My preferred FTP client has, for a long time, been FileZilla. To connect to a FTP account, I generally select the account from the Quickconnect menu, as I am sure many others do. However, I find that sometimes on connecting to a new FTP account, I might mistype the information, or (as recently occurred), if the information is intentionally mis-entered, the entry is added to the Quickconnect list. Firstly, I do believe this is a subpar design – the entries should, ideally, only be added if the connection is successfully established (while I can see some merit to the current method, I think the disadvantages out-weigh the advantages).
Recently I wanted to remove a single entry from my Quickconnect menu, the following how that can be accomplished on Windows 7:
The Quickconnect list is stored in an XML file named recentservers.xml. On Windows 7, this is located in C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\FileZilla
The file’s structure is as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?> <FileZilla3> <RecentServers> <Server> <Host>HOSTNAME</Host> <Port>21</Port> <Protocol>0</Protocol> <Type>0</Type> <User>USERNAME</User> <Pass>PASSWORD</Pass> <Logontype>1</Logontype> <TimezoneOffset>0</TimezoneOffset> <PasvMode>MODE_DEFAULT</PasvMode> <MaximumMultipleConnections>0</MaximumMultipleConnections> <EncodingType>Auto</EncodingType> <BypassProxy>0</BypassProxy> </Server> <Server> ... </Server> </RecentServers> </FileZilla3>
To remove an FTP account from the list:
- Close FileZilla, if it is open
- Backup
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\FileZilla\recentservers.xml - Open the above file in your favourite editor
- Delete the entire Server element (
<Server>...</Server>) corresponding the entry you wish to remove and save the file. - Reopen FileZilla and check your Quickconnect list – hopefully all is well.
Given the straightforward format of the XML file, it would also be quite easy to modify an existing entry (e.g. correct a mis-entered username or password), or to add another entry by simply copying an existing one and modifying it.
A quick note – usernames, passwords, and hostnames are stored in plain text in this file – which might certainly amount to a security concern if you use a portable version of FileZilla without any additional form of encryption.
Thank you for your tips, it worked for me. You saved me a lot of time if I have to figure it out by my self.
Great to know you found it useful. Thanks for commenting.
On Windows XP, the
recentservers.xmlis stored atThanks – hopefully that will be helpful to future visitors.
I just used it. It worked perfectly. Thank you.
Good information, and I agree with everything you said. Why not be able to edit quick connections to delete the ones you don’t want, rather than having to clear the lot? I like Filezilla, but not being able to edit or delete entries via the GUI is a strange oversight. Thanks for the info.
Thanks for the great information. I’ve always thought that this was one of FileZilla’s failings as well, and it’s nice to see that there is a fairly painless way to solve the problem.
Glad you found it useful. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Thank you for the superb info for rebuilding F-Z after a system splat. Made perfect sense with editing the file to remove unwanted sites. Thanks for all your help!
-Razor
THANK YOU for sharing this!
I have been looking for a solution and this one works perfectly.
Thanks again!
– Ellen
Any chance you know how to do this on Mac OSX 10.8.5?
The file recentservers.xml should be in ~/.filezilla/recentservers.xml on Mac OSX – the other ideas from the post should not need to be changed.
On my Mac (Yosemite), the file was in “~/.config/filezilla/recentservers.xml”
Thanks for this! I used this for Vista and it worked great. Any ideas on how to go about it on Windows 10?
Thanks, that worked perfectly!
Thanks for the tip! If you’re using the portable version of FileZilla, look for the xml file in the portable app’s Data\settings folder.
Many thanks 🙂