Drag and Drop
On desktop platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux), the dual-pane SFTP browser supports drag and drop between its two panes. You can move single files, multi-selections, or whole folders in either direction, and the receiving pane highlights with a colored border while you are over a valid drop target.
Between panes
Section titled “Between panes”The dual-pane layout shows your local filesystem in one pane and the remote server in the other. To transfer:
- Upload: drag from the local pane and drop on the remote pane. The item lands in the remote pane’s current folder.
- Download: drag from the remote pane and drop on the local pane. The item lands in the local pane’s current folder.
Select several items first to drag them together. Folders are transferred recursively, with their full contents, and every file goes through the transfer queue, which runs a limited number of transfers at once (three by default).
Dropping a folder that already exists
Section titled “Dropping a folder that already exists”If you drop a folder onto a location where some of its files are already present, ZestSSH does not blindly re-send everything. Files that are already identical on the other side (same size and modification time) are skipped automatically. For the files that differ, you are asked once how to handle them, and you can apply that answer to the rest of the batch instead of answering for every file.
The choices are Replace changed files, Replace only when local is newer (a file that differs but has an older timestamp is held back and reported at the end, with a Send them anyway action), Skip existing files, and Keep both (upload under a new name). Files that do not exist on the other side yet are always transferred, whatever you chose for the conflicts. The prompt’s counter only counts files that actually differ, so a folder with three real changes never reads like a hundred conflicts. Before anything moves, ZestSSH compares the whole selection with the destination, folders included, so the prompt can say Conflict 1 of 4 and how many remain. When that cannot be known in advance (a file of the same size whose date changed needs a content check first, or the tree is very large), it counts up instead: Conflict 1, Conflict 2. Replace if newer is offered only while more conflicts follow, as a rule for the rest; for a single file, Replace or Skip with both dates on screen says the same.
A file that already exists on the other side with the same size and modification time is skipped before any prompt. A file with the same size but a different modification time (every file of a rebuilt build/ folder, an unzipped archive, a copy made without preserving timestamps, or a server that refused to keep the timestamp ZestSSH set) is checked by content (since 2.1.1): both ends are checksummed (sha256sum on the server, a local hash here) and the file is skipped when they match. Only a file that really changed is transferred, and the drop ends by saying how many unchanged files it skipped, or that everything was already up to date. Files over 2 GB skip the checksum and are transferred.
To push only what changed in a folder as a routine, with a preview of exactly what will be sent before anything moves, use Folder Sync instead of drag and drop.
Large folders
Section titled “Large folders”Before a large folder transfer starts, ZestSSH shows what the folder contains so you can leave out heavy subfolders such as node_modules or .git with one click. Everything you keep enters the transfer queue, and the Activity panel tracks progress for the whole operation.
From the OS file manager
Section titled “From the OS file manager”Dropping files from Finder, Explorer, or a Linux file manager directly onto the SFTP panes is not supported. To upload a file from anywhere on disk, navigate the local pane to its folder and drag it across to the remote pane.
Dropping files from the OS onto a terminal does something different: ZestSSH pastes their paths into the terminal, quoted so that spaces and shell metacharacters are safe. This is handy for building a command around a local path.
Platform differences
Section titled “Platform differences”| Platform | Between SFTP panes | OS drop onto a terminal | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | Yes | Pastes the path | Works with Explorer and most third-party file managers. |
| macOS | Yes | Pastes the path | Works with Finder. |
| Linux | Yes | Pastes the path | GTK and Qt file managers that support the XDND protocol. |
| Android | No | No | Single-pane browser; upload through the file picker. |
| iOS | No | No | Single-pane browser; upload through the file picker. |
On mobile, transfers start from the upload button (file picker) or the multi-select download action rather than drag and drop.
- Drop zone accuracy. Drop on the pane itself, not on the header bar or the transfer queue. The highlight border confirms you are in the right place.
- Many files at once. Dropping a big selection is fine: everything enters the queue and runs concurrently up to the configured limit. Watch progress in the transfer panel at the bottom of the screen.
- Repeat pushes. If you keep re-sending the same folder after edits, Folder Sync sends only the changed files and shows you the list first.
Related
Section titled “Related”- SFTP Browser: full overview of the SFTP interface on mobile and desktop.
- Folder Sync: push a local folder to a server and send only what changed.
- Parallel Transfers: how concurrent transfers are managed.