Directory drag & drop option

[jschwindt]

We find it very dangerous the ability to move folders
in the remote pane without asking for a confirmation.
It would be nice to have a option that the user can
check in order to ask for the confirmation.

---

Update:

There are two possibilities:

• ask the user for confirmation
• disable drag and drop

[Alexander Schuch]

This still is not implemented in FileZilla 3.0.10.

[nefarious]

Please please please implement this. I accidentally dragged a folder into another folder while trying to search through folders for a file's location and didn't notice - I brought down a client's site overnight until they alerted me of it the next morning. I'll basically have to use WinSCP until this is implemented, and it can't be a hard thing to implement.

[Tim Kosse]

Do you have any example of a file manager included in modern operating systems that asks for a confirmation?

[Brad]

Replying to codesquid:

Do you have any example of a file manager included in modern operating systems that asks for a confirmation?

Two file managers that allow this are Total Commander and Free Commander. Both of these allow you to have this setting on or off. I believe both have it on by default.

I would also love to see this implemented. Preferably in both the local and the remote pane but not between panes unless their is the ability to disable it. If implemented it would be great to have preference settings defaulted to have warnings on that allow users turn them off or configure as they want.

[Tim Kosse]

Those aren't included in a modern operating system, they are third-party tools.

[Brad]

Granted, but what is the point of the question?

[Tim Kosse]

To show you that FileZilla aims to follow the operating system guidelines.

[Brad]

What are the "operating system guidelines"?

Just because a file manager is bundled in with a modern operating system does not mean the way it operates provides the best functionality or user experience. Windows Explorer for instance is not a great file manager (I have hardly used it beyond XP so maybe it has improved a lot and I am stretching the Modern operating system thing there).

It's my understanding that FileZilla is not tied to the underlying operating system functionality in any way. Or is it?

How could having increased capabilities/options for uses be a bad thing. Providing it does not effect user experience or program performance. If these settings existed they could by default be set to whatever the "operating system guidelines" recommended but then allow those who wish to change those defaults to do so which then improves their user experience.

Are you a developer for FileZilla? If this is not something that the FileZilla team wants to implement then so be it. Still a great product that I use almost every day, this is simply a feature request that at least 3 users would like to see make it into the program.

[Ben]

We have also run into the situations that FileZilla moves the folders on the remote server under the cover for quite a few times!

We are looking for a setting to disable moving folders on the remote server, but can't find one. We stumbled upon this ticket and would like to add our input.

Moving folders on remote servers are very dangerous. FileZilla does it so smoothly and almost under the cover that on many occasions, we didn't see where the folders are moved or even didn't notice anything until it is too late.

It is not a good case to compare the folder moving capability of Windows Explorer and FileZilla.

First, users tend to move or rename folders on local computer much more often than a remote server, which tends to serve as a Web server. It makes it more practical for local machine to have the folder-moving feature than for remote server. Second, the damage of mistakenly moving folder on a local machine is isolated and is a lot less severe than that on a remote server serving as a Web server. Third, with Windows Explorer, it is easy to undo the moving. You can undo it even in the situation that you discover the mistake after you have closed the Windows Explorer - you can simply re-start Windows Explorer and go to "Edit" menu to undo the moving. But with FileZilla, it is harder to undo the damage. Once you close the FileZilla and discover the mistake afterwards, restarting FileZilla won't show you the history in the previous remote session and you can't tell where the folder has been moved to.

Please consider adding the settings so that users can choose to turn it off to avoid potentially dangerous mistakes.

• Ben

Replying to bkel:

What are the "operating system guidelines"?

Just because a file manager is bundled in with a modern operating system does not mean the way it operates provides the best functionality or user experience. Windows Explorer for instance is not a great file manager (I have hardly used it beyond XP so maybe it has improved a lot and I am stretching the Modern operating system thing there).

It's my understanding that FileZilla is not tied to the underlying operating system functionality in any way. Or is it?

How could having increased capabilities/options for uses be a bad thing. Providing it does not effect user experience or program performance. If these settings existed they could by default be set to whatever the "operating system guidelines" recommended but then allow those who wish to change those defaults to do so which then improves their user experience.

Are you a developer for FileZilla? If this is not something that the FileZilla team wants to implement then so be it. Still a great product that I use almost every day, this is simply a feature request that at least 3 users would like to see make it into the program.

[joomlagate]

Why this issue has not been solved till today?

If Filezilla author does not agree with this feature, why NOT just add it as an option?

It is a shame that you just ignored such an important problem!!!

[Tim Kosse]

Please do not mark issues as critical that are not security vulnerabilities.

It is a shame that you just ignored such an important problem!!!

Out of millions of user, the few that have requested this particular features can be counted with one hand. Hardly an important feature.

