So let me show you my config, just to be sure: /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-sql.conf.ext: passdb { driver = sql override_fields = userdb_pass=%w args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext } userdb { driver = prefetch result_success = continue } userdb { driver = sql args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf.ext }