What happens to email sent to an address that doesn't exist?
If someone emails an address at your domain that doesn't exist - ifno@example.co.uk instead of info@example.co.uk - the message is rejected. The sender gets a bounce telling them the address isn't valid, and nothing is stored on your account.
That is deliberate, and it is the behaviour we recommend keeping. A typo gets reported straight back to whoever made it, so they can correct it and try again, rather than disappearing silently into a mailbox nobody reads.
So is there a "default mailbox" collecting these?
Not by default, no. Two different things share that word, and it is worth separating them:
- The Default Address is a cPanel setting, not a mailbox. It decides what happens to mail for addresses that don't exist. On a new account it is set to reject, which is what produces the bounce above. You can see yours in cPanel under Email > Default Address.
- The system account is a real mailbox, named after your cPanel username. You will see it in Email > Email Accounts tagged System. It exists on every account - but it is not a catch-all, and mail for unknown addresses does not arrive there unless someone has deliberately pointed the Default Address at it.
Can I collect it all in one mailbox instead?
You can. Changing the Default Address to forward to a mailbox creates what's known as a catch-all - but we strongly advise against it, and so does cPanel.
Once spammers find your domain they send to random names at it, and a catch-all accepts every one. You lose the protection that rejecting unknown addresses gives you, your mailbox fills with junk, and spam filtering gets considerably harder because your account no longer refuses mail for recipients who don't exist.
If you have a genuine need for one anyway, The cPanel Default Address and why catch-all mailboxes are a bad idea explains how to set it up in the least damaging way - and in particular why you should forward to a normal mailbox you have created, rather than to the system account.
Making sure you don't miss genuine email
A catch-all is the blunt instrument. The reliable approach is to create a mailbox or a forwarder for each address you actually want to receive - and if a particular misspelling of your company name is a realistic risk, add a forwarder for that one address specifically. You then catch the mistakes that matter without opening the door to everything else.
It is also worth checking your spam folder now and then, and making sure your mailbox is not full - a mailbox at its quota will start refusing new mail, which looks very like email going missing.