[Bob Dankert]

I have had this problem experienced by every single employee at the company I work over the years. Each time it results in software throwing errors and stopping to function. In regards to the "tell me an OS that supports this", you can set this in Windows XP and later OSes by setting a registry key or setting an option in group policy, which allows you to push it out through a domain. Specifically, you can set this in the registry here:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\0]
"1802"=dword:00000001

This is exactly what I would like to see in Filezilla. An option to enable a prompt for moving folders through click and drag. I don't care how this option is enabled (registry, setting in options/preferrences), but I feel like this feature could be enabled within a short period of time and it would prevent headaches amongst many users. Even though you haven't heard of this issue from "millions of users", I would bet that the majority of users who do this will eventually find the problem, go "oops, shouldn't have done that" and move on without requesting the fix.

This is just my opinion, but I feel that this would strengthen filezilla significantly.

[ikary]

please really need this program to add an option to avoid the renaming of files from one directory to another. It is very dangerous

[please help]

6 years and this has not been fixed? I found this with google after sifting through 50 folders to find the folder i accidently moved, this was more difficult then it sounds since i didnt know which folder moved. This is a critical problem, obviously no one is ever going to fix it, does anyone know of another file transfer program that isnt so dangerous, i have a big website with thousands of files, this thing could spell disaster.

[Derek Collie]

I too found this thread after Googling the problem. I accidentally moved a folder on a live site - big problem etc etc. To make directory dragging prompting an OPTION would prevent so much potential damage. Consider my vote for this added emphatically.

[Johan]

I agree this is dangerous and am disappointed it was never changed. codesquid seems to think need is small but i disagree. I think people blame themselves or don't want to go through the trouble of reporting. So I decided to make a trac account just to add my vote for this.

Numbers aside those who DO suffer from this suffer a LOT, that should count for something.

Also remember that touch interfaces will only grow in popularity with the pads,netbooks and phones.

[dougall]

This should *definitely* be a user interface option.

Presumably it'd be simple to implement and would make Filezilla more "bullet proof" for people suffering drag and drop incompetence (for whatever reason!).

While it's true that relatively few people have noticed and commented on this ticket, this doesn't mean it isn't a sensible improvement in it's own right.

[Schweb Design]

First let me say Filezilla is amazing and i much appreciate all the developers do to keep it functional, safe, and up to date. Until today, i've never been disappointed with Filezilla (although i take responsibility for my mistake... i'm disappointed this isn't being given more attention). After using Filezilla for 4+ years myself, just yesterday i had this same incident happen to me: i double clicked a remote folder to navigate within it, but sure enough my mouse twitched just enough and quickly enough that i ended up actually moving the folder into the adjacent folder. Of course, all hell broke loose, server crashed, phone blew up, etc.

I thought "Surely Filezilla will have an option to either disable the drag & drop file/folder move capability or at least require confirmation." But sure enough after searching i found this thread and indeed, it seems this is not perceived as important by the developers.

Although this is a rare occurrence, with the amount of comments here and the dangerous (and hard to diagnose) consequences of this when/if it DOES happen... isn't this something we could at least have hope of being implemented soon?

I've always recommended Filezilla to all clients, but i may have to find an alternative (i think there are some mentioned above that do provide the capability to disable this) at least for my less deft-with-a-mouse-when-double-clicking clients... which is pretty much all of them. Not to sound conceded, but if it can happen to me when simply trying to double-click, it can happen to anyone.

[pong3d]

I've been using Filezilla for about as long as this ticket has been opened and this is the first time I found the need for a change. I'm surprised that someone posted only 4 hours ago about the same issue that I discovered around the same time. I didn't blow up a server but today I realized that I easily could by accidentally dragging a critical directory. Please make this change and make Filezilla continue to be the best FTP client out there.

[Schweb Design]

I just wanted to share with others who see this thread my temporary work around, for lack of a better term, until this feature is implemented.

Whenever possible, instead of double-clicking in the remote server pane to navigate to afolder on the server, instead use the "toggle synchronized browsing" option and have the same folder structure on your local machine in the left local folder pane. Then you can double click in the left pane on the respective folder to navigate the folder structure on both the remote server side and local machine side... and at least if you accidentally move a folder/file you won't cause server-side issues because it will be within the local machine pane that the move is made only.

[postadelmaga]

Please implement this, we just need a configuration option to enable/disable drag and drop.
It would take 5 min to implement it for Filezilla dev ...

Regards

[Alexander Schuch]

Taken from closed duplicate #2191:

"When working with Pen Tablets (Wacom,etc..) the high precision of the pointer causes very difficult to click shortly on a folder to select it. Usually the pointer drag a little pixels, causing the folder moving, and disastrous results on productive servers.

A option for disable (or confirmation dialog) would improve security when working with graphic poninters."

[Alexander Schuch]

The closed duplicate of course is is #7448.

[ikary]

confirmed, at this date, two production server crashed because of this
thx

[sam rudloff]

I am a software developer and i know that this feature is not only need but required for a piece of software this important!!!!

quit being lazy and get this done for us its been 3 fucking years.

