How to Install SFTPGo on macOS

SFTPGo is a secure FTP server that can be used to transfer files securely over the internet. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps to install SFTPGo on your macOS system.

Prerequisites

  • A macOS system with an internet connection
  • A Terminal application to execute commands

Step 1: Download SFTPGo

Firstly, visit the official website of SFTPGo https://github.com/drakkan/sftpgo and navigate to the latest release. Once you are on the latest release page, download the .dmg file.

Step 2: Install SFTPGo

After downloading the .dmg file, open the downloaded file by double-clicking on it. This will mount the disk image containing the SFTPGo installer.

Next, simply drag the "SFTPGo" icon to the "Applications" folder to install the application.

Step 3: Configure SFTPGo

Once the installation is complete, open the Terminal application and type the following command to launch SFTPGo server:

/Applications/SFTPGo.app/Contents/MacOS/SFTPGo

By default, SFTPGo listens on port 2022, so make sure you have allowed inbound traffic on this port in your firewall settings.

You can further customize the SFTPGo server configuration by editing the configuration file. The configuration file can be found in /Applications/SFTPGo.app/Contents/Configs.

Step 4: Use SFTPGo

With SFTPGo successfully installed and configured, you can now start using it to transfer files securely over the internet. You can use any FTP client, such as FileZilla or Cyberduck, to connect to your SFTPGo server.

Additional Information:

  • To start/stop the server, you can use the key combination Ctrl+c in the Terminal window where the SFTPGo server is running.

  • If you want to run SFTPGo as a background process, you can use the following command:

    /Applications/SFTPGo.app/Contents/MacOS/SFTPGo --simple-log --config-file /Applications/SFTPGo.app/Contents/Configs/sftpgo.yaml &

    This will start the SFTPGo server in the background with simple logging enabled. You can then close the Terminal window without stopping the server.