If you're using FileZilla on macOS to manage your SFTP connections, you may have opted to save your password for convenience. Over time, however, you might forget what that password was. Fortunately, if you previously saved the password, it can be retrieved from FileZilla’s configuration files.
📂 Step 1: Open FileZilla Configuration Directory
FileZilla stores its site settings and credentials in a hidden folder within your user directory. To access this:
- Open Terminal.
- Run the following command to open the configuration folder:
bash
open ~/.config/filezilla
This will open the filezilla folder in Finder, which contains all your configuration files.
📄 Step 2: Locate and Open sitemanager.xml
Within the configuration folder, look for a file named sitemanager.xml. This file contains all your saved SFTP site profiles. Open it using a text editor such as TextEdit or Visual Studio Code.
Inside, you'll see XML blocks representing each saved site. For example:
xml
<Server>
<Host>sftp.example.com</Host>
<Port>22</Port>
<Protocol>1</Protocol>
<User>your_username</User>
<Pass encoding="base64">cGFzc3dvcmQxMjM=</Pass>
</Server>
🔐 Step 3: Decode the Saved Password
The password, if saved, will be Base64-encoded. You can decode it using the Terminal:
bash
echo cGFzc3dvcmQxMjM= | base64 -d
This will return your plain-text SFTP password. If you see something like password123, that's your original password.
⚠️ Important: FileZilla does not encrypt passwords — they are only base64-encoded, which is not secure. Anyone with access to this file can decode your password, so take care when sharing or backing up this file.
🛡️ Step 4: Consider Using SSH Keys
For improved security, consider switching to SSH key-based authentication for your SFTP access. This avoids the need to store plain passwords and enhances overall connection security.
By following these steps, you can easily retrieve your saved SFTP password from FileZilla on macOS — as long as it was saved in the first place. If not, you'll need to reset it through your server or hosting provider.