Knowledgebase

Last modified: September 21, 2022

Overview

This feature lets you edit an existing email account. In addition to standard email accounts, you can use the cPanel account’s system user email account to receive mail for nonexistent or invalid addresses for your domains.

To access this interface, locate the email address that you want to edit in cPanel’s Email Accounts interface (cPanel » Home » Email » Email Accounts) and click Manage.

Manage the system user email account

The system creates the cPanel account’s system user email account when your hosting provider creates your cPanel account. It uses the account@domain.com format, where account is your cPanel account name and domain is your main domain. The username and password are the same as your cPanel account’s.

When you click Manage for this account, the system directs you to the Manage Email Accounts interface. It displays the following information:

• Email Account — The name of the email account.
• Current Storage Usage — The amount of used storage space, in bytes.

Use the More Actions section of this interface to select one of the following settings:

• Check Email — Click to check the system user email account’s mail. A new interface will appear that displays the account in Webmail.
• Free up Email Storage — Click to delete old messages from your mailbox. The system will direct you to cPanel’s Email Disk Usage interface (cPanel » Home » Email » Email Disk Usage).
• Manage Default Address — Click to manage a domain’s default address’s unrouted mail settings. The system will direct you to the Default Address interface (cPanel » Home » Email » Default Address).
  Note:

  The cPanel account’s default address is not synonymous with a domain default address. You must configure the domain default address separately.

Manage Email Accounts

You can modify the following settings in this section of the interface:

• Share the System-managed Address Book — This setting lets you use the system-managed address book. It serves as a user directory and allows for collaboration. Set the With all email accounts toggle to share this address book with the other email accounts on this account. When you disable it, only the system user email account has access to the system-managed address book.

  • Set the With all email accounts toggle to share this address book with the other email accounts on this account.
  • If you disable the toggle, only the default email account can access the system-managed address book.

• UTF-8 Mailbox Names — This setting lets you enable UTF-8-encoded mailbox names. By default, new accounts encode mailbox names with UTF-8. The system will save mailboxes to the filesystem as unencoded strings. This can break some types of email filters. Set the toggle to enable or disable this setting.

  Note:

  • If you transfer or restore an account from cPanel & WHM version 74 and earlier, this setting defaults to off.
  • If you transfer or restore an account using the default setting, it will continue to use the default.

   

• Automatically Create Folders for Plus Addressing — This setting allows you configure how the system handles plus addressing for the mailbox. Plus addressing (or subaddressing) adds a plus character and string after an email account username. For example, the user@example.com email address could use the user+list@example.com plus address. The email account would recognize these messages and place them in the list mailbox. Set the toggle to one of the following settings:

  • Automatically Create Folders. — When you receive an email that uses plus addressing and the folder does not already exist, the system will create a new folder. The system will deliver the message to that new folder.

  • Do Not Automatically Create Folders. — When you receive an email that uses plus addressing and the folder does not already exist, the system will not create a new folder. Instead, the system will deliver the message to the INBOX folder.

Manage an Email Account

When you click Manage for an email account, the system directs you to the Manage an Email Account interface. This interface lets you manage an email account. You can also select from the following account management settings:

Use the I Want To… section of the interface to select one of the following settings:

• Free up Email Storage — This lets you view all of your mailboxes and remove old or large messages. The system will direct you to cPanel’s Email Disk Usage interface (cPanel » Home » Email » Email Disk Usage).
• Manage Email Filters — This lets you to create rules to filter the email that arrives in the account. The system will direct you to cPanel’s Email Filters interface (cPanel » Home » Email » Email Filters).
• Send Automated Responses — This lets you configure your email account’s automated responses. The system will direct you to cPanel’s Autoresponders interface (cPanel » Home » Email » Autoresponders).

Use the Configure section of the interface to select one of the following settings:

• Connect Devices — This lets you configure your mail client to access your cPanel email address. The system will direct you to a new interface. For more information, read our Set Up Mail Client documentation.
• Configure Calendars and Contacts — This lets you access your calendars and contacts on your personal devices. The system will direct you to cPanel’s Calendars and Contacts interface (cPanel » Home » Email » Calendars and Contacts). For more information, read our How to Set Up Calendars and Contacts documentation.
  Note:

  This setting is available if your hosting provider has enabled the Calendars and Contacts feature in WHM’s Feature Manager interface (WHM » Home » Packages » Feature Manager).

