An issue that occasionally arises on cPanel systems is email accounts suddenly missing from the Email Accounts page. You may try to recreate the missing account, only to be met with a warning that the account already exists.
This generally occurs due to an issue or conflict with the shadow or passwd files for your domain. Luckily, this issue can usually be resolved without losing your existing emails.
Here we cover the steps to remove the missing email account from the shadow and passwd files so that it can be re-added without losing your emails.
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Getting Started with cPanel
Edit File with File Manager
Create Email Account in cPanel
Remove Corrupted Email Account Data
- Log into cPanel
- Navigate to File Manage, located under the Files section
- Navigate to the etc directory, then the directory named after your domain
- Right-click the passwd file, then click Edit
- Locate the line for the missing email account
NOTE: This will be the username of the email account. For the email address user@domain.com, we will be looking for the line starting with "user". - Delete this entire line then click the Save Changes button
- Return to the File Manager
- Right-click the shadow file, then click Edit
- Once again, locate the line for the missing email account and delete it, then click the Save Changes button
- Recreate the email account in cPanel