3 times ive done this drag drop crap and taken down sites... its just starting to piss me off

[Alex]

I've been using Filezilla for 3 years but only for the past year I used it extensively when I got a position as a full time web developer. In the past year, 5 times I accidentally moved a folder, bringing client's website down. If it wasn't for our monitoring service, it could be days before we would notice the problem.
Only now (after 5th time) I decided to search the web for a solution and came across this ticket. I also think you should implement this feature. Just because other users did not report it, does not mean they do not need it.
I like Filezilla more than any other FTP clients but if this option is not implemented, I will start looking at other software. I'm not trying to threaten you, just merely stating the fact how important this feature is. I cannot have my boss yell at me again for moving folders.

[Schweb Design]

Still agreed with all comments here. I just wanted to share another (see previous comments above) tip in the meantime for those of us who see this happening too often.

If we can change our behavior when using filezilla for now, the following might help prevent server meltdowns:
Whenever possible, instead of double-clicking in the remote server pane to navigate to to a folder on the server, single-click to highlight it and press enter on your keyboard.

Indeed, this is far from ideal and far from how any of use actually use our computer to do this, but it could help for now. Of course, it'd be a lot easier to have an option in Filezilla to require confirmation for moving of a folder, at the very least.

Is anyone from Filezilla seeing this thread? How many comments do we need here to know if this is being considered?

[McLay]

Please! Make this feature! Our site was down for 6 hours because of accidental drag and drop!

[Crim]

Please add this feature!

I accidentally broke our Magento webshop with multiple orders a minute (downtime of 2 hours) because of a wrong click and drag while uploading some files.

A simple optional "Are you sure you want to do this" would be enough.

Windows 7 may not have a confirmation dialog like this but you can simply UNDO a wrong action by pressing ctrl-z. Maybe this "Undo" functionality is something for Filezilla too ?

[double click drop site down]

Replying to jschwindt:

Can I just add my voice to the list of people hoping to see this implemented.

I respect that it is a free project and that your time is limited, however I brought a whole shop down this morning and had to restore from back-up. Not the end of the world no, but really not ideal when using laptop trackpad pad to work in a hurry. I never would have had any idea what went wrong it it wasn't for doing it a second time and recieving the 'cannot move a folder inside itself' error.

A "do you really want to bring down a whole website' confirmation would be super handy. Thanks!

[Nick Gustafsson]

+1 for this feature.
Would save many headaches.
Thanks for the great work.

[Peter Cawkwell]

Another voice to the chorus.

My fat clay fingers keep getting me into trouble.

A move can be as much of a problem as a delete.
Deletes are confirmed; a move is "deleting" something from it's original position and drag and drop is far too easy.

The fact that only a few people have specifically requested this only means that they are the few who have taken the time register their desire for it. Anecdotal I know, but in my experience the problem is common amongst you're user base.

[jeroen]

I would really like this feature, I also have been using Filezilla since years but just brought down a website accidently. It just happens when there's no need for this to happen.

[wppb]

I have registered an account to also add my support to this feature request, and to concur with the opinions expressed by many others here. Please, please consider it. Thank you.

[AvanOsch]

+1
If it would make things simpler (from the programmers point of view), I'd like to turn the entire "drag & drop" functionality off.
I only drag and drop in FileZilla by accident!

[Tobias Marjo]

Hi,

9 years later i may still verify the purpouse of this feature request.

Someone in the web department accidentally moved a folder on the FTP. (all using FileZilla FTP client)

The folder contained a whole clothing line collection, causing it to fail the entire collection for the web visitors.

This may have been prevented if there was a prompt when moving a folder inside FileZilla FTP client. (similar as when trying to delete a file or a folder)

Based on this typical fail example and all previous experience working with the web using ftp clients since 1995 - i highly recommend that this feature may be implemented SOON.

Preferably it may be available as a setting / checkbox to optionally toggle on/off - if possible.

Besides of this specific request - FileZilla FTP client is fantastic! :)

Many thanks!

Best regards,

Tobias

[postadelmaga]

At this point I'm in doubt:
is the Filezilla development totally death ?

There is not other reason for having not response in 10 years for a very popular bug/feature-request.
If you consider that this should be very easy to implement ( at least for anyone that worked on this project) the only solution is that there is nobody on the other side of trac.filezilla ... at least nobody able to read !

[chris.welford]

I would also like to voice agreement with this request. The current system means that with a slip of the mouse button you can move a folder without even realising and potentially cripple a site, I'm aware of several colleagues who have experienced this problem. A confirmation pop-up similar to when deleting would solve the problem and would seem relatively easy to implement. Having said that I do appreciate all the hard work that goes into the free software.

