How does CloudsLinker connect to Drime?

With a Drime developer token. In Drime, click your avatar, open Settings, go to Developer and create a token. Paste that token into CloudsLinker's Add Cloud dialog, click Verify Token, then choose which Drime workspace the connection should use. Each connection maps to one workspace — to work across several workspaces, add one connection per workspace using the same token.

How to Transfer Files from FTP to Drime (2026): Manual, rclone, and Cloud-to-Cloud

Q: How much does Drime storage cost for a server migration?

Drime's free tier is 20 GB, enough for a test run but rarely for a server. Paid tiers are flat-rate: 500 GB at €2.99/month (€2.39 paid annually), 2 TB at €5.50/month (€4.40 annually), 3 TB at €10.99/month and 6 TB at €19.99/month. Check your server's real folder sizes first — a du -sh on the FTP host beats guessing.

Move files from an FTP/SFTP server into Drime three ways: manual download, rclone with the Drime backend, or a server-side copy with CloudsLinker — with the exact connection settings each route needs.

Introduction

Short answer: the cleanest way to move files from an FTP or SFTP server into Drime is a server-to-server copy — connect both ends to a cloud transfer service and let the data move between data centres while you do something else. The typical job here is getting content off self-managed infrastructure: a seedbox, a NAS export, an old hosting server whose contract is ending. Drime is a common landing spot for exactly that — a French cloud with encrypted storage, password-protected share links, and flat pricing that starts at 20 GB free and reaches 2 TB for €4.40/month on the annual plan. This guide covers three routes: the manual download-and-upload, an rclone job for command-line users (rclone has a native Drime backend), and a cloud-to-cloud transfer with CloudsLinker. It also lists the connection details each method needs — including the one hard requirement for any cloud-run method: your FTP/SFTP endpoint must be reachable from the public internet.

Why Move FTP Files into Drime?
Before You Start: What Each Side Needs
Method 1: Manual Download and Upload
Method 2: rclone with the Drime Backend
Method 3: Cloud-to-Cloud Transfer with CloudsLinker
Method Comparison
Practical Tips
FAQ

Why Move FTP Files into Drime?

An FTP or SFTP server is raw storage: it holds files, and everything else — sharing, previews, mobile access, backups of the box itself — is your problem. The move to Drime usually happens when one of those problems gets old:

The server is going away. A hosting contract ends, a seedbox subscription lapses, a NAS is being retired — and years of accumulated files need a new home that nobody has to administer.
Sharing by FTP credentials is a liability. Drime replaces "here's the FTP login" with password-protected, expiring share links.
You want an encrypted, hosted copy in the EU. Drime stores data in France with encryption on stored files — a reasonable landing spot for personal archives leaving self-managed hardware.
The price fits archives. Flat tiers instead of per-seat licensing: 20 GB free to test the waters, 500 GB at €2.39/month or 2 TB at €4.40/month on annual billing.

What does not carry over: FTP servers have no share links or app ecosystem to migrate — this is a pure file move, which makes it simpler than most cloud-to-cloud migrations. The only real decisions are how the data travels and who does the waiting.

Before You Start: What Each Side Needs

On the FTP/SFTP side

Endpoint and port: the hostname or IP, plus the port — commonly 21 for FTP, 22 for SFTP.
Credentials: a username and password with read access to the folders you are moving.
Public reachability (cloud methods only): the endpoint must accept connections from the internet, not just your LAN. A quick test from outside your network settles it.
Real folder sizes: run du -sh per folder (or check in your FTP client) so you know which Drime tier you actually need.

On the Drime side

An account with room: 20 GB free, paid tiers from 500 GB to 6 TB.
A developer token (rclone and CloudsLinker methods): log in to Drime, click your avatar ➔ Settings ➔ Developer ➔ Create Token.
A target folder: create a top-level folder (for example /Server-Archive/) so the incoming tree stays in one place.

