Web Disk is cPanel's name for WebDAV. It lets your computer mount the hosting account as if it were a network drive, so files appear in Finder or Explorer alongside everything else.
It is a genuinely useful tool for a narrow set of jobs, and a poor one outside them.
Setting it up
In cPanel, open Web Disk under Files. Create an account, choose the directory it should point at, and pick a permission: read-write or read-only.
The directory choice matters more than it looks. Pointing a Web Disk account at the home directory exposes everything, including files above public_html that were deliberately kept out of the web root. Point it at the specific folder the person actually works in.
cPanel then offers configuration scripts and manual instructions per operating system. The manual route is a URL, a username and a password, entered into the operating system's own "connect to server" dialog.
Choose the encrypted option
cPanel offers both an encrypted and an unencrypted connection, on different ports.
Use the encrypted one, always. The unencrypted variant sends the account password over the network in a form that can be recovered, and this is a real cPanel account password, not a limited token.
If the encrypted option refuses to connect, the cause is nearly always a certificate the client does not trust, which happens when connecting to a hostname the certificate does not cover. Connect using the domain the certificate is issued for rather than the server hostname.
The digest option, and Windows
cPanel offers digest authentication specifically for Windows clients, which historically refused to send credentials over connections they considered unverified.
If Windows connects and immediately disconnects, or reports that the folder is not accessible while the same details work on a Mac, enabling digest authentication for that Web Disk account is the usual fix. It is per-account rather than global.
Where it is slow, and why
Each file operation is its own HTTP request. Copying one document is one round trip and feels instant. Copying a theme folder with four thousand small files is four thousand round trips, and it is dramatically slower than any tool designed for the job.
Worse, an interrupted transfer leaves you with an uncertain state: some files copied, some not, and no reliable way to tell which without comparing them.
For anything beyond a handful of files, compress locally, upload the single archive, and extract on the server, uploading your website files deals with the pattern, and connecting via FTP deals with the tool that resumes when a connection drops.
Editing in place
The one thing Web Disk does better than the alternatives is opening a file directly, editing it in a normal desktop application, and saving straight back to the server.
That is a real workflow improvement for configuration files and templates. Just be aware that saving is a live change to a running site, with no staging step and no undo, several editors also write temporary and backup files beside the original, which then sit in your web root until someone removes them.
Disconnecting properly
A mounted Web Disk that loses its connection can leave applications hanging while they wait on a folder that is no longer reachable, which typically presents as the whole file browser freezing rather than as anything mentioning the server.
Unmount it when you are done rather than leaving it connected indefinitely, particularly on a laptop that changes networks.
If you mostly want browser-based access in place of a mounted drive, File Manager does the same jobs with none of the mounting complications.
Confirm the connection is actually encrypted
The protocol supports both encrypted and unencrypted operation, and a client configured years ago may still be using the second.
curl -sI https://example.com:2078/ 2>/dev/null | head -1 nc -zv -w 3 example.com 2077 2>&1 | tail -1 nc -zv -w 3 example.com 2078 2>&1 | tail -1
The encrypted port is the one to use. Where the unencrypted one still answers, a connection made to it sends the password and every file in the clear.
Read the client's own configuration rather than assuming it was set correctly, since the setting is chosen once at setup and never revisited.
It is slower than it looks for a reason
Working with files over this protocol feels sluggish compared with a local disk, and the reason is that every operation is a separate request.
time ls -la /Volumes/webdisk/ 2>/dev/null | head time cp largefile.zip /Volumes/webdisk/ 2>/dev/null
Listing a directory, opening a file and saving it are each a round trip. On a directory with many files that is noticeable, and on a slow connection it is unusable.
For a handful of files it is convenient. For a bulk transfer or for editing a large project, a dedicated transfer client or a shell session is considerably faster and less prone to leaving a file half written.
Disconnect before making changes elsewhere
A mounted connection holds files open, and changes made through another route while it is connected produce inconsistent results.
Editing a file through the panel's file manager while the same directory is mounted means the mounted copy is stale. Saving from the mounted side then overwrites the panel's change with the older content.
mount | grep -i dav umount /Volumes/webdisk 2>/dev/null
Disconnect when finished rather than leaving it mounted indefinitely. A stale connection also produces confusing errors after a password change, since the mount continues using the credential it was given.
Prefer a transfer client for anything substantial
The convenience of a mounted connection is real for a handful of files and it is the wrong tool for a bulk transfer. Every operation is a separate request, so copying a project of several thousand small files takes far longer than the same transfer through a dedicated client and is more likely to be interrupted partway. A partial transfer through a mount leaves files that appear complete and are not, which is worse than an obvious failure. Use it for editing a few files and something else for moving a site.