Delete all emails in Trash via SSH

marlowmedia

• March 16, 2017 12:45

Hi, I'm trying to sort my work email out, i have over half a million emails in my Trash folder, using SSH how can i delete all the emails in my email Trash folder? Its starting to cause a few issues for me with Outlook. Thanks, Mike

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  cPanelMichael

  • March 16, 2017 17:58

  Hello, The following option exists under "WHM Home " Service Configuration " Mailserver Configuration": "Auto Expunge Trash" When this option is enabled, the system will remove messages in the Trash and Deleted Messages folders based on the expiration time configured for the "Trash Expire Time" option. Once you have configured this option, you can initiate the removal of the emails manually using the following command:
  /scripts/dovecot_maintenance
  Otherwise, you'd need to manually remove the emails from the .Trash directory via SSH. It's located at:
  /home/$username/mail/$domain/$email-account/.Trash
  Thank you.

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  marlowmedia

  • March 16, 2017 19:21

  Thanks @cPanelMichael Running the script now, much appreciated!

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  marlowmedia

  • March 16, 2017 20:07

  
  [dovecot_maintenance] Setting I/O priority to reduce system load: best-effort: prio 4 Expiring trash for "mike@DOMAIN.co.uk" in the "INBOX.Trash" mailbox "Done
  @cPanelMichael I've ran the script and it says its completed removing the emails from my account but they are still all there? So moving onto the second option you gave you said i have to delete all the emails in the directory, can you explain a little more exactly what im deleting as within the directory you told me theres other folders (cur, new, tmp) and files (dovecot files). Or am i literally just deleting everything within the .Trash folder including the sub folders and dovecot files? If not what command would i use to delete everything within a specific folder? Thanks, Mike

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  cPanelMichael

  • March 16, 2017 20:09

  @cPanelMichael I've ran the script and it says its completed removing the emails from my account but they are still all there?

  
  Hello, Could you confirm your email client is configured to use IMAP? Thank you.

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  marlowmedia

  • March 16, 2017 20:13

  I can confirm, its how iv setup Outlook to connect to my email address. Thanks, Mike

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  marlowmedia

  • March 17, 2017 09:36

  @cPanelMichael I've tried to sort this by removing my email account from Outlook so that the emails are not synced back to the Trash Folder. tried running the SSH command again but it does nothing any more, then i tried changing the auto perge setting from 30days to 15 days and tried running the script and it still did nothing (no response like last time). I've left the server overnight hoping the auto perge script would work but all the emails are still in the Trash folder. What should i do? Thanks, Mike

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  cPanelMichael

  • March 17, 2017 14:43

  Hello, Can you verify the emails exist on the server in the /home/$username/mail/$domain/$email-account/.Trash location? Thank you.

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  marlowmedia

  • March 17, 2017 15:38

  Hi, Yes i can confirm, the cur folder has 44.5mb of files in there and new folder has 26.4mb of files whilst tmp has 4.0kb of files. Thanks, Mike

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  marlowmedia

  • March 17, 2017 15:40

  Heres a screenshot for you.

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  cPanelMichael

  • March 17, 2017 17:08

  Hello, Feel free to open a support ticket using the link in my signature so we can take a closer look. You can post the ticket number here so we can update this thread with the outcome. Thank you.

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  marlowmedia

  • March 20, 2017 14:34

  @cPanelMichael it seems iv found a new bug within cPanel/WHM. The Ticket ID is 8313381. Can you update this post with a summary so other people who may have the same issue as me know what to do please. Theres now a new internal case with the following id: CPANEL-12072. Thanks, Mike

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  cPanelMichael

  • March 22, 2017 17:09

  Hello, Internal case CPANEL-12072 is open to address an issue where emails that are directly filtered to a Trash folder do not result in an added entry to the /var/cpanel/dovecot/dict.sqlite "expires" table, and thus are not removed until the email account actually manually puts an email in the Trash. I'll update this thread with more information on the status of this case as it becomes available. In the meantime, the workaround is to manually delete an email via Webmail or an IMAP-based email client to trigger the record in the /var/cpanel/dovecot/dict.sqlite "expires" table. Thank you.

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  bear

  • March 22, 2017 22:05

  This is likely the same issue I've been seeing and have a separate thread on, so subbing to this one also. ;)

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