You can manage an existing email account in your CURIAWEB cPanel at any time. For example, you can change the password, adjust the available storage space, or delete the mailbox if the email address is no longer needed.
In this guide, we will show you step by step how to manage an existing email account and what you should pay special attention to before permanently deleting a mailbox.
Important: If you only want to change the password or storage space of an email account, you do not need to delete and recreate the mailbox. Use the management functions of the existing account for this.
1. Open Email Accounts in cPanel #
Log in to your CURIAWEB cPanel.
Scroll to the section on the homepage Email and click on Email accounts.
cPanel will then show you the existing email accounts for your domains.
If you need a new mailbox instead, you can find the complete instructions at Create an email account in cPanel.
2. Select desired email account #
Find the email account you want to edit in the overview.
Always check the full address in the process. If multiple domains are set up in your hosting, for example, both:
info@deine-domain.ch
as well as:
info@zweite-domain.ch
to exist.
Click on the desired email account Manage.
Practical Tip: Check the complete email address before every change. Especially with multiple domains or similarly named mailboxes, this helps prevent you from accidentally editing the wrong account.
3. Change the password of an email account #
If you want to change the mailbox password, you can set a new password in the administration area.
Use a strong and unique password used exclusively for this email account.
When cPanel offers you a password generator, you can use it to create a complex password and then save it securely in a password manager.
Safety: Do not use the same password for your email account as for cPanel, WordPress, the CURIAWEB customer center, or other services.
Save new password #
After entering the new password, you save the change using the corresponding button in the management area.
The new password will then apply for logging into the email account.
If the mailbox is already set up on multiple devices or in different email programs, the password saved there must also be updated.
What happens to Outlook, Apple Mail, or Thunderbird after a password change? #
An email program usually stores the mailbox access credentials so it can automatically log in to the mail server.
After a password change, the program initially still knows the old password. As a result, logging in to the mail server may fail.
This affects, for example:
- Outlook
- Apple Mail
- Thunderbird
- Smartphones and tablets
- other devices or applications using this mailbox
Enter the new password on the affected devices.
Important: If a password prompt suddenly keeps appearing after a password change, it does not automatically mean that the new password is incorrect. Frequently, one of the set-up devices is still using the old login credentials.
5. Test new password via webmail #
After a password change, it is advisable to test the new credentials directly with the mailbox first.
Log in to Webmail using your full email address and the new password.
Does the login work there, do you know that the new password for the email account is fundamentally correct?.
If an email program stops working afterwards, the cause is more likely to be its saved access data or configuration rather than the actual mailbox.
6. Change email account storage space #
In the administration area of the email account, you can also adjust its storage space limit.
This limit determines how much storage the individual mailbox may use within the available storage space of your hosting account.
If a mailbox regularly receives large attachments or many messages are stored long-term, correspondingly more storage may be required.
When should you increase the storage space? #
An increase can be useful if the mailbox actually reaches its specified limit or comes significantly close to it.
You shouldn't automatically solve a memory problem just by continually increasing the limit.
For a significantly grown mailbox, it is also worth checking which messages and attachments are actually still needed.
We show how to analyze memory consumption in more detail at Check and clean up email storage in cPanel.
Briefly explained: The storage limit of an email account and the total available storage space of your hosting account are two different values. A higher mailbox limit does not create additional hosting storage space.
7. Check additional account settings #
Depending on the cPanel and server configuration, additional options for the email account may be displayed in the management area.
Only change settings if you have a specific reason for doing so. A normally functioning mailbox does not require all available options to be adjusted.
Save changes using the designated button.
8. Test email account after changes #
After changing your password or other important account settings, you should test the mailbox briefly.
First, check the login via webmail. Then, send a test message to an external email address and reply with a message from there back to your mailbox.
You control this with:
- logging in to the mailbox
- the sending of messages
- receiving messages
If all three points work, the email account is basically ready for use.
Delete email account – be sure to check beforehand #
Deleting an email account is something completely different from changing a password or storage space.
A mailbox can contain important messages and attachments over years. If you remove the account, the email data stored on the server for this mailbox may be lost.
Attention: Delete an email account only if you are sure that it is no longer needed and all messages or data still required have been backed up beforehand.
What should you check before deleting? #
First, check whether the email address is still in use.
An address can be stored, for example, on a website, in a contact form, on invoices, business cards, customer accounts, or with external services.
Password resets for other services can also be sent to this address.
Therefore, in the case of a former employee's personal mailbox, it should not only be checked whether the person still needs access. It must also be clarified whether business-relevant messages or accounts are tied to this address.
Back up emails before deleting #
If messages need to be retained from the mailbox, you should back them up or transfer them to another suitable system before deleting them.
How such a backup is effectively performed depends on how the mailbox is used and which email application is deployed.
Do not rely on emails remaining available on the server automatically after deleting the mailbox.
Important: A message that is locally visible in an email program is not automatically a complete and independent backup. Especially with IMAP, local views are synchronized with the state of the server.
