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.

[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.