Written by Admin on 2025-05-06

How to Download WordPress Media Files via FTP

WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) available, with millions of websites built on its platform. One of the great features of WordPress is its media library, where users can store all kinds of media files, including images, videos, and audio files. However, sometimes you may need to download these media files to your computer, especially if you want to make a backup or migrate your website to a new host.

Fortunately, WordPress allows you to download media files easily via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). In this article, we will show you how to use FTP to download media files from your WordPress website.

Step 1: Connect to your Website via FTP

To download media files from your WordPress website via FTP, you need to connect to your website's server using an FTP client. There are many FTP clients available, but we recommend using FileZilla, a free and open-source FTP client that works on all major operating systems.

Once you have downloaded and installed FileZilla, open the program and enter your website's FTP credentials (username, password, and server address). You can get these details from your website's hosting provider or from your WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Navigate to the Media Folder

After connecting to your website via FTP, you will see a list of folders and files on the server. To download media files, you need to navigate to the wp-content/uploads folder, which is where WordPress stores all media files uploaded to your website.

Once you have located the uploads folder, you will see several subfolders organized by year and month, such as /2021/07/ for media files uploaded in July 2021.

Step 3: Download Media Files

Now that you have located the media files you want to download, you can simply select them and drag them to your local computer's folder via FTP. Alternatively, you can right-click on the files and select "Download" to transfer them directly to your local computer.

Note that depending on the size of the media files and your internet connection speed, the download process may take some time.

Conclusion

In this article, we have shown you how to use FTP to download media files from your WordPress website easily. By following these simple steps, you can quickly download all your media files and keep them backed up or transfer them to a new host. With FileZilla and WordPress, downloading media files via FTP has never been easier!