If the login succeeded, the username and password are correct - that is worth knowing, because it removes the thing everyone checks first. An empty listing has three usual causes.
1. Passive mode
FTP opens a second connection for the data. In active mode the SERVER connects back to you, which almost every home router and firewall blocks. The login uses the first connection and works; the listing uses the second and hangs, then shows nothing.
- Turn on passive mode in the client. In FileZilla: Settings, Connection, FTP, Passive.
2. You are in the wrong directory
Many accounts land in the home directory, and the site is in a subdirectory of it. An empty listing is then correct - there is genuinely nothing there.
public_html/ or httpdocs/ or www/3. Hidden files are hidden
A directory that holds only .htaccess or .env looks empty until the client is told to show files beginning with a dot.
- FileZilla: Server, Force showing hidden files.
Use SFTP instead
Plain FTP sends the password unencrypted. Anyone between you and the server can read it. SFTP runs over SSH on port 22, needs no second connection, and has none of the passive-mode problem.
sftp youruser@yourdomain.comIf SFTP is refused, the account may be FTP-only. That is worth changing rather than working around - a password sent in clear over hotel wifi is a compromise waiting to be collected.