The file_exists() function in PHP, is used to check if a file or directory exists on the server. But the file_exists() function will not usable if you want to check the file existence on the remote server. The fopen() function is the easiest solution to check if a file URL exists on a remote server using PHP.

The following code snippet show you how to&nbsp;<b>check if remote file exists</b>&nbsp;using fopen() function in PHP.
<pre>//&nbsp;Remote&nbsp;file&nbsp;url
$remoteFile&nbsp;=&nbsp;'https://www.example.com/files/project.zip';

//&nbsp;Open&nbsp;file
$handle&nbsp;=&nbsp;@fopen($remoteFile,&nbsp;'r');

//&nbsp;Check&nbsp;if&nbsp;file&nbsp;exists
if(!$handle){
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;echo&nbsp;'File&nbsp;not&nbsp;found';
}else{
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;echo&nbsp;'File&nbsp;exists';
}</pre>
You can also use cURL to check if a URL exists on the remote server. The following code snippet show you how to&nbsp;<b>check if remote file URL exists</b>&nbsp;using cURL in PHP.
<pre>//&nbsp;Remote&nbsp;file&nbsp;url
$remoteFile&nbsp;=&nbsp;'https://www.example.com/files/project.zip';

//&nbsp;Initialize&nbsp;cURL
$ch&nbsp;=&nbsp;curl_init($remoteFile);
curl_setopt($ch,&nbsp;CURLOPT_NOBODY,&nbsp;true);
curl_exec($ch);
$responseCode&nbsp;=&nbsp;curl_getinfo($ch,&nbsp;CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
curl_close($ch);

//&nbsp;Check&nbsp;the&nbsp;response&nbsp;code
if($responseCode&nbsp;==&nbsp;200){
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;echo&nbsp;'File&nbsp;exists';
}else{
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;echo&nbsp;'File&nbsp;not&nbsp;found';
}</pre>

The file_exists() function in PHP, is used to check if a file or directory exists on the server. But the file_exists() function will not usable i...

How to Check if Remote File Exists using PHP