Cyberduck is an FTP client that can be used to easily access and manage Amazon S3 buckets. It is an alternative to the AWS Management Console for managing your files on Amazon S3.

Note that uploads are considerably faster via Cyberduck (or another S3 client) than via the AWS Management Console.

Setup

• Download and install Cyberduck from here
• In Cyberduck, click Open Connection
  • Select “S3 (Amazon Simple Storage Server)”
  • For the username, enter your AWS access key, and for the password, enter your AWS secret access key (you can retrieve these credentials in the AWS Management Console)
• It’s practical to set a bookmark for this connection: Bookmark > New Bookmark

Permissions

It is important to set the permissions for the uploaded files correctly. Otherwise, your private files might end up publicly accessible.

• In Preferences > Transfers > Permissions > Uploads check to these permissions
• Set the permissions for files and folders
  • If the files are private, enable Read, Write, Execute permissions for the Owner, and no permissions for Group and Other