Where is email data stored on my cPanel server?

Question

Where are email messages and other email-related data for my cPanel users stored on the filesystem?

Answer

Please note, in the paths below:

$user represents the cPanel username.

$domain represents the domain associated with the cPanel user.

$email-user represents the email user on the domain.

The email data for cPanel users is stored in the following directory:

/home/$user/mail/

For a particular email account on a domain, the path is:

/home/$user/mail/$domain/$email-user/

This directory contains the mailbox data (e.g., inbox, sent, spam folders) for the specified email user.

For authentication and configuration files, details such as path, user/group IDs, and obfuscated passwords for email users are stored in:

/home/$user/etc/$domain/passwd
/home/$user/etc/$domain/shadow

• passwd: Contains email usernames and associated metadata.
• shadow: Stores encrypted password hashes for email accounts.