The industry-wide trend is moving away from FTP in favor of more secure protocols. Most modern organizations now prefer for simple file downloads and SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) for administrative file management because both provide end-to-end encryption.
Extensions like "sFTP Client" or "Shared Network Folder" can be added via the Chrome Web Store to provide a file management interface directly within a browser tab. Ftp Client Chrome
The primary driver for removal was that native FTP lacks encryption, sending login credentials and data in plain text. While secure versions like FTPS and SFTP exist, Chrome never supported them natively. The industry-wide trend is moving away from FTP
Google noted that browser-based FTP usage was low enough that maintaining the complex, unencrypted code was no longer a viable investment. The primary driver for removal was that native
For years, users could access FTP servers by typing ftp:// into the Chrome address bar to view directories and download files. However, Google began a multi-year deprecation process starting with Chrome 72 in 2018.
Support was officially disabled by default in Chrome 88 (January 2021), and all remaining FTP-related code was stripped from the browser in Chrome 95 (October 2021). Modern Alternatives for Chrome Users
Standalone software like FileZilla (cross-platform), WinSCP (Windows), or Cyberduck (Mac/Windows) offer full features including uploads and secure transfers (SFTP/FTPS).