[Harald]

Hello,

I also very strong request following future:
when moving a file or a directory in the server side window, there should a warning dialog; i.e.
like: "Want you really move xxx to the destination yyy" [YES] [CANCEL]

Why is this important? Because there can be a lot of trouble when you using FTP on a virtual server as root (where you can not connect other to do admin transfers) and unintended move i.e. some library directory. Just some mouse wipe, and ups, later on you searching what has happened an get a lot of trouble. With a warning you would get in attention what happened and you can stop the move with CANCEL before it has started. I look for this future in FileZilla since years ago. My old FTP-Client WS_FTP form 2001 had implemented this behavior. I could bye a new WS_FTP version but I would more like to use FilleZilla. But without any warning it is to dangerous for me to use FileZilla.
I think it is not very complicated to realize this. In addition there could a option in the properties dialog to activate and deactivate this Move-Warning-Dialog; because some do not like it.

Thank you for an update when its would be done

[Chris Rowe]

I agree that adding support for a confirmation prompt and/or support for disabling drag+drop would be a valuable addition to this software.

[Alex]

I double this feature.
Today was third time I accidentely disabled a part of website.

It would be great if it'll be implemented on server only.

[Harald]

for me, waiting for this feature since years, I find a solution now.

I am using WinSCP instead of FileZilla.
​http://winscp.net/eng/index.php

[Alexander Schuch]

As far as I see, this is not fixed yet. So please do not mark it as "fixed". Thank you.

[agedreaper]

This feature is needed badly. Don't mistake people not being interested with how slow your login page is. I almost got frustrated and gave up.

[postadelmaga]

I have assigned to codesquid that looks very active on the repository ...

Forgive my criticism but ... let see if after 6 years somebody can give us any answer, even a 'no' without any justification would be a more polite answer that nothing at this point

[Andreas]

Options Screenshot

[Andreas]

Nowadays a lot of people works with FTP, also users with poor computer skills.
It is very important to have this feature added!

If you think adding this feature could be a lot of work, please consider adding an option "Do not allow to move folders" like Ws-Ftp ever had ;-)

In our company we really love FileZilla, however without this feature we are obliged to switch back to Ws-Ftp like 10 years ago.

[Harald]

My solution is definitely:
switch to

WinSCP - Free FTP Client for Windows
​http://winscp.net/eng/docs/free_ftp_client_for_windows

it has solved this problems with FileZilla.
Herald

[magilvia]

Very very dangerous feature: I bringed down an entire server cause of this.
This option needs to be implemented ASAP.
Also microsoft has been very stupid to not implement this in windows since 95. How many requests I get from users who can't find their files because they have moved a folder accidentaly ?

[Alex]

Replying to magilvia:

Very very dangerous feature: I bringed down an entire server cause of this.
This option needs to be implemented ASAP.
Also microsoft has been very stupid to not implement this in windows since 95. How many requests I get from users who can't find their files because they have moved a folder accidentaly ?

Moved to WinSCP after two similar accidents. It's not that lightweight but all features accompanying it compensate this with ease. No regret.

[BillBSET]

I saw the feature request. So I only hoped.

In the windows explorer I can ctrl-Z returning the directory or file.
This flaw is a showstopper ...

[Jim]

Just want to lend my voice to this feature request. Luckily I haven't had any disasters without it, but have come close.

[Jonathan Crawford]

Is there any update on this ticket? It's 11 years old and a very simple fix. I love FileZilla, but my workplace workflow unfortunately has to allow content editors FTP access to our servers, and non-engineers are more likely to make accidental file move mistakes and not know where the original folder belongs. I know this is my place of work's workflow error, but sometimes I do it too, I just happen to know the server's structure really well so I can always fix it right away. I don't want to have to abandon and make all my content managers move to WinSCP.

[talamus]

Please, implement this.
Thank you.

[hejhog]

Just messed up a production Magento server!!!!!!!!!!

This is a bigger issue than you believe it to be. I would put a bet on that a big percentage of Filezilla users have, at some point, mistakenly moved folders without realising. I would even bet that someone at Filezilla (may be you) have accidentally moved folders too - come on admit to it.

Please, Please, Please implement a feature to either enable/disable Drag & Drop or at the very least a CONFIRMATION POP UP when moving folders.

How difficult can this be!!!! "Are you really sure you want to move this folder? Yes/No"

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO I do not want to move this folder as I will surely break my Magento site and spend hours working out where I have mistakenly "drag & dropped" my files!!!!

Considering this is over 11 years old it seems insane that a simple feature has not been fulfilled.

I up vote the original post by +10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 to the power of infinity.

[jarrod1937]

I am developer and also find it quite odd that this simple feature has not been implemented. I can understand it's not a higher priority, but it is a simple feature to implement. I am not sure if a consensus must be made before such a change it allowed, but perhaps I'll take a stab at programming it myself (if time allows).
I like to use a highly sensitive mouse to easily move around in a multiple monitor setup (8 monitors), but this sensitivity can sometimes cause a click to be a drag. I have accidentally dragged a folder into another before on a live site, thankfully it was not anything critical and I saw the operation in the logging at the top... but still, odd for such an unavoidable thing to be allowed. My philosophy is that it doesn't matter what the user does, the program should operate as expected. In effect, this is protecting the user from themselves, and this feature certainly qualifies as such. Seriously, someone pick up this request and actually program it. It should be quick and simple and would prevent headaches for the technical and non-technical alike.

