What the .filepart Extension Means When Downloading Files with WinSCP

May 16, 2011 — Tags: Secure FTP, WinSCP | 3 Comments

One thing aboutÂ downloading files with WinSCPÂ usingÂ Secure FTP (SFTP) is that sometimes it adds ".filepart" to the end of file names.Â The extra file extensionÂ tends to be added whenÂ I'm downloadingÂ severalÂ PDFsÂ atÂ the sameÂ time.Â So instead of havingÂ files named "MyFile.pdf", they would beÂ changed to "MyFile.pdf.filepart".

WinSCP screenshot showing some files with the .filepart extension At first,Â this seemed likeÂ something I needed toÂ justÂ live with.Â The filesÂ worked fineÂ once the extra extension was removed, so maybe it's a weird quirk of WinSCP.

But it turns out that the ".filepart" actually means the download was interrupted. According to the WinSCP help docs

"When transferring file with SFTP protocol, it is first transferred into a temporary file with .filepart extension. Only after the transfer is completed the extension is removed."

So instead of removingÂ the extension manually, just re-initiate theÂ download. Note thatÂ it's doesn't needÂ to download the entire file again,Â WinSCP seems to remember where it left off.

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3 Comments

#3 Ashish on 04.13.19 at 5:42 am
I am using WinSCP to move a simple small jpeg from the web server. Authentication was successful. This is what happened after the transfer.

Got alert – Transfer was successfully finished, but temporary transfer file 'INVOICE.filepart' could not be renamed to target file name 'INVOICE'. If the problem persists, you may try to t "

I next made a similar attempt from my own laptop and it succeeded without an issue. Not sure if this is an issue at my end or not, but figured it is better to bring it to your attention while I am investigating.
#2 Patrick Nichols on 01.06.13 at 9:25 pm
@Manisha – Did you try uploading the file(s) again? I would imagine that the upload process is similar to downloading files. The .filepart extension should hopefully go away.

If that doesn't work and you're uploading multiple files at the same time, you could try uploading files in smaller batches.
#1 Manisha on 01.06.13 at 11:55 am
While uploading the file its appened with extension .filepart and are of complete size and also there are files present with correct extension but zero kb.please suggest.