Method 1: Manual Download and Upload

Step 1: Download from the Server with an FTP Client

Connect to the server with FileZilla, Cyberduck or any FTP/SFTP client, using the endpoint, port and credentials above. Select the folders to migrate and download them to a local staging folder such as ~/Desktop/FTP-Migration/.

This is the right method for a handful of folders. For tens of gigabytes it turns into a two-leg job — everything comes down your connection, then goes back up — and any interruption means re-checking what actually arrived.

Step 2: Upload to Drime

Open the Drime web app and drag the staging folder into your target directory. Drime preserves the folder structure and encrypts files on arrival. Spot-check a few files, then delete the staging copy to reclaim disk space.

Method 2: rclone with the Drime Backend

For command-line users

rclone ships a native Drime backend that authenticates with the same developer token. One thing to be clear about: an rclone copy between two remotes streams the data through the machine running rclone — it is not a server-side copy. Run it on a box with good bandwidth (a VPS near the FTP server is ideal), or accept that it uses your home connection like Method 1 does.

Step 1: Configure Both Remotes

Run rclone config twice: once to create an ftp (or sftp) remote with the server's endpoint, port and credentials, and once to create a drime remote, pasting the developer token when prompted.

Step 2: Run the Copy

A typical job looks like this:

rclone copy ftpsrv:/data/media drime:Server-Archive/media --progress

Two backend caveats worth knowing before you rely on it: the Drime backend supports neither modification times nor hashes, so rclone sync compares by file size only — fine for a one-shot migration, weak for ongoing incremental syncs. Filenames are also limited to 255 bytes of UTF-8.

Method 3: Cloud-to-Cloud Transfer with CloudsLinker

Move Server Libraries Without Local Staging

CloudsLinker connects the FTP/SFTP server and Drime directly and runs the copy on its own servers — nothing routes through your computer, and closing the browser does not stop the job. This is the route for server-sized folders, slow home uplinks, and transfers you want to schedule rather than supervise.

Step 1: Connect the FTP/SFTP Server

In CloudsLinker, click Add Cloud and select FTP (or SFTP). Enter the server address, port and credentials; an optional Access Path scopes the connection to one directory, which keeps the rest of the server out of reach. Remember the hard requirement: the endpoint must be reachable from the public internet.

Add FTP server to CloudsLinker with host, port, username, password and access path

Step 2: Connect Drime with a Developer Token

Click Add Cloud and pick Drime. Paste the token from Drime ➔ Settings ➔ Developer and click Verify Token, then choose which workspace this connection should use. Each connection maps to one workspace — for several workspaces, add one connection per workspace with the same token.

Connect Drime to CloudsLinker with a developer API token

Step 3: Configure the Transfer

In the Transfer section, pick the FTP connection as the source and browse to the folders you want to move; select the Drime target folder on the destination side. File-type and size filters let you skip junk like .tmp files or partial downloads. Use Copy mode for the first pass so the server copy stays intact until you have verified the result in Drime.

CloudsLinker transfer setup with FTP Server selected as source and Drime as target in copy mode

Step 4: Start and Monitor

Start the transfer and track it from the Task List. Failed files retry automatically and are listed per task, so a flaky server connection costs a retry rather than a restart. For a multi-folder migration, one task per top-level folder keeps retries fine-grained.

Method Comparison

Method	Ease of Use	Uses Your Bandwidth	Best For	Skill Level
Manual (FTP client + web upload)	★★★★☆	Yes — twice (down, then up)	A few folders, one-off moves	Beginner
rclone (Drime backend)	★★★☆☆	Yes — on whatever machine runs it	Command-line users, VPS-adjacent jobs	Advanced
CloudsLinker	★★★★★	No — runs server-side, unattended	Server-sized folders, scheduled or hands-off moves	Beginner