[Daniel]

PLEASE, PLEASE.

I was going to open a request for this, but there is one that is already open, so I'll just add my two cents.

I suffer from Neurofibromatosis, which causes tumors to grow along the nerves through the nervous system, and i have found that occasionally I get stray signals to my nerves. On more than one occasion while using Filezilla to browse the directory tree of the remote server, and when attempting to double click on a folder, I have unintentionally moved the mouse up, thus moving the folder where I don't want It is also really easy to unintentionally drag a folder while simply trying to scroll through the list of folder.

[bg17aw]

codesquid attitude is ridiculous. 11 years and no solution yet!

Please add my vote to the list and thank you to all that contributed with advise to mitigate this issue, I moved to WinSCP, a better overall client. I can't understand how such an important feature can be dismissed, the tickets closed, ignored etc.

Something is wrong at the attitude level.

[Tim Kosse]

Drag&drop can be disabled in the latest version by manually setting the "Drag and Drop disabled" option to 1 in filezilla.xml

[Brad]

Wow...... Great work! Better 12 years later than never :)

I assume that "Drag and Drop" would only be disabled within the same server and you could still drag and drop from local to remote and vice versa if "Drag and Drop disabled" is set to "1" ?

Just checking.

[Andreas]

Replying to codesquid:

Drag&drop can be disabled in the latest version by manually setting the "Drag and Drop disabled" option to 1 in filezilla.xml

Disabling the entry drag&drop functionality is not the solution!
It should be disabled only on the remote pane.

The definitive solution would be to disable the "MOVE files or folders" functionality, not the entry drag&drop. (see the OLD WsFtp attached screenshot)

[bg17aw]

It's the move functionality that needs a confirmation (not a disable option).

The drag and drop functionality should still be kept if possible.

Also, why change the option in the .xml file and not in the general settings??

Wouldn't it be better to have a confirmation instead of getting rid of the whole functionality? ?

[Harald]

There are 71 comments until now! Mine is 22 month ago!

What is the develop team get ridden not to fix this?

Its in-cognizable not to do anything but try from time to time to set the status to fixed. Maybe they are not able to pick an mouse event on the remote site. I see such a solution (confirming drag and drop when moving tree folders) in
WS_FTP Professional (​http://www.ipswitch.com/ft/app/download/ws-ftp-client/evaluation.aspx) and
WinSCP (​https://winscp.net/eng/index.php)
so it could be done.

[Mike]

Problem now worse - new macOS Sierra, Filezilla, multi-screen(3).

Mouse seems hugely more sensitive without any change to settings.

Causing 'mass' folder movements, without any clicks.

Had to spend an hour moving server folders back to where they belong.

Local folders were being copied to other folders. Careful review and deletion of duplicates.

Filezilla therefore effectively unasable..

Found filezilla.xml in Users>xxx>.filezilla>filezilla.xml - Drag and Drop disabled = 1.

Filezilla, please put in a confirm Drag and Drop folder setting so that I can turn the feature back on, with confirm.

Thanks

[Jan Lachnitt]

Another vote for this request. I wanted to open a remote folder by double-clicking, but I inadvertently moved the mouse in so doing. It took me a while to realize that I had moved the folder into the folder one line up. There is a weeks-long computation running in the moved folder! Executables, input and output files, all in that folder! Luckily, open files stay open in Linux even when moved. I have moved the folder back and everything seems to be OK. This was just to illustrate how easily an unwanted action can be done.

Having found this ticket, I wanted to disable drag&drop, but I couldn't find "Drag and Drop disabled" in filezilla.xml. I have thus added it manually:
<Setting name="Drag and Drop disabled">1</Setting>
but it has no effect. FileZilla 3.15.0.2 on Linux Mint.

I am not going to tell off the volunteer programmers who make FileZilla. I am also a programmer, and I would add the functionality myself if I had time, but that's what I don't have. However, dear developers, please consider that this ticket has a high priority and that the problem affects multiple users.

I think that the optimal solution has been suggested already: a simple "Yes/No" confirmation dialog. If you think that there are also users who like drag&drop without confirmation, just add a "Don't ask me again" checkbox (unchecked by default!) to the dialog.

[clepsydrae]

@jenda -- I'm using 3.21.0 on Lubuntu and Kubuntu 16.10, and the setting works here.

I was coming to file a FR to have a confirmation for moving folders on the client side... it seems that there should be an option for both.

Dolphin, for example, pops up a small dialog when you drag a folder, allowing to choose between move/copy/link/etc. This seems ideal. On Windows, if you botch a folder drag, you can undo, right?

I just went to move the filezilla window, missed the hotkey for the window manager, and apparently copied (?) an unknown folder into an unknown folder. No info about which one it was, no undo option. Really frightening. I don't know if I just moved something secure to somewhere insecure, etc.

