Help / Windows Hosting (Plesk)

Troubleshooting FileZilla FTP Connections

If you have problems establishing an FTP connection to your hosting account using FileZilla, check out the information below to help you resolve your problem.

Incorrect Password

If you do not enter the correct password for your hosting account, FileZilla produces the following error:

Command: PASS **********
Response: 530 Login authentication failed
Error: Critical Error
Error: Could not connect to server

To correct this issue, you need to reset your password (cPanel / Plesk).

Incorrect User Name

If you do not enter the correct user name, FileZilla does not produce a unique error.

However, if you are not sure of your hosting account’s user name, you can find it in your control panel (cPanel / Plesk).

Incorrect DNS Information

Your domain name must point to your hosting account. This happens by pointing your domain name’s DNS A record to your hosting account’s IP address. If you don’t know precisely what that means, don’t worry. You can use this information to check the issue.

To Check Your Domain Name’s DNS Information

  1. Find and note your hosting account’s IP address (cPanel / Plesk).
  2. Check your domain name’s A record, and change it if necessary. For more information, see Manage DNS zone files. You are looking for the A (Host) record with @ in its Hostcolumn. It should match your hosting account’s IP address.

Other DNS Connectivity Issues

There might be other issues affecting your ability to connect to your hosting account using FileZilla that you can solve by using a different value as your Host in FileZilla.

Try entering the following as your Host in FileZilla, instead of your domain name (in each example, replace coolexample.com with your domain name):

  • Your hosting account’s IP address. For more information, see What is my website’s IP address?.
  • ftp.coolexample.com
  • ftp://coolexample.com
  • ftp://your IP address, for example, ftp://1.1.1.1