How do I set an automatic email reply?

Open cPanel → Autoresponders → Add Autoresponder. Choose the mailbox, enter From, Subject and Body, set Interval in hours and review Start and Stop before choosing Create. Use a clear return date and an approved alternative contact. An automatic reply does not forward mail or stop messages arriving in your inbox.

Open the correct mailbox settings

Sign in to your account, open Services, find the hosting service for your email domain and choose Log in to cPanel. On a phone, choose cPanel.
Open Email Accounts and confirm the full mailbox address. These steps are for an existing mailbox hosted in cPanel. The address must have a matching mailbox or forwarder or incoming messages can be discarded after the automatic reply. Set the absence reply with your email provider instead when Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or another provider receives your domain's mail.
Return to Tools, use Search Tools to open Autoresponders, select the domain in Managing and check Current Autoresponders. If the mailbox already has a reply, use Edit beside that address rather than creating a second one.

Write and schedule the reply

Choose Add Autoresponder. Select utf-8 in Character Set for an ordinary text reply. In Email, enter the mailbox's first part and select its Domain. Check the full address before continuing.
Set Interval to the number of hours before the same sender can receive another reply. For a typical absence reply, 24 means no more than one reply to that sender in each 24-hour period. Avoid 0, which replies to every incoming message and can create excessive automatic replies.
In From, enter the name you want recipients to see. Set a short Subject, such as Out of office, and write the Body with your return date and a contact who has agreed to handle urgent enquiries. Keep personal travel details, passwords and private contact information out of the reply.
Leave This message contains HTML unticked for a plain-text message. Do not insert the original message contents or use sender-supplied text as instructions in your reply.
For Start, choose Immediately or Custom and enter the intended date and time. For Stop, choose Custom for a temporary absence and set a time after the start. Check the timezone shown by the date-and-time picker and convert your intended absence times to it. When it shows Greenwich Mean Time, use GMT for the schedule; it may differ from your local timezone.
Review the mailbox, text, interval and start/end dates, then choose Create. When editing an existing responder, check the same details and choose Modify. Return to Current Autoresponders and confirm the right address is listed.

Check the reply and your return date

While the responder is active, send one harmless message from a separate address you control. Check that it arrives in your mailbox and the reply reaches the sender. Repeating the test from the same address within Interval may produce no second reply.
Incoming messages still arrive in the mailbox. Automatic replies do not arrange for another person to read them or configure forwarding. Agree how urgent mail will be handled before your absence.
The interval reduces repeated replies but is not a guarantee against every automated-mail loop. Avoid setting automatic replies on notification-only addresses or forwarding chains, and do not expect every spam or automated message to trigger a reply.
When you return, open Autoresponders, select the domain and use Edit to check the stop date or adjust an outdated message, then choose Modify. For a future absence, replace the old dates and wording deliberately rather than leaving an obsolete return date active.

If it does not work

Check the mailbox domain, active dates, device time and interval first. Then open Support → New Ticket, set Department to Tech/Server, choose Priority and enter Subject and Message with the mailbox, schedule, test time with timezone and exact error, then choose Open ticket. Keep passwords and private messages out of screenshots.