I have disabled Drag and Drop (thanks for that), but drag and drop is handy, so an option would be awesome.

Thanks for a great program.

[mastazi]

I tried adding

<Setting name="Drag and Drop disabled">1</Setting>

but that line is automatically deleted every time I open/close Filezilla.

Making the filezilla.xml file read-only prevents the deletion but the setting does not seem to work when I open Filezilla (I can still drag and drop).

Using Filezilla version 3.27.1 on Windows 10.

[Tim Kosse]

Don't add the setting, change the existing setting.

[mastazi]

Thanks.

I'll leave it here for future reference:

If you just updated from an older version of Filezilla and your filezilla.xml does not have that line, you may have to restart your PC.

Or at least that seems to have worked for me, not sure if the devs can confirm that this is the case.

[packi]

Also second this. Brought down a site and apparently also moved a custom.css file sometime in the past. Unfortunately I don't see anything better for Mac OS, so I will have to click+enter in the future.

Incredibly dangerous non-feature!

[Edward Bonthrone]

One of my sites / database of 20 years is completely ruined - my PC froze and a heap of folders got moved who who knows where. Im not a techie and have no backups (Rackspace could get them working after several tries) so the feature this guy is asking for - default seting "Do you really want to move these files?" is a no-brainer. Love Filezila but common sense seems to have disappeared these days :(

[tedych]

Several times I came across problems after inadvertently moved by drag/drop directories while just wanted to select them in the tree.
This is a very dangerous.
Disabling drag-drop application-wide is not an option because I use this to upload/download files all the time.
It would be perfect if dragdrop could be disabled only for the trees. Such option is available in other softwares like file managers - for a reason.
It is much less possible to make mistakes while draging items between panes than in the tree. At least me, I only had made (many) mistakes in the tree by small movements while selecting folders.
At least add an option for confirmation, please. I can live with that confirmation when draging items between panes (uploading/downloading) if separation is not easy.

[Edward Bonthrone]

Come on tech / coder folks!!!!!

Man alive - Im having to pay money now because of this major issue / bug.

I go to select folders and if the connection is slow or the PC sticks or mouse sticks - boom - they rename files and folders go missing
I have someone working on a massive problem I now have because of this.

I have to get a new server and employ someone to do it all

PLEASEE ADD THIS OPTION - MUST BE SOOO SIMPLE FOR A TECH / CODER.?!?!

Thanks

[Edward Bonthrone]

14 years overdue by the looks of it and Filzilla is so great - WHY NO CONRIFMATION?!!!

ABSOLUTELY NUTS!

Some of us are NOT tech geniuses and are not too proud to say we need help.

[David Caldwell]

Way over due. Why not give us the option, I've moved folders accidentally so many times just clicking on the triangle to open a folder. This is insane for you to argue with your users about making this an option. I use a mac, I have to very slowly select the folders to NOT move the damn thing. What kind of idiot would NOT think this is a problem when it happens accidentally on a remote server? It's an easy fix too, depending on the library you're using.

The problem here isn't the ability to drag and drop items from local to remote and vice-versa, the problem is if you move the mouse just a few pixels in any direction, as you're single-clicking a directory, it moves it. At the very least the implementation of the Drag-n-drop here is very poorly implemented.

Also, The very reason to make this change is that I DO seem to find the same problem in every other SFTP application, and it would make Filezilla a BETTER SAFER PRODUCT than all the others. Well it is a good product. Remember, for every user that complains, there are many you never hear from at all. Seriously, people have obviously been complaining about this for YEARS !!!???!!! Fine tune the drag-n-drop behaviour, so it waits for you to drag the items at least the number of pixels vertically to equal a row, or give your CUSTOMERS the ability to turn it off completely, and I assume everyone's just talking about just turning it off for moves within Remote treeview panel. Then a Right-click menu item to move... the item to another folder would still allow the item to be moved remotely and Safely for Petes Sake.

SHEESH!!!

PLEASE, PLEASE.... [praying hands] [facepalm] ...

[shimmy]

Mac user here that just messed up a site cause crazy sensitive drag and drop. Please add feature.

[shimmy]

Adding <Setting name="Drag and Drop disabled">1</Setting> to a filezilla.xml file had no effect on High Sierra Mac

[clepsydrae]

@shimmy -- Don't add the setting, search for and change the setting that is already present.

@everybody -- please be respectful in comments here. I share your passion for changes in how Filezilla handles this, but yelling at developers of free software is not only inappropriate, it works against your interests.

[shimmy]

Hi, like the other person said in the Mac version the setting is not there at all. I had to add it and it still didn't work

[clepsydrae]

Which other person's comment are you referring to? I didn't see that...

When you added that line, I assume you added it within the proper XML <Settings> element, and not just at the end of the file, right?

[shimmy]

yes I added with the proper XML <Settings> element. It did not work.

[Mark van Leeuwen]

This issue burnt me badly last night.

