PHP Ftp_Nlist Is Not Working

PHP ftp_nlist is not working

Most typical cause of problems with ftp_nlist (or any other transfer command like ftp_get, ftp_put, ftp_rawlist) is that PHP defaults to the FTP active mode. And in 99% cases, one has to switch to the FTP passive mode, to make the transfer working. Use the ftp_pasv function.

$connect = ftp_connect($ftp) or die("Unable to connect to host");
ftp_login($connect, $username, $pwd) or die("Authorization failed");
// turn passive mode on
ftp_pasv($connect, true) or die("Passive mode failed");

See also my article on the active and passive FTP connection modes.

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Further, if your FTP server is reporting an incorrect IP address in the response to the PASV command, you might need to workaround it by using:

ftp_set_option($connect, FTP_USEPASVADDRESS, false);

See PHP FTP + Passive FTP Server Behind NAT.

Though the right solution in this case, is to get the server fixed.

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If none of this help, make sure you have tested, if you can even retrieve the directory listing using any commandline/GUI FTP client running on the same machine as your PHP code. You might not have a programming question in the first place.

ftp_nlist command not working

Turns out this was related to the server's firewall configuration.
Switched to passive mode after logging in and it worked ok.

ftp_pasv($connectionId, true);

ftp_nlist returning boolean true - not working on server, is on dev

It turns out the firewall on the shared server this code was running on was preventing FTP entering passive mode. Very odd.

ftp_nlist is not working on live

Issue is fixed now. There was problem with PORT on the server.

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