{"id":24566,"date":"2026-08-23T12:38:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T12:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/?post_type=docs&#038;p=24566"},"modified":"2026-08-23T12:42:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T12:42:25","password":"","slug":"how-to-install-a-wordpress-plugin-via-ftp","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/docs\/how-to-install-a-wordpress-plugin-via-ftp\/","title":{"rendered":"How to install a WordPress plugin via FTP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In most cases, you can install a plugin directly from your WordPress dashboard by going to <strong>Plugins \u2192 Add New \u2192 Upload Plugin<\/strong>. However, sometimes this isn&#8217;t possible \u2014 for example, if your server&#8217;s upload limit is too low, the dashboard uploader keeps failing, or your site is experiencing an error that prevents you from accessing the admin area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In these situations, you can install the plugin manually via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). This guide walks you through the process step by step. If you&#8217;d prefer not to use FTP, you can also do this through your hosting control panel&#8217;s file manager \u2014 see the <a href=\"#alternative-using-your-hosting-control-panels-file-manager\">alternative method<\/a> at the end of this guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">First: check if an upload limit is causing the problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before installing via FTP, it&#8217;s worth checking whether the dashboard upload is simply failing because of your server&#8217;s <strong>upload size limit<\/strong>. Every server has a maximum file size it will accept for uploads (set by the PHP <code>upload_max_filesize<\/code> y <code>post_max_size<\/code> values), and on some hosts this is set as low as 2MB \u2014 smaller than many plugin ZIP files. If the plugin ZIP is larger than the limit, the upload will fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Common signs that the upload limit is the issue include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An error saying <em>&#8220;The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini&#8221;<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A <em>&#8220;413 Request Entity Too Large&#8221;<\/em> error page.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The upload progress bar getting stuck, timing out, or the page reloading with no plugin installed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To check your current limit, go to <strong>Media \u2192 Add New Media File<\/strong> in your WordPress dashboard \u2014 the <strong>&#8220;Maximum upload file size&#8221;<\/strong> is shown below the uploader. If it&#8217;s smaller than the plugin ZIP, try one of the following fixes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Increase the limit in your hosting control panel (easiest).<\/strong> Most hosts let you change PHP settings directly: in <strong>cPanel<\/strong>, go to <strong>MultiPHP INI Editor<\/strong>, select your site, and increase <code>upload_max_filesize<\/code> y <code>post_max_size<\/code> (e.g. to <code>64M<\/code>). In <strong>Plesk<\/strong>, go to your domain&#8217;s <strong>PHP Settings<\/strong>. Other panels usually have a similar &#8220;PHP configuration&#8221; or &#8220;PHP options&#8221; page.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Add the values to your <code>.htaccess<\/code> file<\/strong> (Apache\/LiteSpeed servers only). Add the following lines to the <code>.htaccess<\/code> file in your WordPress root directory:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>php_value upload_max_filesize 64M\nphp_value post_max_size 64M<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"3\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Ask your hosting provider.<\/strong> If you can&#8217;t change the settings yourself (common on managed hosting), contact your host&#8217;s support and ask them to raise <code>upload_max_filesize<\/code> y <code>post_max_size<\/code> for your site \u2014 this usually takes them a couple of minutes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After making a change, reload the <strong>Media \u2192 Add New Media File<\/strong> page to confirm the new limit, then try uploading the plugin again via <strong>Plugins \u2192 Add New Plugin \u2192 Upload Plugin<\/strong>. If it works, you&#8217;re done \u2014 no FTP needed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you can&#8217;t increase the limit, or the upload still fails for another reason (or you can&#8217;t access your dashboard at all), continue with the FTP method below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What you&#8217;ll need<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The plugin ZIP file<\/strong> \u2014 for example, the Coupon Affiliates PRO ZIP downloaded from your <a href=\"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/cuenta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cuenta<\/a> or your purchase confirmation email.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>An FTP client<\/strong> \u2014 we recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/filezilla-project.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FileZilla<\/a> (free, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Your FTP credentials<\/strong> \u2014 the hostname, username, password, and port for your server. You can usually find these in your hosting control panel (cPanel, Plesk, etc.), or by asking your hosting provider. Many hosts also support <strong>SFTP<\/strong>, which is more secure and works the same way in FileZilla.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Be sure to take backups beforehand just incase something goes wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 1: Extract the plugin ZIP file<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unlike the dashboard uploader, FTP requires the plugin to be <strong>unzipped<\/strong> first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Locate the plugin ZIP file on your computer (e.g. <code>coupon-affiliates-pro.zip<\/code>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Right-click the file and choose <strong>Extract All<\/strong> (Windows) or double-click it (Mac).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You should now have a folder with the plugin&#8217;s name (e.g. <code>coupon-affiliates-pro<\/code>) containing the plugin files.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tip:<\/strong> Open the extracted folder and check that the plugin files (such as the main <code>.php<\/code> file) are directly inside it \u2014 not nested inside a second folder. If you see a folder within a folder, use the inner one when uploading.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 2: Connect to your website via FTP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Open FileZilla (or your preferred FTP client).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enter your <strong>Host<\/strong>, <strong>Username<\/strong>, <strong>Password<\/strong>y <strong>Port<\/strong> at the top, then click <strong>Quickconnect<\/strong>. For standard FTP, the port is usually <code>21<\/code>. For SFTP, it&#8217;s usually <code>22<\/code>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Once connected, you&#8217;ll see your local computer&#8217;s files on the <strong>left<\/strong> and your website&#8217;s server files on the <strong>derecha<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the connection fails, double-check your credentials with your hosting provider \u2014 some hosts require SFTP only, or use a non-standard port.