Apparently I inadvertently moved a folder on a customer's server. I suspect Filezilla (on Ubuntu 18.04) interpreted my touchpad action to open a folder as a move. We only became aware of what happened after all hell broke loose with jobs failing overnight.

What makes the issue particularly bad is that there is no obvious feedback from Filezilla to indicate that the folder has been moved. The folder tree on the remote server is not automatically updated when the move has taken place. The folder tree needs to be refreshed for the folder move to become apparent.

I have now disabled drag and drop using the XML setting and confirmed that it is disabled.

But I am concerned that this issue will continue to affect Filezilla users. Future users will only turn to the XML setting option when they have been burnt as I was - by then the damage has been done.

A better solution is needed to prevent the issue happening in the first place. I think that either remote drag and drop should be disabled or it should require confirmation. I do not care that this behaviour would make remote drag and drop different to local drag and drop. It is more important to ensure users cannot unknowingly make changes to folders and files.

[tedych]

I actually left the option turned On, at its default.
I cannot live without drag'n'drop in the filelist areas to transfer items. I just pay very great attention when clicking in the tree. For now.
That's why for me the two viable solutions are:

1. Confirmations on drag/drop (only).
2. Option to disable drag/drop in the tree only.

Maybe I shouldn't mention that (unfortunately) but I've tried many other FTP clients in the search of a better one. There are some but Overall FZ still seems the best for now.

[David Caldwell]

Please Disable Drag-n-Drop within the Remote Tree View, and add a Right-click option to Move... where you can browse to the location you want to move it to.

No more accidental moves, and if someone needs to move it's in the SAFER method.

[Tom]

Please, for the love of God, implement this feature that was requested in November 2004 (TWO-THOUSAND-AND-FOUR). It is insanely easy to accidentally move files through the UI and you don't always realize that you made a change ... and it is impossible to undo. Seriously, WTF? It shouldn't take FOURTEEN years to implement a basic feature that will make FileZilla a SAFER tool for everyone.

[tedych]

Tom, this wouldn't be implemented. Filezilla client has no viable, sane and free alternative for Windows and the author knows it. This is normal behavior when you don't have some competition. Not blaming the author at all. Again, this is normal. No matter 14 or 44 years have passed since the feature had been requested.

The only solution at the moment is to disable it for both tree and list using the tweak. I can't live without ability to copy items in the list so for now I didn't disable it. But I find myself using other tools more and more, unfortunately.
Sometimes a small but very important lack can cost you losing many users. At the same time I realize that this feature is not something you can find in most other (paid) alternatives even.

[shimmy]

Attention developer, I will gladly pay to stop ruining my site. If you would like to add this feature to a paid version on mac I would gladly pay to never ruin my site again.

[premtpk]

Please try this method. Update your file config filezilla/filezilla.xml - Add <Setting name="Drag and Drop disabled">1</Setting> and make the file readonly. If you dont make your file readonly, then while closing the filezilla it will revert the changes.

It is working fine in mac os. If you need to update the settings, then make it writable and change the setings in filezilla. Close the app and add <Setting name="Drag and Drop disabled">1</Setting> this again.

[shimmy]

Does not work

[Kyle Armstrong]

Replying to premtpk:

Please try this method. Update your file config filezilla/filezilla.xml - Add <Setting name="Drag and Drop disabled">1</Setting> and make the file readonly. If you dont make your file readonly, then while closing the filezilla it will revert the changes.

It is working fine in mac os. If you need to update the settings, then make it writable and change the setings in filezilla. Close the app and add <Setting name="Drag and Drop disabled">1</Setting> this again.

This solution worked for me in Windows 10, but when set to read-only, the XML write on close causes a "failed to write to xml" error prompt to display upon exiting the application.

Every organization I have been a part of that uses FileZilla has wished for this type of feature to be available. Completely disabling drag and drop altogether isn't ideal, but it's definitely preferred to the alternative of constantly misplacing files when many hands are in the pot. If this is truly getting implementation support at all, a more permanent solution than locking out the xml file as read-only should be available. Preferably as an option in the settings to persist it through sessions.

[jackklau]

"Please try this method. Update your file config filezilla/filezilla.xml - Add <Setting name="Drag and Drop disabled">1</Setting> and make the file readonly. If you dont make your file readonly, then while closing the filezilla it will revert the changes.
It is working fine in mac os. If you need to update the settings, then make it writable and change the setings in filezilla. Close the app and add <Setting name="Drag and Drop disabled">1</Setting> this again."

above workaround doesn't work for me on windows system even make the file readonly, has anything else need I to modify in my system?

[jackklau]

Indeed accidently move a whole folder is a disaster for us and need an option to reminder us
Hope it will be implement
&swift prosecution is needed

[tginsandiego]

Longtime Filezilla user, and just had the program move a local directory, because I was 10 pixels off of the scrollbar when I dragged my mouse. Luckily I noticed it and was able to reverse it manually, since there is no UNDO option.

