Cyberduck Keyboard Shortcuts
Cyberduck's design goal is making a remote server or cloud storage bucket feel like just another folder on your local machine, and its shortcut set leans heavily into that illusion — many of its bindings are deliberately identical to Finder's on Mac (Cmd+I for Get Info, Return to rename) rather than inventing FTP-client-specific conventions the way some competitors do. Because Cyberduck's companion product Mountain Duck can attach a remote server to the OS as a genuine drive letter or volume, some of its most useful 'shortcuts' aren't really Cyberduck shortcuts at all once mounted — you're just using normal Finder or Explorer shortcuts against what looks like a regular drive. Within Cyberduck's own browser window, though, the bookmark and connection-management shortcuts are where it earns its keep, since maintaining a list of frequently accessed servers and cloud buckets is core to how people actually use it day to day. Copying a direct URL to a cloud-stored object and quick round-trip editing of remote files both point at how much of Cyberduck's real daily value comes from smoothing over the friction of treating remote storage as genuinely equivalent to local storage, rather than requiring a distinct, more deliberate workflow every time a file needs a small edit or needs to be shared as a link.
Navigation
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get Info on selected item | Alt+Enter | Cmd+I | Opens an info panel for the selected remote file or folder, deliberately mirroring the native Finder shortcut on Mac since Cyberduck aims to feel consistent with the OS's own file browser conventions. |
| Rename selected item | F2 | Return | Enters rename mode for the selected remote file, matching each platform's own native file-manager convention (Return on Mac, F2 on Windows) rather than a single cross-platform Cyberduck-specific key. |
| Open transfer queue window | Ctrl+T | Cmd+T (varies) | Opens a separate window showing all active and completed file transfers, useful for monitoring progress on several simultaneous uploads or downloads. |
Bookmarks Connections
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open new connection dialog | Ctrl+N | Cmd+N | Opens the connection dialog to enter server details and connect to an FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, or supported cloud storage endpoint. |
| Add current connection as bookmark | Ctrl+B | Cmd+B | Saves the current connection's details as a reusable bookmark, letting you reconnect later without retyping host and credential information. |
| Show bookmarks list | Ctrl+1 | Cmd+1 (varies) | Switches the main window to show the saved bookmarks list rather than an active file browser, the starting point for most sessions. |
| Disconnect current server | Ctrl+W | Cmd+W | Closes the active connection to the current server without necessarily removing its saved bookmark, freeing up the session while keeping the bookmark available for reconnecting later. |
File Actions
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reload current directory | Ctrl+R | Cmd+R | Refreshes the current remote directory listing, useful after files have changed on the server side outside of Cyberduck's own actions. |
| Delete selected item | Delete | Cmd+Delete | Deletes the selected file or folder from the remote server, again mirroring each OS's native delete convention rather than a single unified shortcut. |
| Duplicate selected item | Ctrl+D | Cmd+D | Creates a copy of the selected remote file within the same directory, useful for creating a backup version before making risky edits to a configuration file directly on a server. |
| Create new folder | Ctrl+Shift+N | Cmd+Shift+N | Creates a new folder in the current remote directory, prompting for a name immediately. |
| Edit file with external editor | Ctrl+K | Cmd+K (varies) | Cyberduck's Mac build in particular integrates with the system's Open With mechanism: choosing an external editor for the selected remote item pulls it into a local scratch copy, hands that copy to whatever application you've associated with the file extension, and watches the local copy's modification timestamp to trigger a re-upload the moment the editor writes a save to disk. |
| Copy URL to selected item | Ctrl+Shift+C | Cmd+Shift+C | Copies a direct URL to the selected remote file to the clipboard, useful for sharing a link to a specific object stored on S3-compatible or similar cloud storage where a direct public URL makes sense. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Cyberduck use different shortcuts on Mac versus Windows for the same action?
Cyberduck deliberately mirrors each operating system's own native file-manager conventions (Finder on Mac, Explorer on Windows) rather than inventing a single cross-platform scheme, which is consistent with its broader goal of making remote file browsing feel like using the OS's own tools rather than a separate specialized application.
What's the relationship between Cyberduck and Mountain Duck?
Both are made by the same developer and share underlying connection technology, but they solve different problems — Cyberduck is a standalone browser-style app for connecting to and managing remote files, while Mountain Duck (a separate paid product) mounts a remote connection as an actual local disk/drive letter, letting any application on your system read and write to it directly as if it were local storage.
Is Cyberduck free, and does it support cloud storage providers beyond traditional FTP/SFTP?
Cyberduck's core client is free and open-source, and it supports a fairly wide range of cloud storage backends beyond FTP/SFTP/WebDAV, including S3-compatible storage, Backblaze B2, and others, which is part of why it's popular among developers managing cloud infrastructure rather than only traditional web hosting.
Does Cyberduck support keyboard shortcuts for jumping directly to a bookmarked connection by number?
Cyberduck doesn't provide a numbered quick-jump shortcut system for bookmarks the way some browsers offer for tabs; connecting to a saved bookmark requires either double-clicking it in the bookmarks list or using the search field within that list to filter down to it by name, rather than a single memorized numeric key.
Is there a way to see a remote file's permissions and change them without leaving the keyboard?
Get Info (Cmd+I on Mac, Alt+Enter on Windows) opens a panel that includes permission settings for the selected remote item where the server protocol supports it (like SFTP), letting you view and adjust permissions from within that panel, though the actual permission toggles themselves are checkbox-based rather than keyboard-shortcut-driven.
Does Cyberduck support two-factor authentication for SFTP or cloud storage connections?
Yes, where the underlying protocol or cloud provider supports it — SFTP connections using key-based authentication combined with a passphrase, and many supported cloud storage providers' own two-factor login flows, integrate with Cyberduck's connection process, though the specific setup steps depend on which service and authentication method you're connecting with.
Can I bookmark a specific folder path within a server, not just the server's root connection?
Yes — a bookmark can be saved while browsing to a specific subfolder, and Cyberduck will reconnect directly to that saved path rather than always starting at the server's root directory, which is useful for frequently accessed deep folder paths you don't want to navigate to manually every time.
Is Cyberduck's Windows version as fully featured as its Mac version, given its Mac-native design philosophy?
The Windows version supports the same core protocols and most functionality, though because Cyberduck's design language originated from mirroring macOS Finder conventions specifically, some interface details and shortcut choices on Windows feel slightly less native to that platform's own conventions than the Mac version does relative to Finder.
Does Cyberduck log connection history so I can quickly reconnect to a recent server even without a saved bookmark?
Yes — Cyberduck maintains a History list of recently connected servers separate from permanent bookmarks, letting you reconnect to a one-off server you connected to recently without needing to have deliberately bookmarked it beforehand.
Can I edit a remote file directly without a separate manual download and re-upload each time?
Yes, the Edit With external editor option downloads the file to a temporary local location, opens it in your configured default editor, and watches for it to be saved so it can automatically re-upload the changed version back to the server, removing the manual download-edit-reupload cycle that would otherwise be needed for a quick remote config file tweak.