restoring email accounts

[Antifreeze]

I'm an end user of cpanel.

After having an account reset by a host, do the email accounts *have* to be re-created manually, or will uploading the home directory re-create them automatically?

If so, are there specific folders inthe home directory which can be uploaded to restore email accounts, or does the entire home directory need to be uploaded?

Cheers.

[MaestriaNick]

That path to the folders containing mail and mail user settings are

/home/USERNAME/etc
/home/USERNAME/mail
so, just uploading the etc and mail folder should recreate all the email accounts. Also, need to make sure that the ownership and permission of the files are same. so, just check the permission of existing folders in the server before upload and change the permission on your files after uploading.

[Antifreeze]

Thanks for the replies (in my other thread too - I got my mail.domain.net subdomain back!).

Hmm... my host is being very cautious about the webmail proxydomain though. They say that the only thing they are willing to do is reset the account, to ensure that there is no corruption.

BUT, if what you say is correct - that to get all the email accounts back I just need to upload the 'mail' and 'etc' folders and ensure the chmod is ok - then I really don't mind them resetting the account!

So the question is, on a scale of 0-100%, how sure are you that when I upload 'mail' and 'etc' into a cleanly installed account, all the email accounts, stored mail and passwords will be successfully recovered?

Has anyone here actually done that before? I'm a bit sceptical and worried, because I can't find any documentation on moving old email accounts onto a new install.

Cheers!

[MaestriaNick]

It should work 100%. Only chance for it to fail is the permission thing which your host can correct it easily.

Also, this will not restore the forwarders or filters, if you have setup any. You will need to manually add them.

[Antifreeze]

Thanks for your confident advice.
I'm a lot less worried about doing a restore now.

Cheers.