How to delete emails on the command line

Introduction

The following provides guidance on how to get started with removing email messages via the command line with Dovecot tools.

Please note that an administrator should always use Dovecot tools to manipulate email messages on the command line to avoid data corruption or other potential issues. 

Please keep in mind that the process of manipulating email messages via the command line is an administrative task that is not related to cPanel or the basic configuration of cPanel. cPanel is not able to provide support for the steps provided in the guide below.

Procedure

Please note that a backup of the account should be taken before any changes are made, as failure to create a backup beforehand can result in irrecoverable data loss.

1. Access the server's command line as the 'root' user via SSH or "Terminal" in WHM.
2. Use the doveadm command to locate the emails to delete.

   doveadm search -u CPANELEMAIL@DOMAIN.TLD mailbox INBOX SEARCH-QUERY | while read guid uid;do doveadm fetch -u CPANELEMAIL@DOMAIN.TLD "hdr.subject date.saved" mailbox-guid $guid uid $uid;echo "----------";done

   Please note that "CPANELEMAIL@DOMAIN.TLD" and "SEARCH-QUERY" must be replaced with the email address of the account to delete emails from and the search query to locate the emails to be deleted.
3. Verify that the previous command returns the correct messages.
4. Use the doveadm command to delete the emails.

   doveadm expunge -u CPANELEMAIL@DOMAIN.TLD mailbox INBOX SEARCH-QUERY

   Please note that "CPANELEMAIL@DOMAIN.TLD" and "SEARCH-QUERY" must be replaced with the email address of the account to delete emails from and the search query to locate the emails to be deleted.

Additional resources

Generate a full cPanel backup

doveadm-expunge

doveadm-search

doveadm-search-query