Understanding IMAP and POP3 before deleting #
When using the mailbox in an email program, the retrieval method used plays an important role.
At IMAP the folders and messages are fundamentally synchronized with the mail server. If you delete the server-side mailbox, you therefore must not assume that all previously displayed messages will independently remain permanently available locally.
At POP3 messages may have been downloaded locally depending on the configuration. Here too, however, you should check before deleting which data is actually present and backed up.
If important business emails are affected, data backup should be carried out and verified consciously before account deletion.
Check for forwarding and other email rules #
Before deleting, also check if the address is related to forwards, filters, or other email rules.
An existing configuration may exhibit different behavior than before after a mailbox is removed.
If the old address should continue to accept messages even though a dedicated mailbox is no longer needed, a targeted forwarding can be useful depending on the desired behavior.
We will show the facility at Set up email forwarding in cPanel.
Delete email account in cPanel #
Once you have verified that the mailbox is no longer needed and all important data has been backed up, you can remove the email account.
Open this again:
Email -> Email accounts
Find the account in question and open it Manage.
Scroll to the email account deletion options and select the corresponding deletion function.
cPanel can require confirmation before final deletion.
Double-check the complete email address and confirm the deletion only if the correct account is truly selected.
Attention: Deleting a mailbox is not a troubleshooting method. If only logging in, sending, or receiving is not working, the cause of the problem should be investigated first.
10. Check if the account has been removed #
After deleting, you should go to the overview Email accounts go back and check that the address in question is no longer displayed as an existing mailbox.
This removes the email account on the server.
What happens to messages sent to a deleted address? #
That depends on the rest of your domain's email configuration.
If neither a post office box nor a matching forwarding address exists for the address anymore, a message can be treated as addressed to an unknown recipient.
How cPanel handles messages to non-existent recipients is determined, among other things, by the configuration of the Default address influenced.
We explain this function under Default Address in cPanel: Catch-All and Unknown Recipients.
Delete mailbox or just block access? #
Deleting a mailbox immediately is not the best solution in every situation.
For example, if an employee leaves the company, business-relevant messages may still be present in the mailbox.
In such a situation, it may make more sense to first block previous access by changing the password, back up the data, and only then decide on the further use or deletion of the account.
Practical Tip: For business mailboxes, the order should often be: secure access, check and back up data, control dependencies, and only delete after that.
Can the same email address be created again later? #
After an email account has been completely removed, the same address can generally be created again later as a new mailbox, provided no other configuration prevents this.
However, the newly created account is a new mailbox.
Recreating the same address does not automatically restore the previously deleted emails.
Forgot password: Do not delete account #
If you have merely forgotten the password to a mailbox, there is no reason to delete the email account.
Open the existing account via Email Accounts → Manage and set a new password.
Afterwards, you update the password in the email programs and devices used.
This preserves the existing server-side emails and the current mailbox.
Mailbox full: Do not delete account either #
Even a full mailbox does not need to be recreated.
First check the actual memory usage and delete or archive messages that are no longer needed, if it makes sense.
If sufficient hosting storage is available, the mailbox storage limit may also be adjusted if necessary.
Emails are not being delivered: Do not recreate the account prematurely #
If a mailbox is not receiving messages or messages are not reaching the recipient, the cause may lie outside of the actual email account.
Among other things, routing, domain configuration, filters, spam checks, or deliverability issues can play a role.
For diagnosing outgoing and incoming deliveries, cPanel provides the function Track delivery available.
We will show you how to use it at Track email delivery in cPanel.
Storage space after deletion #
When an email account and its associated server-side data are removed, previously occupied storage space can be freed up as a result.
How much storage is actually freed up depends on how much data the mailbox in question had stored and how the server-side processing takes place.
If storage space is the actual reason for your consideration of deleting your account, you should therefore first check which mailbox is actually using how much storage.
Typical mistakes in email account management #
One of the most common mistakes is to delete and recreate a working mailbox just because the password was forgotten.
Changing a password without subsequently updating the saved access data on smartphones, computers, or other devices is also problematic.
When deleting, the greatest risk is only realizing afterward that important messages or external user accounts were still tied to the address.
Basic rule: You can change settings. Deleted data, on the other hand, cannot always be easily recovered. Therefore, check much more carefully before deleting an account than before a normal configuration change.
Summary #
You manage existing email accounts in your CURIAWEB cPanel under Email -> Email Accounts -> Manage.
There you can, among other things, change the password and storage limit of an existing mailbox. After a password change, email programs and other devices that use the account must also be updated with the new password.
You should only delete an email account if it is truly no longer needed. Check existing messages, forwarding rules, external services, and other dependencies beforehand, and back up any data that needs to be preserved.
A forgotten password, a full mailbox, or a delivery issue, on the other hand, are no reasons to delete the account and recreate it. These problems can be investigated specifically on the existing email account or via the corresponding diagnostic functions.