Practical Tips for FTP to Drime

Prefer SFTP over plain FTP: same transfer, but credentials and data are encrypted in transit — which matters more, not less, when a cloud service logs in across the public internet.
Size the destination before you start: 20 GB free covers a test run, not a server. Check real usage with du -sh and pick the tier one size up from what you measure.
Scope the FTP connection with Access Path: pointing the connection at /data/media instead of / means a misclick can never drag system directories into the transfer.
Do a test folder first: run one small folder end-to-end, open a few files in Drime, then launch the full job with settings you have already proven.
Reconcile counts before retiring the server: compare per-folder file counts between the FTP server and Drime. Only decommission the box once the numbers match — a copy you can still re-run is cheap insurance.
Rotate the token afterwards: the developer token exists for the migration. Once the job is verified, revoke it in Drime ➔ Settings ➔ Developer and issue a fresh one if you plan to keep the connection.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. A cloud-to-cloud service like CloudsLinker connects to your FTP/SFTP server with its endpoint, port and credentials, connects to Drime with a developer API token, and copies files directly between the two — nothing passes through your computer. The one requirement is that the FTP/SFTP endpoint must be reachable from the public internet.

With a Drime developer token. In Drime, click your avatar ➔ Settings ➔ Developer ➔ Create Token. Paste that token into CloudsLinker's Add Cloud dialog, click Verify Token, then choose which workspace the connection should use. Each connection maps to one workspace — to work across several workspaces, add one connection per workspace using the same token.

Yes — rclone ships a native Drime backend that authenticates with the same developer token from Drime's Settings ➔ Developer page. Two caveats: the backend does not support modification times or hashes, so syncs compare by file size only; and an rclone copy between an FTP remote and a Drime remote streams all data through the machine running rclone, so run it somewhere with good bandwidth.

Drime's free tier is 20 GB — enough for a test run, rarely for a server. Paid tiers are flat-rate: 500 GB at €2.99/month (€2.39 paid annually), 2 TB at €5.50/month (€4.40 annually), 3 TB at €10.99/month and 6 TB at €19.99/month. Check your server's real folder sizes first — a du -sh on the FTP host beats guessing.

Not directly. Cloud-run transfers connect from the service's servers, so the FTP/SFTP endpoint must be accessible over the public internet. If the server only exists on a LAN or behind a VPN, either expose it safely (port forwarding with strong credentials, or a temporary tunnel) or fall back to a local method such as rclone running inside that network.

Functionally no — both work as sources and behave the same in a transfer. SFTP encrypts the session over SSH (commonly port 22), while plain FTP transmits credentials unencrypted, so use SFTP whenever the server offers it — especially for a cloud transfer, which logs in across the public internet.

The transfer leg runs over the connection you choose — prefer SFTP so credentials and data are encrypted in transit — and Drime encrypts files on arrival. The developer token you issue governs only the workspace you picked, and you can revoke or rotate it in Drime ➔ Settings ➔ Developer the moment the migration is done.

Watch: Transfer Files from FTP to Drime with CloudsLinker

A real-time walkthrough of the cloud-to-cloud route: connecting an FTP server with its endpoint and credentials, adding Drime with a developer token and workspace selection, then running the copy server-side while the Task List tracks progress — no local download involved.

Conclusion

Moving files from FTP into Drime is mostly a question of scale and babysitting tolerance. A few folders: download with FileZilla and drag them into the Drime web app. Comfortable in a terminal: rclone talks to both ends, though the data streams through whatever machine runs it. For server-sized jobs, a cloud-to-cloud copy with [CloudsLinker](https://www.cloudslinker.com) is the only route where nothing touches your own connection — the FTP server connects with its endpoint, port and credentials, Drime connects with a developer token, and the copy runs unattended in the cloud with retries and a task log. Planning the rest of the move? See [Google Drive to Drime](/guides/transfer-files-from-google-drive-to-drime/) for the same destination from a consumer cloud, or the same source pointed elsewhere in [FTP/SFTP to PikPak](/guides/transfer-files-from-ftp-sftp-to-pikpak/). Details on the destination live on the [Drime support page](/support-clouds/drime/).

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