A "550 Permission Denied" error in FTP means the server understood your request but refused to carry it out, because your FTP account doesn't have the access it needs for that file or folder. It's different from a connection or login failure: you're already connected and authenticated, but the specific action (listing a folder, uploading, deleting, or renaming a file) is being blocked.
Common Causes of a 550 Error
- Your FTP account is restricted to a specific folder, and you're trying to reach a file outside it.
- The file or folder's permissions don't allow your FTP account to write, delete, or rename it.
- Your hosting account's disk quota (or the FTP account's own quota) is full, so the server can't save new or changed files.
- You're trying to overwrite a file that's currently locked or in use by another process.
Work through the checks below for your control panel to narrow down which one applies.
How to Fix It
In cPanel
- Log in to cPanel and open FTP Accounts under Files.
- Find the FTP account you're using and check its listed directory. If it's confined to a subfolder (for example, a folder other than public_html), you'll only be able to reach files inside that folder. cPanel doesn't let you edit an existing FTP account's home directory, so if you need broader access, delete the account and recreate it with the correct directory, or create a new account scoped to the right folder.
- Open File Manager, locate the file or folder causing the error, right-click it and choose Permissions. Files should normally be set to 644 and folders to 755. Adjust the permissions if they're more restrictive than that.
- Go back to FTP Accounts and check the Quota column for the account. If it shows as full, click Change Quota and increase it, or check your overall hosting disk usage if the account itself shows unlimited.
In DirectAdmin
- Log in to DirectAdmin and open FTP Management.
- Check the folder assigned to the FTP account in the account list. A login that's scoped to a specific directory can't reach files stored elsewhere on the account; if you need wider access, edit the account's folder setting or create a new one pointed at the right location.
- Open File Manager, select the file or folder in question, and use the Permissions option to confirm it isn't set to read-only. 644 for files and 755 for folders is the standard setting.
- Check your account's disk usage from the DirectAdmin dashboard. If you're at or near your quota, free up space or ask for your plan's limit to be reviewed before trying the upload again.
If you've just created or edited the FTP account, give it a minute before retrying: some control panels take a short moment to apply new permissions across the server.
If you've checked permissions, directory restrictions, and quota and the error still won't clear, try reconnecting with a fresh FTP session; a stale connection can sometimes hold a lock on a file and trigger a 550 error until it's released.
If your FTP account is scoped to the wrong folder altogether, see how to restrict an FTP account to a specific directory for how that setting works.