Recover deleted emails and mailboxes with JetBackup 5
PrintEmails deleted by mistake, a mailbox emptied by a phone that was set up wrongly, or an email account removed from cPanel can be recovered from the automatic backups. In cPanel open JetBackup 5, then Email Accounts, pick the address and the date, and start the restore. Here is what can be recovered and how.
What can and cannot be recovered
- Backups are taken every 24 to 48 hours and kept for 30 days. A message can be recovered if it was on the server when one of those backups was made.
- A message that arrived and was deleted between two backups was never saved, so it cannot be brought back.
- If your mail program uses POP3 and deletes messages from the server after downloading them, those messages are on your computer, not on the server. Look for them there first.
- The restore works per address: you restore one mailbox, not one single message.
Before you start
Check the quota of the mailbox in cPanel, under Email, then Email Accounts. Restored messages take up space again; if the mailbox is close to its limit, raise the quota first, otherwise new mail may be refused. The article on a full mailbox shows how.
How to restore a mailbox
- Log in to cPanel and open JetBackup 5 from the Files section.
- Under Restore & Download, click Email Accounts.
- Find the address in the list; with many addresses, use the Search box. The row shows the date of the newest backup and the number of backups found.
- If you need an earlier date, click Choose Other Backup and select it. Take a date when the messages you are looking for were still in the mailbox.
- Click the row to select it and then click Restore. You can select several addresses at once if more mailboxes are affected.
- In Restore Summary, make sure the right addresses are shown under Items To Restore and click Restore Selected Items.
- Follow the job in Queue. Completed means the mailbox has been restored. If you get Failed, try another date, and if that does not help either, open a ticket with the address and the date.
Where to find the messages afterwards
The messages return to the folders they were in on the backup date (Inbox, Sent, other folders). The quickest way to check is webmail; see the mail web interface. If you read mail in Outlook, Thunderbird or on a phone with IMAP, the program picks up the restored messages at its next sync; if they do not appear, close and reopen the program or sync the folder by hand.
Frequently asked questions
Will the restore delete the emails I received today?
In the Restore Summary there is a Merge backup data with live account data option. For mail, tick it: the old messages are added back and what has arrived since the backup date stays. Without it, the mailbox is set back to the state of the backup, and newer messages may be lost.
I deleted the whole email account in cPanel. Can it be recovered?
Yes, as long as the account existed on one of the backup dates in the last 30 days: search for the address in Email Accounts and restore it as above. Then check in cPanel that the account is listed again and log in with the password it had on the backup date.
Can I save a copy of a mailbox without restoring it?
Yes. Select the address and click Download instead of Restore; the archive appears in View Downloads when it is ready. For a long-term archive of the mail itself, it is often easier to move old messages into a local folder in your mail program.