Use the Authentication section of the interface to select the following setting:

• Manage External Authentication — This lets a user access cPanel with external authentication credentials. The system will direct you to a new interface. For more information, read our Password and Security documentation.
  Note:

  If you do not see this setting, your hosting provider has not configured it. Contact them and ask them to enable this feature in WHM’s Manage External Authentications interface (WHM » Home » Security Center » Manage External Authentications).

Security

Use this feature to change the account’s password. Enter a secure password in the New Password text box. A secure password does not contain a dictionary word. It must also contain uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. The system will evaluate the password that you enter on a scale of 100. A weak password has a 0 value, while a very secure password has a 100 value.

You can perform the following actions with this feature:

• Click the reveal () icon to display the entered password.
• Click Generate to let the system create a secure password for you. The system will reveal this password.
• Click the more icon () to select password complexity settings. The system will use these settings when it generates a new password.

Storage

The quota for an email account defines the amount of mail that the account can store. When the account exceeds this limit, the system returns any incoming mail to the sender. It also sends a message that states that the recipient’s mailbox is full. The system administrator can change this behavior in WHM’s Exim Configuration Manager interface (WHM » Home » Service Configuration » Exim Configuration Manager).

Use the Storage feature to manage the following settings:

• Current Storage Use — The amount of space that the email account currently uses.
• Allocated Storage Space — The amount of disk space that the account can use to store email. If an account has reached the allocated storage space, or you set it to an amount below what is currently being used, then when an email is sent to the address, you will receive a bounce back email similar to below:

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

  "user+Subject"@example.com
    (ultimately generated from susie1@test.com)
    LMTP error after RCPT TO:<"user+Subject"@example.com>:
    552 5.2.2 <susie1+Test@test.com> Mailbox is full / Blocks limit exceeded / Inode limit exceeded

You can select one of the following settings for allocating storage space:

• Enter a custom mailbox quota storage size. This value must be a whole number. You can also select different file sizes. For example, MB, GB, TB, and PB.
  Note:

  • Due to mail server constraints, you cannot assign quotas greater than 4096 TB (4 PB). You must assign the Unlimited value for quotas that exceed this amount.
  • Make certain that you track your quota usage. A mailbox with a full quota cannot receive mail.
  • The system calculates a mailbox’s quota use when a user logs in to that mailbox.
  • Your mailbox’s trash folder does not count in the quota calculation.
• Unlimited — There is no storage space limit.
  Note:

  If this setting appears as the Maximum setting, your hosting provider does not allow unlimited mailbox quota. If you assign a custom quota, it cannot exceed this value.

Restrictions

Use this feature to enable or disable a user’s ability to log in, receive mail, or send mail. You can also hold outgoing mail. Select Allow, Suspend, or Hold for the applicable setting.

Plus Addressing

Plus addressing (or subaddressing) adds a plus character and string after an email account username. For example, the user@example.com email address could use the user+list@example.com plus address. The email account would recognize these messages and place them in the list mailbox.

You can configure how the system handles plus addresses when the appropriate folder does not already exist. Select one of the following settings:

• Automatically Create Folders. — When you receive an email that uses plus addressing and the folder does not already exist, the system will create a new folder for the message. The system will deliver the message to that new folder.

• Do Not Automatically Create Folders. — When you receive an email that uses plus addressing and the folder does not already exist, the system will not create a new folder. Instead, the system will deliver the message to the INBOX folder.

Save or cancel your changes

At the bottom of the interface, you can perform the following actions:

• Stay on this page after I click Update Email Settings — Select this to remain on this interface after you click Update Email Settings.
• Go Back — Cancel any of your current changes. This will return you to the Email Accounts interface.
• Update Email Settings — Update the account with your changes. This will return you to the Email Accounts interface.

Delete Email Account

Use this feature to permanently remove the email account and its data. When you click Delete Email Account, a confirmation message will appear. Click Delete to remove the account.