How to correctly transfer folders to 000webhost server from filezilla?

I am a complete beginner at building websites so I apologize if I'm not using the correct terms when describing my problem.

I used filezilla to transfer a website onto my server hosted by 000webhost. I placed the folder with all the files into the public_html folder. When I try to open the site, I get the message :

You see this page because your website doesn't have "index.php" or "index.html" file in public_html folder.

It's able to recognize and process the index.php file when I upload the single file directly into the public_html folder, but not when it's in a folder that's uploaded into the public_html folder. Is it not able to process any of the files within the folder that I uploaded unless I remove them from the folder? Or am I not transferring the folder to the right place?

Solution

are you sure you didn't upload the folder itself instead of the "contents" of the folder there ? you need to ensure that, when you browse to the public_html folder on the FTP server (with filezilla) you can see the index.php file as well as other files and subfolders,and not just 1 folder.

i don't know 000webhost, but under public_html, you should have something like this :

public_html
  ->  index.php
  ->  other_pages.php
  ->  images/
  ->  css/
  ->  blabla/

and not :

public_html
  ->  your_folder/   # containing index.php

in filezilla, browse to your folder locally, and "select all files and subfolders" in it, and upload them all to public_html on the server