I’m looking into The Forge as a possible host to relieve some of the issues that I’ve run into while self-hosting on my PC as a non-dedicated server over the last year or so.
One of my players and I are testing out one of the worlds we’ve imported. I have her listed as a trusted player in foundry player configuration and on the forge player configuration. However, she cannot see many different folders we’ve had in our original game for stuff I’d have my players upload themselves, like tokens and other images for their character sheets and abilities.
I’ve also noticed that under the user data, it doesn’t show for me, but it shows in my assets library. Is there a way to FTP to my server to ensure the folders and files are set up like I’d like them to?
Hi and welcome!
I think your issue is that you’ve come with some confusion on how our Assets Library works, so let me clarify that for you (You can read more about it here : The Assets Library - Docs - The Forge)
The only files on the server (the “user data”, what we call the Game Data storage) is the world’s database (data/*.db files), but all other files (maps, tokens, music, etc…) are stored in your assets library (which is the equivalent of a pre-configured S3 storage). Each player has their own private assets library, this allows players to upload their tokens/avatars to their own library and use it in any game, regardless of who hosts it. This also allows the GM to upload their assets without the worry that a player might view a map and spoil the story (this was one of our features from even before Foundry added the ability to mark folders as private).
You can view your own assets library from https://forge-vtt.com/assets
This is why your player is not seeing the files, when browsing the assets library, they are browsing their own private library, not yours.
For groups where you may have a co-DM and you want the two DMs to access the same assets library (and/or to have access to the higher per-file size limit), then we provide our API keys system, so you can generate an API key to provide your trusted player/co-dm giving them access to your assets library (and you can define when it expires, or if it’s read-only or read-write), you can see instructions about that here : How to share access to your Assets Library - Docs - The Forge
Finally, to answer the question about FTP access, I’m going to refer you to this article which explains why we do not provide that to our users : SSH/FTP and The Forge - Docs - The Forge
We certainly do things a bit differently from what you would be accustomed to, coming from a self-hosted setup, but I think it is for the best and a much better system for managing your files securely. I hope this helps you better understand the differences and how the assets library works, and solves your issue.
If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Thanks!
Ah, I wasn’t aware forge was locked down in such a way. I’ve rented gaming servers previously in the past, and they were set up like a VM with full access. I thought this was going to be similar.
The API key might work for our purposes, we’ll have to try it. Thank you! 
Yeah, it’s very different from other hosts.
I’m of the philosophy that the average user isn’t tech-savvy and doesn’t need to know about how/where files are stored, you’re renting access to our services, not to a VM. We aim to provide a service that is very much turn-key, with a user experience similar to Roll20’s but using Foundry as the VTT behind it! So we keep it as user-friendly as possible, make it convenient to use the service without having to mess with files or anything of the sort (that’s why I don’t want to add the FTP option, as it could just confuse users on “why do I need to install this other program to be able to use Foundry”).
There’s plenty of VM-like hosting, but only one Forge, and that’s why I think we’re so popular 
It’s also why I like to call The Forge “a VTT platform, powered by Foundry VTT” rather than a “Foundry VTT hosting service”.