Create several accounts or forwarders with the Address Importer

cPanel's Address Importer creates several email accounts or forwarders from a file. It is useful, for example, to set up the addresses for a new team. It does not import messages or the Roundcube address book.

Prepare the file

Use a CSV or an .xls sheet, with one row per item. For accounts, prepare address, password and quota; for forwarders, source and destination. Do not mix both types in the same import.

Quotas are given in MB. Check the hosting's space and the number of accounts allowed: giving a mailbox more quota does not increase the storage you have ordered. Passwords must be unique and pass the importer's strength meter; cPanel documents a minimum of 65 points.

The CSV contains passwords in readable text. Prepare it in a private location, do not upload it to a public folder on the website and remove temporary copies once they are no longer needed. Do not reuse a sample password for every user.

Import and check the columns

1. Open cPanel > Address Importer and choose Email Accounts or Forwarders.
2. Select the file. For CSV, give its separator and whether the first row contains headers.
3. Map each column to its field. For accounts, check Email, Password, Quota and Domain; mark as Ignore any columns that should not be imported.
4. Confirm the selected domain and that the data is mapped correctly before finishing. Do not assume an existing address will be updated: check the errors and results for each row.
5. Complete the import and check the list of accounts or forwarders created.

Check the result

Start with a few rows to catch separator, domain or quota errors. For a new account, check that you can log in to webmail; for a forwarder, check its destination. Give each user their credentials through the private channel your organisation uses.

If what you need is to move old messages, creating the addresses is only the preparation: the newly created mailboxes will not contain that history.