How are email filters managed in cPanel?

Introduction

Email filtering with cPanel has never been so easy! Whether you want to stop receiving emails from someone or forward emails with a specific subject, cPanel has the solution for you. With the "Email Filter" feature, you can easily create and manage email filters per email account without affecting other email accounts set up for the domains linked to your web hosting account. In the next lines of this tutorial we will give you detailed information on how to fully manage the "Email Filter" functionality in cPanel.

Access the eMail filter in cPanel

You must first register with the Register cPanel serviceto access this function.

When you log in, look for the "Email Filter" feature in the "Email" category.

If you click on the function, you will be taken to a new page called "E-mail filter".

Create a new eMail filter

As already mentioned, email filters are used to define rules that are applied to all incoming emails that are linked to an existing email account. To add a new email filter, you must therefore first select the email account for which the filter is to be added. On the standard "Email filter" page, you will see a table with all the email accounts that you have currently created. From this table, select the email account for which you want to manage the email filters by simply clicking on the "Manage filters" link displayed next to each email account in the table.

This action will take you to a new page where you can further manage the eMail filters for the selected eMail account.

To create a new e-mail filter, please click the "Create new filter" button at the top of the page.

This action will take you to a new page where you will see some configuration options. Let's take a look at them:

Filter name: The name of the filter you want to add. Please note that the name of the filter must be unique, as it identifies the filter in the measures of filters you can add.

Rules: To instruct the email service to filter a message, you must first define rules by which messages will be filtered. Please note that you can have as many filters as you want and you can add or remove rules using the buttons next to each filter.

Actions: This option allows you to configure the action that the email service performs for emails that match the previously configured rules. The following actions are available:

Discard message: This option instructs the mail server to discard all messages that match one of the previously configured rules.

Redirect to e-mail address: This option instructs the mail server to redirect all messages that match one of the previously configured rules.

Error with message: This option causes all emails that match the rules you set to be rejected, but the sender receives an error message.

Stop editing the rules: This option skips all configured rules.

Deliver to folder: This option instructs the mail server to deliver messages only to a specific folder.

Forward to a program: This option causes all messages matching the created filters to be forwarded to a script in your web hosting account.

When you are done with the configuration, click the button "Create", which is displayed at the bottom of the page.

Once the filter is created, cPanel will display a success message or an error message if an error occurred. This completes the creation of your email filter.

Manage existing email filters

To manage an existing email filter, you need to access the filters for the selected email account again. A list of configured filters will be displayed. Please note that mail filters are executed in the order of their execution on the mail server. The higher the position of the eMail filter, the higher the priority with which it is processed.

Click on the "Edit" button displayed on the right-hand side of the filter block to edit a mail filter.

This action will take you to a familiar screen that contains all the configurations we discussed in the previous section of this tutorial. The configurations are already preset, so you can change them to achieve your goals. When you are done, please click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page to save the filter.

To delete an existing filter, click the "Delete" link that appears just below the "Edit" link.

cPanel will ask you to confirm the deletion of the account by redirecting you to a new page. Click on the "Delete filter" button. The filter will be deleted and you will return to the "Email filter" page for the selected mail account.

Congratulations! You now know how to manage mail filters for separate eMail accounts. If you encounter any difficulties in doing so, please contact our Support Teamwhich will be happy to help you.

We will show you how to use the global filters in another tutorial: How do I manage the global email filters in cPanel?