Plesk file sharing: basics and tutorial

If you’ve installed and configured the administration software on your server, then set up file sharing as follows:

1. Log in to your administrator account in the Plesk panel and open the settings menu, then select the “Tools & Settings” section. There, you’ll find the entry “File Sharing” under the list of general settings, which takes you to the configuration menu.

2. First, set the root folder for file sharing under “Web Folder root URL”. All subdirectories that you create for file sharing are now placed in this folder. If you want to further protect the transmission, you can also activate the generation of secure links to files and folders via SSL/TLS.

3. If Plesk users should have the opportunity to make uploaded files public, for example, so that all visitors to a website can access them, then in the next step you’ll enable the check box “Enable public files”. It’s also necessary to name two additional folders: The first is the folder in which authorized users can store and edit files (“Folder for public files storage”). The second URL is the directory for read-only website visitor access to published files.

4. Finally, you can also specify a password-protected file upload folder that is only accessible to authorized users. For this, enable the option “Enable password-protection of public files” and enter the desired directory names. You can also specify user names as well as the access password.

5. Click on “OK” or “Apply” to confirm and save your file access settings.

After you’ve created the folders for file sharing, you or all authorized users can upload files to the respective directories. To access the corresponding menu, click on either the “File Sharing” button in the navigation list (as an administrator) or open a subscription belonging to the server administrator and select the “File Sharing” tab there.

In the accessed Plesk file sharing section you can now upload one or more files simultaneously to one of the following locations:

• Personal files: All files that are uploaded as personal files are exclusively visible by the user as well as the administrators. For the later direct download link, administrator access information is required.

• Shared files: Shared files are visible by all users that have file sharing enabled with Plesk. For download via direct link – like with personal files – administrator access information is required.

• Public files: Publicly shared files are visible by all file sharing users and can also be downloaded without authentication.

• Password-protected files: Password-protected files differ from ordinary public files in that they can only be downloaded with the corresponding login data.

You have various possibilities for sharing files in different directories, though they all differ slightly from one another. The following short instructions explain in detail how to proceed.

Upload files as “Personal Files”

To upload files in your personal folder, simply click on the “Upload Files” button and select “Personal Files” in the list. You can also use “Browse” to specify where the desired upload file is located in your local system. If you want to upload multiple files simultaneously, you can use the “Add file” button. Check the box for “E-mail links to the uploaded files” if you want to send the matching links for the download of the file. Clicking on “Upload” starts the upload process.

If you want to share files with all authorized users, you have two options: For the first, you proceed as with the upload of personal files, but instead select “Shared Files” in the list. The second option is to simply move a file from your personal directory to the shared folder. To do this, select the corresponding file in the “Personal Files” folder and click on the “Share” button. Confirm the share by clicking “OK” in the dialog window that pops up.

If you want to make files available to all website visitors, you also have two options, which differ only slightly from the “Shared Files” approach: On the one hand, you can use the standard way described above via “Upload Files”, in which case you select the third button, “Public Files”. On the other hand, you have the option to publish previously saved personal and shared files by clicking the “Publish” button.

For password-protected file sharing with Plesk, first upload files as “Shared Files” and then – like with sharing public files – use the “Publish” button. In the window that opens, check the box next to “Protect access to files with a password” and then confirm the publication with “OK”. The username and password for accessing the files correspond to the information you provided when you set up file sharing (step 4).