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 3: Navigate to the plugins directory<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">En el <strong>server side<\/strong>, navigate to your WordPress plugins folder:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>\/wp-content\/plugins\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Depending on your host, your WordPress installation may be inside a directory such as <code>public_html<\/code>, <code>www<\/code>o <code>htdocs<\/code> \u2014 so the full path might look something like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>\/public_html\/wp-content\/plugins\/<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You&#8217;ll know you&#8217;re in the right place when you can see folders for your existing plugins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 4: Upload the plugin folder<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>En el <strong>local side<\/strong> (left panel), navigate to where you extracted the plugin folder in Step 1.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Drag the entire plugin folder (e.g. <code>coupon-affiliates-pro<\/code>) from the left panel into the <code>\/wp-content\/plugins\/<\/code> directory on the right panel.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wait for the transfer to complete. Plugins contain many small files, so this can take a few minutes \u2014 check the transfer queue at the bottom of FileZilla to confirm there are no failed transfers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Updating an existing plugin?<\/strong> If a folder with the same name already exists on the server, you can safely overwrite it. When prompted, choose <strong>Overwrite<\/strong> and apply it to all files. Your plugin settings are stored in the database, so they won&#8217;t be lost.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 5: Activate the plugin in WordPress<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Log in to your WordPress dashboard.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ir a <strong>Plugins \u2192 Installed Plugins<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Find the plugin you just uploaded in the list.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Haga clic en <strong>Activate<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s it \u2014 the plugin is now installed and active on your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Alternative: Using your hosting control panel&#8217;s file manager<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you don&#8217;t have FTP access or would rather not install an FTP client, most hosting control panels include a built-in <strong>file manager<\/strong> that can do the same job \u2014 and it&#8217;s often quicker, because you can upload the ZIP file directly and extract it on the server (no need to unzip it on your computer first).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The exact steps vary slightly between hosts, but the general process is the same:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Log in to your hosting control panel and open the file manager. In <strong>cPanel<\/strong> this is called <strong>File Manager<\/strong>; in <strong>Plesk<\/strong> it&#8217;s <strong>Files<\/strong>. Managed WordPress hosts and other panels (hPanel, SiteGround Site Tools, Cloudways, etc.) usually have an equivalent under a similar name.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Navigate to your WordPress plugins directory: <code>\/wp-content\/plugins\/<\/code>. As with FTP, your WordPress installation may sit inside a folder such as <code>public_html<\/code>, <code>www<\/code>o <code>htdocs<\/code>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Haga clic en <strong>Upload<\/strong> and select the plugin ZIP file (e.g. <code>coupon-affiliates-pro.zip<\/code>) \u2014 no need to extract it first.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Once uploaded, right-click the ZIP file and choose <strong>Extract<\/strong> (or select the file and use the Extract button in the toolbar). Extract it into the current directory, so the plugin folder ends up directly inside <code>\/wp-content\/plugins\/<\/code>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Confirm the extracted folder contains the plugin files directly (e.g. <code>\/wp-content\/plugins\/coupon-affiliates-pro\/<\/code>), then delete the ZIP file from the server to keep things tidy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Log in to your WordPress dashboard, go to <strong>Plugins \u2192 Installed Plugins<\/strong>, and click <strong>Activate<\/strong> on the plugin.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tip:<\/strong> If the extraction creates a nested folder (a folder inside a folder), move the inner folder up so the plugin files sit directly inside its own folder within <code>\/wp-content\/plugins\/<\/code>, and remove the empty outer folder.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Troubleshooting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The plugin doesn&#8217;t appear on the Plugins page<\/strong><br>Check that you uploaded the plugin folder itself (containing the plugin files), not a folder nested inside another folder, and that it&#8217;s located directly inside <code>\/wp-content\/plugins\/<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8220;The plugin does not have a valid header&#8221; error<\/strong><br>This usually means the folder structure is wrong \u2014 the plugin&#8217;s main <code>.php<\/code> file must be in the top level of the uploaded folder. Delete the uploaded folder from the server, re-extract the ZIP, and upload again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Some files failed to transfer<\/strong><br>In FileZilla, check the <strong>Failed transfers<\/strong> tab at the bottom. Right-click the failed items and choose <strong>Reset and requeue all<\/strong>, then process the queue again. Incomplete uploads can cause fatal errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Site showing an error after upload<\/strong><br>If the site breaks after uploading, you can deactivate the plugin via FTP by renaming its folder (e.g. <code>coupon-affiliates-pro<\/code> \u2192 <code>coupon-affiliates-pro-off<\/code>). This immediately deactivates it, allowing you to access your dashboard again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you run into any issues installing the plugin, feel free to <a href=\"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/soporte\/\">contact our support team<\/a> and we&#8217;ll be happy to help.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In most cases, you can install a plugin directly from your WordPress dashboard by going to Plugins \u2192 Add New \u2192 Upload Plugin. However, sometimes this isn&#8217;t possible \u2014 for example, if your server&#8217;s upload limit is too low, the dashboard uploader keeps failing, or your site is experiencing an error that prevents you from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"doc_category":[25],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-24566","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-support","wpbf-post"],"year_month":"2026-08","word_count":1437,"total_views":"1","reactions":{"happy":"0","normal":"0","sad":"0"},"author_info":{"display_name":"Elliot Sowersby","author_link":"#"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"General Questions + Help","term_url":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/docs-category\/support\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"taxonomy_info":{"doc_category":[{"value":25,"label":"General Questions + Help"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"comment_info":0,"knowledge_base_info":[],"knowledge_base_slug":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/24566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/24566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24569,"href":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/24566\/revisions\/24569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_category?post=24566"},{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponaffiliates.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=24566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}