How to Set Up a Catch-All Email Address for Your Domain

A catch-all email address (sometimes called a "default address") catches any message sent to your domain that doesn't match a real mailbox, alias, or forwarder. Instead of bouncing back to the sender with a "user unknown" error, that message lands in one inbox you choose. It's useful for catching typos in a customer's email to you, old staff addresses that no longer have their own mailbox, and website forms that occasionally send to a mistyped address.

How to Set It Up

In cPanel

1. Log in to cPanel.
2. Under the Email section, click Default Address.
3. If you manage more than one domain on the account, choose the correct domain from the domain selector at the top of the page.
4. Under Set Default Address, select Forward to Email Address and enter the mailbox that should receive the catch-all mail. This can be an address on your own domain or an outside address.
5. Click Change to save.

To turn the catch-all off later, return to the same page and select Discard with error to sender (at SMTP time). That bounces unmatched mail with a proper error instead of silently accepting it.

In DirectAdmin

1. Log in to DirectAdmin.
2. Go to the Email section and click Email Accounts.
3. Select the correct domain if your account has more than one, then click Manage Catch-All Email (labelled Default Email Address in some DirectAdmin themes).
4. Choose Forward to Email and enter the address that should receive unmatched mail.
5. Click Save.

Select Delete/Fail (or the equivalent bounce option in your theme) if you decide to stop using a catch-all later.

Something to Watch For

Because a catch-all address accepts anything, it also collects spam sent to random guessed addresses at your domain, not just genuine typos. If your catch-all inbox fills up with junk, don't just switch it off: set up a mail filter to sort or block the worst of it first.

For that, see how to create a mail filter to block or sort messages.