How to clear exim mail queue? Print

To clear the Exim mail queue on a cPanel server, you can use the following command-line methods. This is useful if you want to remove stuck, spam, or old emails from the queue.

⚠️ Warning

Be cautious when clearing the queue, especially on a production server. This will permanently delete all queued emails.

✅ 1. View the Queue (Optional, for review)

This shows all queued emails with their message IDs.

 2. Clear the Entire Exim Queue

• exim -bp – lists the queue

• exiqgrep -i – extracts message IDs

• exim -Mrm – removes each message

Alternative: Use exiqgrep for filtering

❌ Delete all frozen messages (common with spam):

• -z filters frozen messages.

❌ Delete emails older than 7 days:

• 604800 seconds = 7 days

 3. Clear Exim Queue Using WHM (if preferred via UI)

1. Log in to WHM.

2. Navigate to Mail Queue Manager (search in the top-left).

3. Use filters to select emails.

4. Select messages > Click Delete or Delete All.

 Tips

• Always check the queue with exim -bp before deleting.

• You can automate queue cleanup via cron if spam builds up regularly.

Advance Scenario

✅ 1. Delete Emails from a Specific Sender

 First, preview messages from a sender:

❌ Then, delete them:

• Replace sender@example.com with the actual email address.

✅ 2. Delete Emails Sent by PHP Scripts (e.g., malware or spam)

PHP scripts often send mail with the sender like:

???? Find such emails (run this first to verify):

Or check:

❌ Delete those:

Or:

✅ 3. Find Emails by Sending Script or Path

This is useful if a particular PHP script is sending spam.

 Find messages sent via PHP (lists the sending paths):

This gives output like:

Then filter queue entries from that script.

✅ 4. Delete All Emails from a Specific Script’s User

If you know the cPanel user, run:

Or delete all mail from scripts under a specific user’s directory:

Then find message IDs with:

 Summary