Your best friend for file transfer.

Fetch application logoFetch
Fetch Icon Fetch Help > Using Fetch > Solving problems with websites and iWeb

Using the suggestions below, you can solve some of the most common problems you may have uploading your website; if they don't help, contact Fetch support for further assistance.

  1. I don't know or I've forgotten my hostname, username, or password.
  2. I don't see the latest changes I made to my website.
  3. My website doesn't show up at all.
  4. I get a "permission denied" or "operation not permitted" error when I try to upload my website files.
  5. Some of my website's links do not work or some of my pictures do not appear.
I don't know or I've forgotten my hostname, username, or password.
You should contact the company or person that runs the server to which you are trying to connect, and verify the hostname, username, and password you should use. When you are trying to upload webpages, usually this means you should contact the web hosting provider that you have signed up with or your Internet service provider. See the What do I enter in the hostname, username, and password fields? help topic for more information.
I don't see the latest changes I made to my website.
First, go to one of the pages you changed, and choose your web browser's reload or refresh command. In Safari, go to the View menu and choose Reload Page.
If you still don't see your changes, next empty your browser's cache. In Safari, go to the Safari menu and choose Empty Cache. Then quit your web browser, open it again, and visit your website and see if your changes appear now.
If you still don't see your updates after doing that, you may have uploaded your new webpages to a different folder than the one where the old webpages are. See the advice below for My website doesn't show up at all.
My website doesn't show up at all.
Check to make sure you uploaded your website files to the correct folder on the server. On many servers, the files that make up your website must go in a specially named folder, for example, one named "public_html", "htdocs", or "www" — the exact name of the folder will depend on your server. Usually you do not need to create this folder, it will already exist.
If you are unsure which folder you should put your website files in, you should contact the company or person that runs the server and ask which folder you should upload website files to.
If you used iWeb to create your website, be sure that you uploaded the contents of the folder where you published your website, but not the folder itself. (This advice does not necessarily apply if you are using a program other than iWeb to create your website.)

For example, let's assume your website is called "Family Trip", and when you use iWeb's Publish to a Folder command, you tell iWeb to put its files in a folder called "My New Website." Once iWeb is done publishing your files, in the Finder you will see:

My New Website (folder)
    index.html
    Family Trip (folder)

For your website to work correctly, you must be sure to upload both that index file, and the "Family Trip" folder (the folder with the name of your website). That is, upload the entire contents of the "My New Website" folder, but don't upload the "My New Website" folder itself.

It may be best to delete the files that you've already uploaded to the server and start fresh before trying again.
I get a "permission denied" or "operation not permitted" error when I try to upload my website files.
There are two common causes for these errors.
First, you may be trying to upload your files to the wrong folder on the server, and you do not have permission to upload files to that folder because it's not the proper location to put files. Double-check the instructions from your web hosting provider to make sure you're uploading to the correct folder for website files. See the advice above for My website doesn't show up at all.
Second, if you are using iWeb, the problem may be that some of the files and folders created by iWeb have spaces in their names, and some web servers do not allow spaces in the names of files or folders. Since iWeb uses the titles of your webpages as the names for files and folders, the solution is to edit your website so that none of the titles of your webpages contain spaces, and then re-publish the website and try uploading again. Do not rename your files in the Finder; this will break all your links. You must rename the pages in iWeb, and use iWeb's Publish to Folder command again.
If you rename your pages, it may be best to delete the files that you've already uploaded to the server and start fresh before trying again.
Some of my website's links do not work or some of my pictures do not appear.
If you rearranged or renamed files before uploading your website, that may be the source of the problem. Generally it is best to rename or rearrange websites using your website design program; do not rename or rearrange files in the Finder.
If you are using iWeb, after you make changes to your website, you must re-publish and re-upload the entire site. Because of the way iWeb creates websites, if you only upload some of your files after updating them, your website may not work properly. If you use the Fetch Mirror command to upload your website, it will correctly upload all the updated files as necessary.
Also, see the advice above for I don't see the latest changes I made to my website.

See the following help topics for more information about using Fetch for uploading websites: