How to delete emails older than X days with the UAPI

Introduction

The UAPI can be used to delete email older than a specified age. This article provides the steps to do this.

Messages deleted with the UAPI are removed permanently and NOT placed in the .Trash folder.

Procedure

1. Access the server's command line.
2. Run the following command to find the guid of the mailbox from which to remove the mail.

   uapi --user=$username Mailboxes get_mailbox_status_list account='$user@domain.tld'|grep -A1 guid

   Please note that "$username" must be replaced with the username of the cPanel account the email address is on, and "$user@domain.tld" must be replaced with the email address.
3. Run the following command to delete the emails.

   uapi --user=$username Mailboxes Mailboxes expunge_messages_for_mailbox_guid account='$user@domain.tld' mailbox_guid='$guid' query='sentbefore $Xd'

   Please note that "$username" must be replaced with the username of the cPanel account the email address is on, "$user@domain.tld" must be replaced with the email address, "$guid" must be replaced with the mailbox guid found in the previous command, and "$X" must be replaced with the maximum age in days of an email to be kept.

Additional resources

Return cPanel account's mailbox status 

Delete selected messages in mailbox by GUID