Uploading a whole site as a ZIP and extracting it in the File Manager

The short answer: sending hundreds of files one by one is slow and full of failures. It is quicker to pack them into a single ZIP file, upload it to cPanel’s File Manager and extract it there. It works for a new site, for a move and for installing a program. The care is in where you extract it and in deleting the ZIP afterwards.

What the site needs

What What to do
Why a ZIP One upload instead of hundreds, and the folder structure stays.
Where to put the ZIP In the domain’s folder (public_html for the main one, or an add-on domain’s folder): Where your website files go.
The folder inside Many ZIPs carry a folder named after the site. If you extract like that, the site ends up in a subfolder and the address changes: move the contents up.
Size and time A very large ZIP may not upload through the browser. For those: Moving a very large site.
Permissions Files arrive with normal permissions; only change them if something errors: Permissions.

Getting started

1 On the computer, pack the site’s files into a ZIP (select the folder’s contents, not the folder itself, so you do not get an extra folder).
2 In cPanel, open the File Manager, go into the domain’s folder and press “Upload”. Send the ZIP.
3 Go back to the Manager, select the ZIP and press “Extract”. Confirm the destination folder.
4 Check that the files landed where they should (index.php or index.html in the right folder) and open the site.
5 Delete the ZIP right away: a ZIP forgotten in the public folder can be downloaded by anyone: Files that must never be public.
Extracting over a site that is already there replaces files with the same name. If the current site works, take a copy first: A full cPanel backup. And mind the space: the ZIP and the extracted files take double for a moment.
To choose between this route and the others: File Manager, FTP, SFTP or Git. If you have a command line, extracting is quicker: The cPanel Terminal.

The ZIP will not upload or extract? Open a ticket with the file size and the message you see.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Where your website files go: public_html, folders and which domain uses which

Moving a very large site: when FTP is too slow and what to use instead

File permissions explained: what 755, 644 and 777 mean

Files that must never be public: .git folders, .env, backups and database dumps

Making a full cPanel backup and downloading it

File Manager, FTP, SFTP or Git: which way to upload your site

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