An annotation data file in one of the supported custom track formats may be uploaded by any of the following methods:

- (Preferred) Enter one or more URLs for custom tracks (one per line) in the data text box. The Genome Browser supports both the HTTP and FTP (passive-only) protocols.
- Click the "Browse" button directly above the URL/data text box, then choose a custom track file from your local computer, or type the pathname of the file into the "upload" text box adjacent to the "Browse" button. The custom track data may be compressed by any of the following programs: gzip (.gz), compress (.Z), or bzip2 (.bz2). Files containing compressed data must include the appropriate suffix in their names.
- Paste the custom annotation text directly into the URL/data text box.

If a login and password is required to access data loaded through a URL, this information can be included in the URL using the format protocol://user:password@server.com/somepath. Only Basic Authentication is supported for HTTP. Note that passwords included in URLs are not protected. If a password contains a non-alphanumeric character, such as @, the character must be replaced by the hexidecimal representation for that character. For example, in the password mypwd@wk, the @ character should be replaced by %40, resulting in the modified password mypwd%40wk.