How to Discard after forwarding email?

[jbastan]

We have about 60 email accounts, nearly 15 of them being forwarded to various other domains (forwarding works fine as expected). This leaves copies on the server, so I've been having to log in to each accounts to delete and purge them one by one, every month and it's getting annoying.

So is there a safe way we can automatically discard them from the server after they are forwarded, instead of keeping a copy?

I know I can increasing quota and do this less often, but I'd prefer a more automated option.

Thanks in advance.

[johnmigen]

If you only need to forward emails, you probably already have added the forwarder.

Your forwarder will work even if you do not have an pop account, that is to say, you can safely delete the pop account in your mail account section. So long the forwarder is there, all emails will continue to forward without leaving a copy in your mailbox.

[jbastan]

Good point, but some of these 15 accounts are actually being used to send as themselves. So they need to exist.

I guess we could also setup the mail client to do this correctly (reply as: original account name).

[johnmigen]

You may also want to consider running a cron job to empty the email folder of the 15 accounts so there you don't need to change what you already been doing.

rm -f /home/username/mail/domain.com/user/new/*

[hergy80]

Instead of setting up a forward, you could use a mail filter that when the mail coming in matches the header To address, it will deliver the mail to a different e-mail address, therefore not putting the message into the original mailbox.

[jbastan]

Hergy and John, both great solutions. I will split the accounts and try them both, and eventually pick one.


[This is a week or two later]
I've decided that John's idea to set up a cron tool is better, but adding my own twist. I'll be making a perl script that will access all these accounts and remove the old emails if they are older than XX days for "just-in-case" situations.

[toddring]

Your cron job is great but how do I do this for the main account. Is it the account name?

Please help.

Thanks Todd

[johnmigen]

For your main account

rm -f /home/username/mail/new/*

[SageBrian]

Would not the proper way to do this is to just use forwards?

Forwarder goes to their ISP/other mailbox.
Then, setup their mail client at their ISP/other to send as the forward? Unless, of course, we are dealing with AOLer's.

example:
sales@companycom ----> happy456@gmail
info@companycom ----> happy456@gmail

On gmail, setup aliases so they can send out with an address of 'sales@companycom' or 'info@companycom'


One thing to keep in mind with the forwards to another ISP, especially AOL, is that the other ISP may view you as a spammer or spam relay.

Brian

[taotoon]

This is a trick. No need to setup forward mail account.

Setup account filtering in cpanel page:

Any header contain your@yourdomain.com redirect to email your@gmail.com

Don't forget to add your@yourdomain.com in Gmail contact list to avoid spam or blacklist.

[bstpierre]

This is a trick too. No need to setup forward mail account.

This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks. I saw the FAQ about forwarding email to gmail (exactly what I want to do for one of four accounts at my domain) but the FAQ lacked (enough) detail (for me) in the answer.

Thanks again!

[patchwork]

Hergy and John, both great solutions. I will split the accounts and try them both, and eventually pick one.


[This is a week or two later]
I've decided that John's idea to set up a cron tool is better, but adding my own twist. I'll be making a perl script that will access all these accounts and remove the old emails if they are older than XX days for "just-in-case" situations.

Is there any chance you could share the script, its exactly what I'm trying to do.

Thanks
Pete

[mfwills]

If you only need to forward emails, you probably already have added the forwarder.

Your forwarder will work even if you do not have an pop account, that is to say, you can safely delete the pop account in your mail account section. So long the forwarder is there, all emails will continue to forward without leaving a copy in your mailbox.

Why is "Discard" not recommended?

And why can't cPanel do something as simple as email aliases, instead of forwarders and deleting the POP and all this other stuff?

Matt

[cPanelDavidG]

And why can't cPanel do something as simple as email aliases, instead of forwarders and deleting the POP and all this other stuff?

Can you elaborate? I ask because cPanel's Email Forwarders offers the functionality of what is known as "Email Aliases" in other hosting environments.

Note, a mail account for a specific email address does not need to exist before you set up a forwarder for that specific email address.

[mfwills]

Can you elaborate? I ask because cPanel's Email Forwarders offers the functionality of what is known as "Email Aliases" in other hosting environments.

Note, a mail account for a specific email address does not need to exist before you set up a forwarder for that specific email address.

Other messages indicated that I had to set up a POP account, then a forwarder, then delete the POP account, but not if I want to be able to use the forwarded address to send mail.

Matt