I am trying to access a soft link through Filezilla called shared, located at /home/shared. Bob, and /home/bob is trying to access it. For some reason, he is asked for his password again when he opens it. Filezilla then says that it failed to open "\shared" for writing, and the file transfer failed. Bob is part of departments, and /home/shared is owned by root:departments, while the softlink, /home/bob/shared, is root:root. Why is bob required to enter his password again when accessing the shared directory, and why can't he access the shared directory?

-----------
Can you/he/anyone use standard *ftp* to access the /home/shared directory?
If not then perhaps the ftp section on the server needs attention.

I will make one assumption: the effort is to access ANOTHER computer located ELSEWHERE.
That being the case - expect to have to login (access-name/password) to 'there'.
You have given 2 shared directories. First is /home/shared and second is /home/bob/shared.
IF Bob is trying to get to the second then simply ftp machine address and login. FTP program rules apply.
IF Bob is trying to get to First then he needs to login as himself to his /home/Bob and issue a change directory to /home/shared. That shared directory (/home/shared) is not under the ftp directory on the disk. Bob needs to be able to login to that machine and his own home-dir and change directory to the /home/shared from the keyboard to that machine. The system and the programs are treating /home/shared as a bonified person/user/entity and all who cd to there are required to be *shared*, the owner. Ftp usually ignores *root* privileges. At least it is supposed to do so. Security and all that - Old Chap.

That was the foundation - the short is: your tree is wrong and ftp rules need to be enforced.

Best of luck
Norseman01