[Dovecot] returned error 83 (Out of memory)

[Stan Hoeppner]

J Contad put forth on 4/27/2010 11:20 PM:
> FYI, sorted out this issue by taking out a specific email manually. Not sure
> if it helps, but the email had these attributes:
> 
>  - X-Mailer is  PHPMailer [version 1.73]
>  - References: header is quite large, and contains email addresses external
> to the sender and I's conversation.
> 
> Removing the email fixed the issue.

Couple of things.

1.  Look at mail_process_size in dovecot.conf and make sure it's not
insanely low like 128MB or something.  If you're accessing mailboxen with
8000 messages, I'd set it to at least 512MB.  The first error message you
received tells you to look into this setting:

"Apr 21 19:15:17 dovecot: Error: child 25918 (imap) returned error 83 (Out
of memory - see mail_process_size setting)"


2.  If you are using 1.2.10 or below and mbox storage, you need to upgrade
to 1.2.11 which fixes some mbox related problems that might be a factor in
this problem of yours.

-- 
Stan