If your internet connection is slow, there’s often not much you can do to increase the actual speed of the connection – but how FileZilla/FileZilla Pro uses that connection can make a difference to your file transfer rates.
Below you find a step by step guide, if you prefer you can watch our How to Speed Up File Transfers video tutorial.
If you have Lots of Small Files
Set FileZilla/FileZilla Pro to use the maximum number of simultaneous file transfers (see Limiting Simultaneous File Transfers). Also check the simultaneous upload/download limits, and increase the relevant option.
This can help because with very small files, often the major time-sink is actually the commands and feedback passed between local and remote machines; not the actual file transfers themselves. Running a number of file transfers at the same time means that data flows more smoothly instead of in little stops and starts.
If you have Very Large Files
The advice for this situation is opposite to that of the previous example. Decrease the simultaneous transfers (see Limiting Simultaneous File Transfers) to 1 or 2.
With very large files being transferred, the majority of the data and time used is in transferring the files themselves. Decreasing simultaneous transfers minimizes the chance of encountering transfer hazards like timeouts.
If your Connection is Unreliable
If you notice that FileZilla/FileZilla Pro is frequently losing connection and having to restart transfers, especially for large files, set the default file exists action to Resume file transfer (see Change default ‘file exists’ behaviour).
The video tutorial below shows how to connect to speed up file transfers with FileZilla Pro.