Sent, Junk and Drafts are not created

25 May 2026


      I have a new dovecot 2.4.2 setup. All seems to work fine, except Sent,
Junk and Drafts are not created. In 15-mailboxes.conf I have:
namespace inbox {
# These mailboxes are widely used and could perhaps be created
automatically:
mailbox Drafts {
auto = create
special_use = \Drafts
}
mailbox Junk {
auto = create
special_use = \Junk
}
mailbox Trash {
auto = create
special_use = \Trash
}
  # For \Sent mailboxes there are two widely used names. We'll mark both of
# them as \Sent. User typically deletes one of them if duplicates are
created.
mailbox Sent {
auto = create
special_use = \Sent
}
mailbox "Sent Messages" {
auto = create
special_use = \Sent
}
}
But nothing is created. And dovecot -n return this:
(note the "\\")
root@rpix:~# dovecot -n
2.4.2 (0962ed2104): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
Pigeonhole version 2.4.2 (767418c3)
OS: Linux 7.0.0-15-generic x86_64 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
Hostname: rpix.dk
9 default setting changes since version 2.4.0
dovecot_config_version = 2.4.0
auth_default_domain = rpix.dk
auth_mechanisms = plain login
auth_username_format = %{user|lower}
dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.0
fts_autoindex = yes
fts_autoindex_max_recent_msgs = 999
fts_search_add_missing = yes
mail_driver = maildir
mail_home = /var/vmail/%{user | domain}/%{user | username}
mail_path = ~/Maildir
mail_privileged_group = mail
protocols = imap lmtp
sql_driver = mysql
ssl = required
passdb sql {
default_password_scheme = ARGON2I
query = SELECT username AS user,password FROM mailbox WHERE username
= '%{user}' AND active='1'
}
userdb sql {
iterate_query = SELECT username AS user FROM mailbox
query = SELECT 2000 AS uid, 2000 AS gid FROM mailbox WHERE username =
'%{user}' AND active='1'
}
mysql localhost {
dbname = postfixadmin
password = # hidden, use -P to show it
user = postfixadmin
}
namespace inbox {
inbox = yes
mailbox Drafts {
auto = create
special_use = "\\Drafts"
}
mailbox Junk {
auto = create
special_use = "\\Junk"
}
mailbox Trash {
auto = create
special_use = "\\Trash"
}
mailbox Sent {
auto = create
special_use = "\\Sent"
}
mailbox "Sent Messages" {
auto = create
special_use = "\\Sent"
}
}
service imap-login {
inet_listener imap {
}
inet_listener imaps {
}
}
service pop3-login {
inet_listener pop3 {
}
inet_listener pop3s {
}
}
service submission-login {
inet_listener submission {
}
inet_listener submissions {
}
}
service lmtp {
unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp {
group = postfix
mode = 0600
user = postfix
}
}
service imap {
}
service pop3 {
}
service submission {
}
service auth {
unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth {
group = postfix
mode = 0666
user = postfix
}
}
service auth-worker {
}
service dict {
unix_listener dict {
}
}
service stats {
unix_listener stats-reader {
group = www-data
mode = 0660
user = www-data
}
unix_listener stats-writer {
group = www-data
mode = 0660
user = www-data
}
}
ssl_server {
cert_file = /etc/letsencrypt/live/mail/fullchain.pem
key_file = /etc/letsencrypt/live/mail/privkey.pem
prefer_ciphers = server
}
protocol lmtp {
auth_username_format = %{user | lower}
}
What am I doing wrong?
--
/Thomas Jensen, Denmark