Google Chrome 82 won't support FTP anymore
Google Chrome 82 won't support FTP anymore according to the recently published "Intent to Deprecate: FTP Support" document by Google.
All modern web browsers support FTP at the time of writing. Users may click on ftp:// links or type them manually in the browser's address bar to open a connection to the site.
Google argues that the implementation of FTP in Chrome does not support encrypted connections and that usage is too low, the company said that 0.1% of users use FTP, to justify spending resources on integrating secure FTP functionality in the browser.
The company opened a bug on the official Chromium bug tracker in 2015 to remove built-in support for FTP from Chrome and this bug has been revived recently to remove FTP components from Chrome.
A bug was filed by Mozilla on Bugzilla, Firefox's bug tracking site that referred to Google's bug; Mozilla decided against the removal at the time and the last entry dates back two years.
Mozilla did implement an option in Firefox 60 in 2018 however to disable FTP support in the browser.
Chrome 72 started to block support for fetching resources from FTP and rendering top level FTP resources, Firefox 61 introduced the blocking of resources from FTP as well, and Chrome 76 dropped proxy support for FTP.
Google made the decision to remove the two remaining FTP capabilities from Google Chrome, namely displaying a FTP directory listing and downloading resources from FTP directly.
We would like to deprecate and remove this remaining functionality rather than maintain an insecure FTP implementation.
The timeline for FTP deprecation in Chrome:
- Chrome 78: Start of FTP deprecation. Finch controlled flag and enterprise policy for controlling overall FTP support
- Chrome 80 (Q1 2020): gradual turndown of FTP in stable.
- Chrome 82: FTP related code and resources are removed.
When Chrome 82 or newer encounter FTP resources, Chrome attempts to redirect the request to the default FTP handler on the system. Google has not revealed how it plans to handle configurations in which Chrome is the default FTP handler.
Chrome users who use to load PAC scripts from FTP need to "migrate to other means for fetching PAC scripts" according to Google once Chrome 82 is released to the stable channel. Under 0.0002% of users fetch PAC scripts over FTP according to Google.
Are companies that develop browsers based on Chromium affected by the decision as well? Yes they are as Vivaldi, Microsoft, Opera or Brave all use Chromium as the base. Companies who want to continue supporting FTP would have to change the code to make sure support remains available in the browser.
It seems likely that most browsers won't support FTP anymore at the end of 2020. FTP is not going away just yet though; FTP clients, e.g. FileZilla or FTP Rush are available and may be used to access these resources.
Now You: What is your take on the FTP deprecation in Chrome? (via Techdows)
FTP slow? no, it is very fast if you transfer only a single file. and if there were many a zip bundle could be made
FTP was easy to setup too, and very convinient. just copy and paste server address to anyone
stupid, now its disabled in both android and pc browser. but windows 10 can still access on setup network disk/location.
android phone needs an app download.
entering ftp url in google browser redirects to fucking search.
this is sick, and we do not want it.
think i will buy apple phone next, maybe better.
how are we supposed to share files directly now? windows or android do not support any other sharing protocols as i have seen?
going, going, gone.
bye bye FTP
FTP sites STILL working with Google Chrome 85 stable and 86 beta
according to this Chrome Platform status page (updated Aug. 1, 2020):
https://chromestatus.com/feature/6246151319715840
Google may start to disable FTP support with Chromium 87 and then remove it with v88
I’ve just installed Chrome 83 update today and FTP still works (due to covid-19 holdout).
Due to the current covid-19 crisis, plans to deprecate ftp support in Chrome are recently put on hold:
https://www.chromestatus.com/feature/6246151319715840
“Once the current COVID-19 crisis passes by we’ll commence turning down FTP support via server-side configuration. For the moment, deprecation is on hold.”
FTP is complex to set up. Binfer is a more secure alternative. See Binfer as FTP alternative
The biggest issues with Google is their manipulation of what is supported and not supported. Who made Google the entity that decides anything, and why do other browsers simply fall in line.
Q: Who made Google the entity that decides anything?
A: We vote for such with our money and time.
Q: Why do other browsers simply fall in line?
A: It’s economics.
> We vote for such with our money and time.
Do most of users make a conscious and informed decision for what browser to use, or just use the default one whatever it is ?
> It’s economics.
Which doesn’t explain anything nor implies any form of legitimacy.
Their marketshare. Like Microsoft did in IE glory days. It was Microsoft, now it’s Google, tomorrow who knows. Make no mistake, this will never change, it’s simple mathematics.
I’m using RaiDrive (just google it, I don’t know if I should post link) and it’s really simplify things for me.
You guys should check it out and try it for your self. After installation you just need to add your drive of choice, from Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox etc. to NAS (WebDAV, SFTP, FTP).
Why stop there. Chrome should drop HTTP and HTTPS support aswell.
Back in the day, for those in the know, Firefox+DownThemAll!+Filemare was a great way to find and download tons of “free” media via FTP. But alas, those days are sadly gone.
Nevertheless, FTP is still a simple way for even non-geeks to serve/share files, such as with FileZilla and private FTP servers.
