I created an ftp account for a user to access the public_html folder and used filezilla to login in and double check to make sure it took me to the right directory which it did not. I went back to double check the path and found that the public_html folder is gone and is replaced with public_ftp. Obviously there is no site live now since the entire folder is gone.
I know I did not delete anything with %100 certainty and aside from loggin in with filezilla no other action was taken on the ftp part of things. I called hostgator and they say they cannot find the folder anywhere. I wonder if hostgator support had done something inadvertently that caused this.
Has anyone gone through this or knows where I could look to find the folder. The whole thing does not make any sense to me, how could it be gone when I know nothing was deleted. I never gave access to the site to anyone.
It is a wordpress site if that has any significance.
When you delete an FTP account you can choose to delete it's home folder. If you delete an FTP account that has public_html as its home folder that would mean you deleted the whole site. This may not be exactly what happened in your case but if not that, something similar.
public_ftp is typically used for anonymous users, so the fact that you are ending up there indicates there is something wrong with the permissions on the FTP account you created.