If you find yourself in a situation that requires changes to your site, and your developer isn't available to help, DreamHost's skilled support team may be able to assist you for a small fee. You can find more information about supported services and associated costs in the DreamHost Professional Services article.
Overview
The following is a quick overview of how to connect to your DreamHost web server and upload your website files. See the following article for more information:
DreamHost offers a file manager in the panel. See the following article for more information:
Importing your site's database
Your website may also use a database in addition to its website files. If you have a database, see the following articles for instructions on how to migrate it to DreamHost:
Other migration options
Free migrations using the DreamHost Automated Migration Plugin
If you are migrating a WordPress site from another hosting company, DreamHost can help.
DreamHost has partnered with the makers of BlogVault to provide the DreamHost Automated Migration Plugin, a free WordPress plugin that allows you to quickly migrate your WordPress site to DreamHost. See the following article for more information:
WordPress Migration Service
If you are having trouble migrating your website from another host, or just don't have the time, DreamHost currently offers a WordPress Migration Service that takes care of that for you. You can find more information in the DreamHost Website migration services article.
If your WordPress site is already hosted at DreamHost and you need to migrate it to another DreamHost account, view the following article instead.
Remixer
DreamHost also offers a website builder called Remixer, which allows you to build a site without any coding experience or needing to use an FTP client to upload your site data. See the following article for further information:
Clients to use to upload your site
When your site is built and ready to go, you can then upload your files to DreamHost to place them on the web server in order to display your site.
This can be done by using an FTP client to upload your files:
- FTP Client — FileZilla , Cyberduck, CuteFTP, and so on, depending on your OS. Using a fully functioning FTP client such as these is the recommended way to connect to your web server.
- File Manager — Visit files.dreamhost.com to connect to your site using the panel's file manager. This is the FTP client option available within your DreamHost panel.
There are many other FTP client software packages. Please visit the List of FTP clients article for more information.
Uploading website files in an FTP client
DreamHost recommends you use an FTP client to upload your files to DreamHost. You can download and use any FTP client of your choice (see the List of FTP clients article for more information).
The following is an example of how the Filezilla interface appears:
FTP SECURITY
It's highly recommended you only use port 22 with an SFTP or Shell user when connecting as using port 21 with a legacy FTP user is insecure. View the FTP Security article and Port section below for further details.
Use the following FTP account login values when prompted:
Host/Server Name
You can use either of the following:
SITE URL (without https://www)
For example, if your site is https://www.example.com then just use example.com to log in to your FTP client.
Server URL
The server URL is the name of your server followed by .dreamhost.com.
- Navigate to the Manage Websites page.
- Click the Manage button to open the Manage Websites page, which allows you to adjust various settings for your site.
- Select the Hosting tab.
Your hosting plan and Machine (server) name is listed at the top. In this example, the server is named philip-livingston, so the server address would be philip-livingston.dreamhost.com.
Username / Login
This is the username to log into your FTP account only. Please note that your Panel WebID is NOT the FTP username. You can find this information in the email DreamHost sends to you when you either signed up or created the FTP user account. You can also find all of your users under FTP Users & Files. To view which user is assigned to which domain, go to Hosted Domains. To the right of each domain (under the Web Hosting column) is the user assigned to that specific domain.
Password
This is the password to log into your FTP account only. Please note this is NOT the same password you use for your Panel. Allow up to 15 minutes for it to update in the system before it’s active.
See the following article for the latest information on how to reset your password:
Port
Check the FTP Users & Files page to see if your user is an FTP/SFTP/SHELL user. Click the Login info button next to the username to view the type. SFTP and SHELL users (the default options) use port 22.
To ensure a secure connection when connecting to your server, make sure to use port 22. This is also known as connecting via SFTP. Using port 21 with a legacy FTP user is never recommended as the connection is insecure.
View FTP Security for further details.
Where do I put my files once connected via FTP?
Once you've connected to the server, you are ready to upload your files. See the following article for information on where to upload your website files:
After you have uploaded your website, you will need to point the site's DNS to DreamHost to make it live. See the following article for information on the process:
Troubleshooting
If you uploaded your site and everything looks like it transferred normally, but you only see a "Parent directory" on the page, then chances are you uploaded your files to the wrong folder, or you uploaded your files to the wrong FTP user account. Please check and retry.
