. Neither needs a ticket.