Amazon AWS Filezilla transfer permission denied

Question

I have my instance of the Amazon AWS running, test page is up.

I am trying to SFTP the files to the server to display my website. I have Filezilla connected to the AWS server but when I try to move the files from my local machine to the /var/www/html directory, it says permission denied.

I just figured out I CAN move the files to the /home/ec2-user directory. So my files are on the server I guess. But when I try to move them from there to the /var/www/html directory, it still won't move them, permission denied.

I've been researching this for approximately 2 hours now but I haven't been able to locate the answer to this.

Any help is greatly appreciated, i'm so close! Haha

Thanks

UPDATE

enter image description here

For anyone that doesn't see comments below, you've got to use sudo chmod & sudo chown . — Huntario, Apr 29 '16 at 13:02

score 287 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 26 '22 at 09:51

287

To allow user ec2-user (Amazon AWS) write access to the public web directory (/var/www/html),
enter this command via Putty or Terminal, as the root user sudo:

sudo chown -R ec2-user /var/www/html

Make sure permissions on that entire folder were correct:

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html

Doc's:

Setting up amazon ec2-instances

Connect to Amazon EC2 file directory using Filezilla and SFTP (Video)

Understanding and Using File Permissions

edited Sep 26 '22 at 09:51

Javapocalypse

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answered Oct 29 '13 at 02:52

Black Sheep

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Still no luck...I cd to that directory and typed that and it still says permission denied. I even tried moving it on the command line this time instead of in Filezilla – zburns12 Oct 29 '13 at 02:57
I just updated my original post with the result of those. It makes no sense, I can't see a reason why I shouldn't be able to just move the files over there. – zburns12 Oct 29 '13 at 03:09
4

Shoot, my fault, I forgot 'sudo' That did the trick! Thank you so very much! – zburns12 Oct 29 '13 at 03:16
That's precisely what I needed, @aldanux. Thank you SO MUCH. – Lino Silva May 13 '14 at 16:19
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I have been struggling with this for a while! Thanks. – kta Jul 06 '21 at 09:36
Thank you! For those who did this using Bitnami (WordPress), just replace /var/www/html/ with your directory and put sudo at the beginning of each command and it should work fine! – Calum Childs Jul 15 '21 at 07:35

score 89 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 31 '16 at 11:07

89

if you are using centOs then use

sudo chown -R centos:centos /var/www/html

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html

For Ubuntu

sudo chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu /var/www/html

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html

For Amazon ami

sudo chown -R ec2-user:ec2-user /var/www/html

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html

answered Aug 31 '16 at 11:07

Abhay Kochar

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This worked for me with AWS EC2 t2.micro 1+ for this. :-) – Himanshu Upadhyay Jul 29 '17 at 09:55
This is one of the best example and it works perfectly – Steven Smith Jul 19 '18 at 09:14
works perfect. Before this command, files can be created via terminal with sudo. but mkdir failed. only after issuing this command, mkdir and transfer works – Hemamalini Nov 29 '18 at 13:02

Oskar · Answer 3 · 2015-06-06T07:44:11.190

39

In my case the /var/www/html in not a directory but a symbolic link to the /var/app/current, so you should change the real directoy ie /var/app/current:

sudo chown -R ec2-user /var/app/current
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/app/current

I hope this save some of your times :)

edited Jun 06 '15 at 07:44

answered Jun 03 '15 at 18:54

Oskar

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This also applies for Elastic Beanstalk Apps – GraSim Mar 08 '17 at 14:59
Thanks, you saved my ass after 3 days of cursing at my computer! :D – user3718908x100 Jul 30 '18 at 19:13

score 20 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 10 '18 at 05:33

20

If you're using Ubuntu then use the following:

sudo chown -R ubuntu /var/www/html

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html

answered Aug 10 '18 at 05:33

Wachaga Mwaura

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The first one seemed to work. Do I have to execute both? I'm using WordPress and after executing the first command a few permission's errors have come up with some plugins. – Sambuxc Apr 13 '21 at 08:11
@Coderhi, I'd recommend executing both since the accepted answer also follows the same pattern. Regarding your WordPress plugins. You can attempt reinstalling them afresh to the same EC2 instance. – Wachaga Mwaura Apr 15 '21 at 12:54

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 23 '21 at 00:57

4

This work best everyone

chmod ugo+rwx your-folder

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FilePermissions

answered Nov 23 '21 at 00:57

Adeleye Ayodeji

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 21 '17 at 20:25

0

In my case, after 30 minutes changing permissions, got into account that the XLSX file I was trying to transfer was still open in Excel.

answered Jun 21 '17 at 20:25

ikleiman

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 17 '19 at 18:00

0

for me below worked:

chown -R ftpusername /var/app/current

answered Sep 17 '19 at 18:00

Ravistm

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered May 26 '23 at 06:28

To allow user ec2-user (Amazon AWS) write access to the public web directory (/var/app/current), enter this command via Putty or Terminal, as the root user sudo:

sudo chown -R ec2-user /var/app/current

Make sure permissions on that entire folder were correct:

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/app/current

Amazon AWS Filezilla transfer permission denied

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