Downloading files using FtpWebRequest

Question

I'm trying to download a file using FtpWebRequest.

private void DownloadFile(string userName, string password, string ftpSourceFilePath, string localDestinationFilePath)
{
    int bytesRead = 0;
    byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];

    FtpWebRequest request = CreateFtpWebRequest(ftpSourceFilePath, userName, password, true);
    request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile;

    Stream reader = request.GetResponse().GetResponseStream();
    BinaryWriter writer = new BinaryWriter(File.Open(localDestinationFilePath, FileMode.CreateNew));

    while (true)
    {
        bytesRead = reader.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);

        if (bytesRead == 0)
            break;

        writer.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
    }        
}

It uses this CreateFtpWebRequest method I created:

private FtpWebRequest CreateFtpWebRequest(string ftpDirectoryPath, string userName, string password, bool keepAlive = false)
{
    FtpWebRequest request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(new Uri(ftpDirectoryPath));

    //Set proxy to null. Under current configuration if this option is not set then the proxy that is used will get an html response from the web content gateway (firewall monitoring system)
    request.Proxy = null;

    request.UsePassive = true;
    request.UseBinary = true;
    request.KeepAlive = keepAlive;

    request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(userName, password);

    return request;
}

It downloads it. But the information is always corrupted. Anyone know what's going on?

Rick Eyre · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-15T17:18:20.420

Just figured it out:

    private void DownloadFile(string userName, string password, string ftpSourceFilePath, string localDestinationFilePath)
    {
        int bytesRead = 0;
        byte[] buffer = new byte[2048];

        FtpWebRequest request = CreateFtpWebRequest(ftpSourceFilePath, userName, password, true);
        request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile;

        Stream reader = request.GetResponse().GetResponseStream();
        FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(localDestinationFilePath, FileMode.Create);

        while (true)
        {
            bytesRead = reader.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);

            if (bytesRead == 0)
                break;

            fileStream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
        }
        fileStream.Close();       
    }

Had to use a FileStream instead.

While this code works, it's unnecessarily complicated. You can replace the loop with simple call to `Stream.CopyTo`. Or you can even replace whole code with `WebClient.DownloadFile`. See my answer below. — Martin Prikryl, Aug 21 '21 at 07:37

Martin Prikryl · Answer 2 · 2021-02-15T07:10:29.270

Easiest way

The most trivial way to download a file from an FTP server using .NET framework is using WebClient.DownloadFile method:

WebClient client = new WebClient();
client.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
client.DownloadFile(
    "ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip", @"C:\local\path\file.zip");

Advanced options

Use FtpWebRequest class, if you need a greater control only, that WebClient class does not offer (like TLS/SSL encryption, progress monitoring, ascii/text transfer mode, resuming transfers, etc). An easy way, is to just copy an FTP response stream to FileStream using Stream.CopyTo method:

FtpWebRequest request =
    (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip");
request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile;

using (Stream ftpStream = request.GetResponse().GetResponseStream())
using (Stream fileStream = File.Create(@"C:\local\path\file.zip"))
{
    ftpStream.CopyTo(fileStream);
}

Progress monitoring

If you need to monitor a download progress, you have to copy the contents by chunks yourself:

FtpWebRequest request =
    (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip");
request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile;

using (Stream ftpStream = request.GetResponse().GetResponseStream())
using (Stream fileStream = File.Create(@"C:\local\path\file.zip"))
{
    byte[] buffer = new byte[10240];
    int read;
    while ((read = ftpStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
    {
        fileStream.Write(buffer, 0, read);
        Console.WriteLine("Downloaded {0} bytes", fileStream.Position);
    }
}

For GUI progress (WinForms ProgressBar), see:
FtpWebRequest FTP download with ProgressBar

Downloading folder

If you want to download all files from a remote folder, see
C# Download all files and subdirectories through FTP.

Downloading files using FtpWebRequest

2 Answers2

Easiest way

Advanced options

Progress monitoring

Downloading folder

Linked