Oops!! Frustrated with “cannot establish an FTP connection to an SFTP server” error? We can fix it for you.

This error occurs mainly due to the use of an incorrect protocol.

At Bobcares, we often receive requests regarding FTP and SFTP as a part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s see how our Support Engineers fix this error for our customers.

Explore more about FTP and SFTP

FTP is a service for establishing a connection to a server or computer. Therefore, users can send files over the network.

It follows a client-server architecture and the port used is 21.

FTP sends data as plain text.

Whereas, SFTP provides a secure way for file transfers over SSH. And the port used is 22.

Also, SFTP needs authentication by the server.

Why this Error: Cannot establish FTP connection to an SFTP server?

While uploading and downloading files using FTP client, it is very common to come across some errors.

Today, we shall discuss one such error – “Cannot establish an FTP connection to an SFTP server”.

This error mainly occurs due to an incorrect protocol.

Let’s see how our Support Engineers find fix for it.

How we fix it?

Recently, one of our customers approached with a request that he is getting an error like the one shown below while he is trying to establish a connection.

So, we checked in detail and found that he is trying to establish an FTP connection with an SFTP server.

As the customer was facing the problem due to incorrect protocol, we did the following because the FileZilla defaults to the FTP protocol.

Firstly, we opened the FileZilla. Then, we went to the File→Site Manager option on the FileZilla menu.

From the Site Manager option, we accessed the General tab and selected SFTP in Protocol.

Then, we filled the host server, port number, user password, etc.

Finally, we clicked on the OK button.

This way our Engineers helped our customer to successfully establish the connection.

[Still, having trouble in fixing FTP and SFTP errors? – We can help you.]

Conclusion

In short, this error occurs due to incorrect protocol settings. Today, we saw in detail how our Support Engineers find a fix for this error.