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FileZilla Portable Support

Many of the most common issues that arise when using FileZilla Portable are addressed here. Please read through the various topics to see if any of them address your question. You can also post a message to the FileZilla Portable Support Forum.

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FileZilla Portable-Specific Issues

General FileZilla Issues

Installing FileZilla Portable

To install FileZilla Portable, just download the portable package at the top of the FileZilla Portable page and then double-click it. Select the location you wish to install to and click OK. A FileZillaPortable directory will be created there and all the necessary files installed. That's all there is to it.

Using FileZilla Portable

To start up FileZilla Portable, just double-click FileZillaPortable.exe file where you installed Portable FileZilla on your portable drive. Then, use it just like you would a local copy of FileZilla. There are a couple of things to keep in mind:

  • Stay Safe - When using portable apps, it's always a good idea to practice Safe Portable App-ing.
  • Removing Your Drive - When you're done, exit FileZilla and then wait for the activity light on your removable drive to stop flashing. Then select the 'Safely remove [device]' option from the icon in the system tray. If you remove the drive while it is writing, you may lose data.

Upgrading FileZilla Portable / Importing Old Settings

To upgrade to a newer version of FileZilla Portable, just install a new version right over your old version. All your settings will be preserved.

When upgrading from a 2.x version of FileZilla to a 3.x version, your old settings file can not be automatically upgraded. FileZilla Portable will save a copy of your old settings file to FileZilla2.xml in a subdirectory called 'old' within your settings directory. In a standard configuration, it would be located here:

X:\PortableApps\FileZillaPortable\Data\settings\old\FileZilla2.xml

After upgrading FileZilla Portable, just select Edit and then Import from the main menu and open up the file containing your old settings. FileZilla will then import your old settings and be able to use them. Some advanced settings like remote start directories will not be imported and you'll need to set them up again.

Copying Your Local FileZilla Settings to FileZilla Portable

To copy your local FileZilla settings to FileZilla Portable, just copy your FileZilla.xml configuration file from your local FileZilla directory (usually C:\Program Files\FileZilla\) to your FileZillaPortable\App\filezilla directory.

Configure File Viewing / Editing of Specific Files

If you'd like to be able to have FileZilla launch another portable application to view or edit certain files, you can configure it using the following steps:

  1. From within FileZilla Portable, click Edit - Settings - Interface Settings - File Viewing / Editing
  2. In the textbox, enter the extension, then a space, then the relative path (no drive letter) to the app you wish to use. For example:
        abw \PortableApps\PortableAbiWord.exe     html \PortableApps\PortableNVU.exe
  3. Click OK

Changing FileZilla Portable to Another Language

To switch FileZilla Portable to another language, start FileZilla Portable and then select Edit and then Settings from the menu. In the preferences tree, select Language within Interface Settings. Select your language of choice and click OK.

Running from a CD (FileZilla Portable Live)

The ability to run from a CD is built right in. Just extract FileZilla Portable to a local directory and run it at least once to generate a set of default settings. Then configure it as desired. When finished, burn the entire FileZillaPortable directory to CD. If you'd like to use it from a USB flash drive in read-only mode, you can disable the settings file backups (which prevents write access warnings in Windows). Complete details and an example INI file are in the FileZillaPortable\Other\FileZillaPortableSource directory.

Known Issues

Settings not in Data directory - Currently, FileZilla stores its settings in FileZilla.xml in the filezilla directory as opposed to the settings directory. The settings directory is currently used for configuration backups.

Add this key to cache not supported - The add this key to the cache feature that works with the modified version of PuTTY included with FileZilla saves to the registry and should not be used in a portable scenario.

Modifications

I made some modifications to the default ZIPped version of FileZilla to make it more USB key friendly (decreasing total install size and backing up configurations). These changes are listed here so you'll know what they are, and so you can recreate the process, if so desired.

  • Friendly Launcher - FileZilla Portable Launcher 1.1.1.6 is included by default. It backs up your settings file to the settings directory for easier data backups.
  • EXEs and DLLs Compressed - All EXEs and DLLs were recompressed using UPX. This gets our installed size down to one that is a bit more manageable. Additionally, it will speed up use when you're running over USB 1.1. The options used were: --best --compress-icons=0 --nrv2d --crp-ms=999999 -k
  • Debug Files Removed - The debug files were removed to save space.

Version History

  • 2.2.32 - May 7, 2006
    • Updated FileZilla to 2.2.32
    • Improved launcher handles settings better
    • PortableApps.com Installer
  • 2.2.31 - February 28, 2006
    • Updated FileZilla to 2.2.31
    • Fixed minor issue with PAF config
  • 2.2.26a - August 11, 2006
    • Updated FileZilla to 2.2.26a
    • In-Place Upgrade support added
    • CD support improved
  • 2.2.21 - April 20, 2006
    • Updated FileZilla to 2.2.21.
  • 2.2.20 - April 19, 2006
    • Updated FileZilla to 2.2.20.
    • Switched to self-extractor format
  • 2.2.19a - April 6, 2006
    • Updated FileZilla to 2.2.19a. Updated launcher and help to new site
  • 2.2.17 - November 8, 2005
    • First public release based on FileZilla 2.2.17 and FileZilla Portable Launcher 1.1.1.6.

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