I see that over a 100 users, over more than a decade, have asked for a simple change to require a confirmation dialog before executing file and folder manipulation commands.

Reading the developer pushback on this is astounding. Yes, this isn't glamorous or sexy or fun. Modifying preferences and adding a popup is dull work compared to exciting new features. But the ego and arrogance displayed is truly dismaying. You come off sounding like petulant children instead of rational software developers working on a world-class tool, responding to user feedback.

Just fucking do it. Geez. Here, I'll write the code for you

if (doing_any_file_manipulation)
{

if (preferences.file_manipulations_require_confirmation == YES)
then {

require_user_to_confirm(file_manipulation);
return;

}

do(file_manipulation);

}

Feel free to put it in the PRO version -- I (and the rest of the folks) would gladly pay for the safety net.

(I am now being entirely sincere, /SARCASM=OFF)
Filezilla is AMAZINGLY useful. Everyone connected with it's development should be very proud of the effort. I can't remember the last time I encountered a bug or crash, which is truly astounding for a program this complicated.

[MistaP]

PLEASE PLEASE IMPLEMENT THIS.

I have just taken over 100K voice users offline because of this issue. A simple accidental brush over my mac mouse resulted in the whole of the /etc directory being moved to /root/etc. As you can imagine the OS wasn't too pleased !! A simple preferences screen with radio buttons 'confirm remote actions'. Leave default off .. Then trust me when you discover this issue you will be thankful for this feature. Filezilla is a great application but unfortunately, In the meantime, I'm looking for another FTP application as I cannot risk doing that again !!
IF YOU DON'T HAVE A MAC YOU WON'T APPRECIATE HOW MUCH OF A PROBLEM THIS IS.

[birgersp]

+1 on this issue. The drag-and-drop functionality should be optional (I need to turn it off).

Every time I've used the drag-and-drop has been by accident. It is especially dangerous when using a touchpad...

[Alan Smith]

The suggestion:
"Add <Setting name="Drag and Drop disabled">1</Setting>"
does not fix the issue, it simply disables this otherwise essential feature.

This is a desperately needed modification,

[AleWin32]

Yesterday i made a catastrophe on a web server in production due to this problem.

I accidentally move a folder without realising what happened so all the images gave 404 visiting the website.

The problem was i use an Apple Magical Mouse 2 that is specially sensitive in FileZilla and it's very easy to make a drag and drop operation accidentally instead of just clicking a folder.

This is a known issue, some others users reported this too using this mouse:
​https://forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?t=42774

Please, add a confirmation window ("Are you sure you want to move the folder ... to ...?) for moving files and folders to avoid this important problem with all sensitive mousses. Or even better, if you don't want to reply to this question every time, a new configurable option like a checkmark with "Ask confirmation when moving files and folders".

[Arnaud Chéritat]

Slight jitter in the hand when double clicking remote folder name to open it resulted in drag and drop action instead. Lost index.php and 30mns of work. Could have been much worse if it had been a nearby folder. But I'm puzzled why local to remote actions ask for confirmation but not remote to remote.

[Frédéric Delaporte]

We would really love to see things moving about this subject. The graphic designers at my work use FileZila and we regularly "lose" folders. At the IT we always find them somewhere they should not be, and we blame that dreaded drag&drop capability of Filezila client for the server pane.

We do not care if they mess up their local folders. They can handle that themselves without causing issues for the web site. But that is really a terrible UI for the server pane: it is way too sensitive to move folders around on the server side for letting the drag&drop feature enabled by default on the server pane. It is just too easy to drag&drop inadvertently.

(On the IT team side, we use Beyond Compare instead, which does not cause such issues, and helps us find quickly where things are gone. The graphic designers also only have a limited ftp access, they can only handles images and will not wreck the web sites themselves. They will just cause missing images, with most of them "hidden" by our long CDN cache duration. Still, we need a fix for this.)

I have seen there is a setting buried in some configuration files for wholly disabling drag&drop: can at least this setting be surfaced in the settings UI of Filezila?

I understand that enabling this by default could be too disruptive for users. Instead, other software handling Drag&Drop like WinSCP have a confirmation option on Drag&Drop. Enabling by default a confirmation with, within the confirmation, an option like "do not ask again" for allowing to disable that confirmation, would be minimally disruptive for users, while greatly improving the reliability of working with FileZila.

I have seen a comment on the forum stating:

The prompt would have to come after accepting the drop operation, so the drag source would be told the drag is successful, even though the user later cancels it

Well, where is the issue here? If that is the source which does the actual FTP operation, then moving that implementation to the target should allow to handle canceling. Maybe an out of sync UI on the source side? It should be possible to signal the source to refresh in case the drop was cancelled.

About the comparison with "modern OS default behavior", I just cannot understand it. Most modern OS on servers are headless, there is not even a thing similar to a file explorer on them. That is a dangerous user interface for a server. It is not meant to be used by casual users. So, no drag&drop there.