As for Chrome dropping FTP support, I understand the privacy concerns with using FTP connections, but there is FTPS and such.. As for the security concerns, I don’t understand how FTP is that complicated in that regard, as it’s rather basic/static with no need for JS and such. Yet I imagine there’s some complicated security concerns with MITM attacks, server-side scripts and/or such, but IDK.. Regardless, the clear issue is this:
“Google argues that the implementation of FTP in Chrome does not support encrypted connections and that usage is too low, the company said that 0.1% of users use FTP, to justify spending resources on integrating secure FTP functionality in the browser.”
So that’s that.
That said, I wish Firefox would integrate DownThemAll! functionality with continued FTP support and more.
On irregular (but often) intervals I need to pull data from one continent to another. Often enough that automatizing these steps was preferred. The person on the other end insisted that it needed to be done win Windows batch. Ugh.
During that whole process, (S)FTP(S) was tried first. After all, Windows command line has FTP build-in. Tried several FTP servers on my end in combination with Windows FTP clients on the other end. Always slow. WinSCP? Slow.
Then I discovered WebDAV, which was pretty easy to setup on my end and using the (command-line) client CarotDAV on the other end. With FTP transfers would take an hour on average. With WebDAV transfers are done on average between 8 to 10 minutes.
Since then (S)FTP(S) has been dead to me. The last time I used FTP in any way or form to transfer files is easily more than 5 years ago. So I won’t miss it.
However, that is my n = 1 experience, which is certainly not similar to others who might love ftp still. Google is starting to dictate what we can or cannot do on the internet. Of course, they do this already for years, but lately they don’t care doing this in the shadows anymore. Which is worry-some.
Anyway, FireFox is my main browser and Opera is the only chromium-based browser I allow on my systems.
@Gerold Manders
Are you saying you have found that WebDAV is faster than FTP, or did you mean FTPS, or both?
I’ve never used WebDAV, but I know FTP is faster than FTPS.
Also, I see WebDAV can use either HTTP or HTTPS, were I imagine with HTTPS it’s likewise comparatively slower in that regard, right?
In other words, call me daft, but I don’t understand what you’re actually comparing here, but I am earnestly curious to know.
Regardless, thanks for this tip about WebDAV. As need be, I will check it out more, but if there’s lacking point-and-click free-software support, then it’s likely not a fit for my cretinous requirements.
What? I honestly thought FTP support was already out of current Chromium o.O It has been a while since last time that I used this protocol.
Good news! The more bloat Google strips from the browser, the better!
If you need ftp support that badly, go grab your old AOL cd and set up your dial-up connection so that you can then use your usenet client to download the latest release of WinSCP and use that for ftp instead.
For the rest of us, we’ll stick to http(s) over fiber optic for up/downloading our files. :)
Some of you guys, geez! Why load up filezilla if you just wanna pull some files off a ftp server? I’ve never used chrome so this has no effect on me.
When will Google deprecate DNS?
“It’s insecure anyway, here’s a whitelist of “AI approved” websites you’re allowed to visit”
I rarely use FTP, but when I do, I use FileZilla with success, just out of a long time habit.
FTP is something the average user hardly needs and FileZilla is a better choice anyway. Additionally, many public FTP servers offer a Web interface via HTTP (i.e. https[://]ftp[.]mozilla[.]org/pub/firefox/releases/) so nothing will really change.
Nothing like dumbing down products to their lowest common denominators.
the world, the internet, and everything that is good in this life, was not realized by average people. its the 0.5% that make things happen. The other 99.5% are tagging along.. Average Joe, never got anything done in this world. I Think you will find a lot of the people out there, that actually make this world happen, are in that very 0.5% that companies like google don’t want to cater to anymore…it makes my blood boil to see them drop ftp, like it is nothing.. they should be obligated to support it., it should not be their decision to make. I use FTP all the time, and Chrome is really starting to alienate me, by trying to limit what i am able to do, to get stuff done. Sure I can use other tools, but chrome is becoming part of the problem, than the solution it once was.
I have never used that option in any brand of browser. Why use that option when i am already 18 years a happy user of the FileZilla 64 Bit (latest version. 3.43.0) program, witch provides better security and more options?
Chosen excerpts from the bugzilla:
—
“Absolutely ridiculous. Just because Chrome does something does not mean Firefox needs to follow!”
“As for the actual FTP support: The code has been stable for a very long time and doesn’t really require any maintenance.”
“Please find out the true reason for Google to drop this from Chrome before considering doing the same.”
—
Mozilla will probably do it too some day if Google does it. The FireFTP classic extension may have been a replacement but it does no longer exist and I don’t know if webextensions can even do that. WinSCP is another FTP client.
> the company said that 0.1% of users use FTP, to justify spending resources on integrating secure FTP functionality in the browser.
So just leave normal FTP in there?
Since Chrome is deprecating FTP, I guess that means the rest of the internet will deprecate it as well. Firefox certainly tried a few years back, and I’m sure it won’t be the last time.
“usage is too low, the company said that 0.1% of users use FTP”
Tracking their users they are – what a surprise it is…
I’m developing a photography website that functionally depends on the full implementation of FTP. Users can with a single click of a button, download all their photos and videos directly from an FTP server housed in the photographer’s studio. If Google removes the FTP client from Chrome, it will kill my business. How do I stop this from happening?
Besides, 0.1% of Chrome’s user base is not really that low. We don’t know the exact numbers, but if it is 500 million users, 500.000 users would use FTP.
500,000k?
500,000, sorry for the mixup.