Troubleshooting Webmail

This document attempts to answer some basic questions about email and webmail on a cPanel server.

Why can't I find the webmail application I want?

Your hosting provider may have disabled 1 or more of the 3 webmail clients we offer with cPanel. For more information, you will need to contact your hosting provider to find out whether this is the case, and why they have disabled the client.

Why can't I log out?

This is most likely because your hosting provider has chosen to use HTTP authentication, rather than cookie-based authentication. To completely log out of your webmail account, you need to quit your browser session completely. When quitting your browser session, you need to make sure to close all windows and tabs, and ensure that you have terminated the browser application.

For more information about using cookie-based authentication, you should contact your hosting provider.

Why can I send but not receive mail?

You should inform your hosting provider about the situation and request their technical support.

Can I filter incoming messages?

Yes! To learn how, visit our Mail Filtering documentation.

How can I filter spam?

cPanel comes equipped with 2 applications that will help prevent spam:

• BoxTrapper — BoxTrapper works through "challenge-response" verification. When an email is sent to an account that has enabled BoxTrapper, a verification email is automatically sent in response. At this point, the sender will need to respond to the verification email so that his or her address is whitelisted and able to send mail to your email account.
• SpamAssassin — SpamAssassin is an email utility that attempts to filter spam by examining incoming email and testing for spam characteristics. The testing results in an overall score. If an incoming message reaches or exceeds a predefined score, the message is discarded.

Your hosting provider may have disabled 1 or both of these email utilities. If you do not see BoxTrapper or SpamAssassin in your cPanel interface, contact your provider for information about filtering spam email.

Why does a particular webmail application load automatically?

This is because you clicked the Enable AutoLoad link on the Secure Webmail Login screen. To disable auto-loading:

1. Click the Webmail icon on your cPanel home page.
2. Click the Go to Secure Webmail Login link on the resulting page.
3. Click the Stop button before the timer counts down to 0 in the pop-up window.
4. Click the red Disable AutoLoad link to prevent the webmail client from automatically loading whenever you access the Secure Webmail Login screen.

How can I direct incoming mail to another email account?

Mail forwarders allow you to forward mail from one email address to another. To learn more about setting up mail forwarders, visit our Mail Forwarders documentation.

How do I log into webmail?

1. Access your domain at port 2096. To do so, you will need to affix your domain with a colon (:) and 2096. For example, http://www.example.com:2096.
2. Enter the email address you wish to access in the Email field. (e.g. user@example.com)
3. Enter the corresponding password in the Password field.
4. Click the Login button.

Can an individual user access webmail without the cPanel control panel?

Yes, simply go to https://example.com/webmail or https://example.com:2096 (replacing example.com with your domain name) to log in directly with the email account and password.

After I read mail in my mail client, it remains marked as unread in cPanel's webmail.

This is most likely because your hosting provider has opted to use the POP3 protocol to retrieve email. This protocol does not inform the mail server when you read messages. For more information about the email protocol your server uses to retrieve mail, you should contact your web hosting provider.