How to Manually Back Up a Single Domain (Website + Emails) from cPanel

If your cPanel account hosts multiple domains, and you want to back up only one domain (including website files, database, emails, and email passwords), follow this step‑by‑step guide.

Good to know: On cPanel, your domain’s emails live under /mail/domain.com/, while email account passwords & quotas live under /etc/domain.com/ (inside your cPanel home). Both are needed for a complete email backup.

✅ Prerequisites

• Your cPanel login details from Netpoa.com.

• Enough free space in your cPanel account to create zip archives.

• The domain’s folder name (e.g., example.com).

Step 1 — Back Up Website Files

1. Log in to cPanel → open File Manager.

2. Locate your domain’s web root:

   • Primary domain: usually /public_html/

   • Addon domain: usually /public_html/example.com/ (or a custom folder set when the addon domain was created)

3. Select the domain’s files/folders → Compress → Zip Archive.

4. Download the zip archive to your computer.

Result: example.com_files.zip

Step 2 — Back Up the Database

1. In cPanel, open phpMyAdmin.

2. Identify the correct database (check your site’s config file, e.g., WordPress wp-config.php → DB_NAME).

3. In phpMyAdmin, select the database → Export → Quick → SQL → Go.

4. Save the .sql file.

Result: example.com_db.sql

Step 3 — Back Up Emails (Content + Passwords)

3A. Mailbox Content (messages & folders)

1. In File Manager, go to:

   /mail/example.com/

2. You’ll see a folder per mailbox (e.g., /mail/example.com/info/).

3. Select the example.com folder under /mail/ → Compress → Zip Archive → download.

Result: example.com_mail.zip

Includes: inbox, sent, drafts, custom folders, and sieve filters inside each mailbox.

3B. Email Account Passwords & Quotas (the “emails password folder”)

1. Still in File Manager, go to your home /etc/ directory (this is inside your cPanel home, not the server’s system /etc).

2. Open:

   /etc/example.com/

3. Select all files (commonly passwd, shadow, quota) → Compress → Zip Archive → download.

Result: example.com_email_creds.zip

What these files contain:

• passwd → mailbox list & mapping

• shadow → hashed passwords for mailboxes

• quota → quota settings

Security note: Do not share shadow publicly. Store safely. If you restore these files on the destination cPanel (same domain and matching usernames), mailbox passwords will work without resetting.

(Optional) Forwarders & Filters

• Forwarders and account‑level filters are stored in system‑level paths. If you need them migrated, open a ticket with Netpoa and we’ll export/import them for you.

Step 4 — Save DNS Records (Recommended)

1. In cPanel → Zone Editor → open your domain.

2. Copy A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and any other records to a text file.

Result: example.com_dns.txt

✅ Your Final Backup Set (per domain)

• example.com_files.zip — Website files

• example.com_db.sql — Database dump

• example.com_mail.zip — Email content

• example.com_email_creds.zip — Email passwords & quotas (/etc/example.com/)

• example.com_dns.txt — DNS records (reference)

Keep these together for a complete restore.

Quick Restore Cheat‑Sheet (same or new cPanel)

1. Website: Upload example.com_files.zip to the target web root → extract.

2. Database: Create a new DB & user in cPanel → import example.com_db.sql via phpMyAdmin → update your site config (e.g., wp-config.php) with new DB name/user/password.

3. Email accounts:

   • If the destination is cPanel and the domain exists under the same cPanel user:

     • Upload and extract example.com_email_creds.zip to /etc/example.com/.

     • Upload and extract example.com_mail.zip to /mail/example.com/.

   • If usernames or paths differ, recreate mailboxes in cPanel → then upload only the mailbox folders under /mail/example.com/ (passwords will be the new ones you set).

4. DNS: Point your domain’s DNS (A and MX records) to the new server if migrating.

Tip: After restoring mail, open Email Disk Usage in cPanel for each mailbox to rebuild indexes if folders seem out of date.

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