Keeping a copy of every e-mail the company sends and receives: Email Archiving in cPanel

E-mail·· 4 views· 3 min read

The short answer: cPanel’s Archive keeps a copy of all the e-mail that passes through the server for a domain: incoming, outgoing, or both. The copy is made the moment a message goes through, so it stays even if someone later deletes it from their mailbox. You choose how long it is kept, read it in webmail and download it. It uses the account’s space, and the team should know it exists.

Archive or a mailbox copy: what changes

cPanel Archive A mailbox copy
When it copies The moment each message comes in or goes out. When you make it: it copies what is in the mailbox that day.
Messages deleted earlier They are in the archive, if they went through the server while archiving was on. Not in the copy.
Which mailboxes All of the domain’s, at once. The mailbox you choose.
Space Uses the account’s space and grows every day. Lives wherever you keep it, for example on your computer.
What it is for A record of what the company sent and received. Recovering a mailbox: how to back up a mailbox.

Turning the archive on, step by step

1 In cPanel, in the Email section, open Archive. If it does not appear in your cPanel, ask us: it depends on the plan and the server.
2 Under Manage Archiving, on the domain you want, choose what to keep: Incoming Email Messages, Outgoing Email Messages and, if you use mailing lists, Outgoing Mailing List Email Messages.
3 For each type, choose the retention period from the list cPanel shows. Anything older than that period is removed by itself. A retention with no end keeps everything forever, and the space never stops growing.
4 To read it, use Access Webmail on the archive screen, or IMAP Access to open it in a mail program.
5 To keep it off the server, use Download Archive from time to time and store the file on a company disk.
6 Keep an eye on space in Disk Usage: the archive has a line of its own. The figure is not updated live; cPanel recalculates it periodically.
The archive keeps the mail of everyone on the domain, including what they deleted. Tell the team it exists, and check what the law and company rules allow before reading anyone’s mail.
Only mail that passes through our server is archived. A message sent with your address through another service (a newsletter platform, for example) is not. What you send from webmail, or from a program connected to mail.yourdomain, is.

Want to turn the archive on and unsure which retention to pick, or cannot see it in your cPanel? Tell us the domain.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Keeping your own copy of your e-mail: how to back up a mailbox

Restoring a single e-mail account or folder

Disk Usage: finding what fills your account

Your mailbox is full: what to delete and how to stop it happening

A new employee joins, a colleague leaves: opening and closing company mailboxes

Mailing lists in cPanel: one address for a whole group

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