Clear Exim Retry DB to bypass “retry time not reached” after fixing an issue with delivery

The goal of this article is to explain how to clear the retry database in the cPanel so that emails can try again after a problem with delivery has been fixed. The hints database is another name for this database.

How to clear the retry database in cPanel

Run the following commands as root using SSH or the WHM Terminal to empty out the retry database if you don’t want to wait for the retry time.:

/usr/sbin/exim tidydb -t 1d /var/spool/exim retry
mv -vi /var/spool/exim/db/retry{,.original}
mv -v /var/spool/exim/db/retry.lockfile,.original

Then, using WHM’s Mail Queue Manager, you may compel the delivery of an email queue or launch a fresh Exim queue run using the following command:

exim -q

If you ever run into trouble, you can now clear the retry database in cPanel.