Google adds temporary flag to Chrome to allow FTP protocol
Google unveiled plans in 2015 to remove support for the FTP protocol from the company’s Google Chrome web browser; several other browser makers, in particular, Mozilla, announced plans to remove FTP support from their browsers, Firefox in the case of Mozilla as well.
Mozilla introduced a preference in Firefox 60 that allowed users to disable FTP support and started blocking FTP sub-sources in Firefox 61.
Google plans to disable FTP support in Chrome 82, which the company plans to release in the second quarter of 2020. FTP support will be gradually removed from the Chrome web browser; Here is the current schedule for removing FTP support:
- Chrome 79 – Support for FTP is disabled in-development versions of Chrome. Flag is added to Chrome to temporarily enable FTP support and Enterprise policy is made available to manage FTP support.
- Chrome 80 – FTP support is gradually disabled in stable versions of Chrome.
- Chrome 82 – FTP support is removed from the browser. There is no option to re-enable support for FTP in Chrome because the FTP code is removed from the browser.
Chrome postpones the processing of FTP URLs to the standard application on the system on which it is running; If an FTP client is installed and linked to the FTP protocol, it is used to access the source once the support has been removed from the web browser.
Chrome users who need FTP support in the browser can enable an experimental (and temporary) flag to restore support for the protocol until Chrome 82 is released.
- Load chrome: // flags in the browser’s address bar.
- Enable FTP search.
- Set the status of the flag. Enable FTP URL & # 39; s support on Enabled.
- Restart Chrome.
Please note that the flag will be removed from Chrome 82. It will state:
Enable support for FTP URLs
If enabled, the browser will handle navigation to ftp: // URLs by displaying a directory list or downloading the source via FTP. If disabled, the browser has no special processing for ftp: // URLs and delays processing of the URL to the underlying platform by default. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Android
Chrome users (as well as users from other browsers who no longer support FTP) may want to install an FTP client on their systems if they do not yet have access to FTP resources. View programs such as FTP Rush, WinSCP or FileZilla.