In your website’s Server Settings, access your website’s database, SFTP credentials, and more advanced settings. This guide will give an overview of the options here.
This feature is available on sites with the WordPress.com Creator and Entrepreneur plans, and the legacy Pro plan. For sites on the free, Starter, and Explorer plans, upgrade your plan to access this feature.
In this guide
To visit the Server Settings area for a specific site:
- Visit the Sites page in your dashboard.
- Click on the site title in the list of your sites.
- Click on the “Server Settings” tab on the site overview page.
Guides to each setting found here are listed below.
If hosting access is not yet activated, you will find a notice that says, “Activate all developer tools.” Click the button labeled “Activate now” to unlock your server settings. This is a one-time action you will never need to do again for your site.
The following developer-level settings are found in the Server Settings tab:
Use the credentials provided to access and edit your website files using an SFTP client. To obtain your site’s SFTP credentials, take the following steps:
- Visit the Sites page in your dashboard.
- Click on the site title in the list of your sites.
- Click on the “Server Settings” tab on the site overview page.
- Under “SFTP/SSH credentials“, click the button labeled “Create credentials” to create and copy your site’s SFTP username and password.
- You will also see a toggle button labeled “Enable SSH access for this site” to click and enable SSH and use WP-CLI.
Visit the following guides to learn more about using SFTP, connecting to SSH, and using WP-CLI.
Developers can use phpMyAdmin to access a WordPress.com website’s database and run a wide range of operations. Click the “Open phpMyAdmin” button on the Server Settings tab to access your site’s database.
Learn more in our Manage Your Site’s MySQL Database guide.
In your website’s web server settings, you can configure options related to the PHP version and nonexistent assets on your site. Visit our Web Server Settings guide to learn more about these options.
If your website is missing the default plugins and themes that came with your plan, you may restore them by clicking a button. Visit our Restore Plugins and Themes guide to learn how.
While troubleshooting an issue, you may be advised to clear your site’s cache. Click the “Clear cache” button on the Server Settings tab to clear your site’s server cache.
Learn more in our Clear Your Site’s Cache guide.
