2.4 upgrade : INBOX does not exist

2 Apr 2026


      Today I upgraded a server at a customer.
I modified the config I had built over the last week, with the help of
this list.
So far nearly everything works, but thunderbird complains about
non-existing mailboxes like INBOX.
But we can access it, it's a bit strange.
In the filesystem it looks like:
ls -la /home/vmail/our.tld/user\@our.tld/
insgesamt 7096
drwx------  69 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 19:00  .
drwx------ 129 vmail vmail   12288  2. Apr 18:56  ..
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  8. Jun 2021   .Administrator
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 18:40  .Administrator.Archiv
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 18:40
'.Administrator.Domainwechsel AquaCC'
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 11. Mai 2025   .Archives
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 18:40  .Archives.2001
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 18:40  .Archives.2002
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 18:40  .Archives.2003
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 12. Aug 2024   .Archives.2004
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 18:40  .Archives.2005
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 12. Aug 2024   .Archives.2006
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 12. Aug 2024   .Archives.2007
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 10. Feb 18:17  .Archives.2008
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 12. Aug 2024   .Archives.2009
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 12. Aug 2024   .Archives.2010
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 10. Feb 18:10  .Archives.2011
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 12. Aug 2024   .Archives.2012
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 12. Aug 2024   .Archives.2013
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 10. Feb 18:09  .Archives.2014
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 12. Aug 2024   .Archives.2015
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 17:51  .Archives.2016
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 11. Feb 11:57  .Archives.2017
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 10. Jun 2025   .Archives.2018
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 11. Feb 11:57  .Archives.2019
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 10. Feb 18:23  .Archives.2020
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  1. Apr 20:18  .Archives.2021
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 30. Mär 09:37  .Archives.2022
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  1. Apr 20:18  .Archives.2023
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  1. Apr 20:18  .Archives.2024
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 17:48  .Archives.2025
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 17:59  .Archives.2026
drwx------   2 vmail vmail  323584  2. Apr 19:00  cur
-rw-------   1 vmail vmail       0  2. Aug 2021   dovecot-acl-list
-rw-------   1 vmail vmail   70712  2. Apr 18:37  dovecot.index
-rw-------   1 vmail vmail 6266860  2. Apr 19:01  dovecot.index.cache
-rw-------   1 vmail vmail   32160  2. Apr 19:00  dovecot.index.log
-rw-------   1 vmail vmail   46940  2. Apr 06:20  dovecot.index.log.2
-rw-------   1 vmail vmail      91 18. Aug 2020   dovecot-keywords
-rw-------   1 vmail vmail      65  2. Apr 18:37  .dovecot.lda-dupes
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 18:37  .dovecot.lda-dupes.locks
-rw-------   1 vmail vmail    6504  2. Apr 18:49  dovecot.list.index
-rw-------   1 vmail vmail    3356  2. Apr 19:02  dovecot.list.index.log
-rw-------   1 vmail vmail    2904  7. Jän 13:53  dovecot.mailbox.log
-rw-------   1 vmail vmail  186894  2. Apr 18:59  dovecot-uidlist
-rw-------   1 vmail vmail       8  7. Jän 13:53  dovecot-uidvalidity
-r--r--r--   1 vmail vmail       0 21. Apr 2020
dovecot-uidvalidity.5e9efc52
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 12:02  .Drafts
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096 12. Jun 2025  '.Entw&APw-rfe'
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  6. Mai 2020   .Gesendet
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 18:22  .INBOX.Administrator
drwx------   5 vmail vmail    4096  2. Apr 18:21  .INBOX.Alerts
[..]
We have
mail_home = /home/vmail/%{user | domain}/%{user}
I tried
mail_home = /home/vmail/%{user | domain}/%{user | username}
but that breaks things completely.
In 2.3 we had these namespaces:
namespace {
type = private
separator = /
prefix =
#location defaults to mail_location.
inbox = yes
}
namespace {
type = public
separator = /
prefix = Oeffentlich/
location = maildir:/home/vmail/oeffentlich
subscriptions = yes
}
I tried "prefix = INBOX/" ... not good.
I share the config, a little bit anonymized, acls removed ...
doveconf -n
2.4.1-4 (7d8c0e5759): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
Pigeonhole version 2.4.1-4 (0a86619f)
OS: Linux 6.12.74+deb13+1-amd64 x86_64 Debian 13.4
Hostname: xxxx
dovecot_config_version = 2.4.1
auth_allow_weak_schemes = yes
auth_cache_size = 4M
auth_debug = yes
auth_mechanisms = plain login
auth_verbose = yes
default_process_limit = 300
dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.0
import_environment {
CORE_ERROR = %{env:CORE_ERROR}
CORE_OUTOFMEM = %{env:CORE_OUTOFMEM}
LISTEN_FDS = %{env:LISTEN_FDS}
LISTEN_PID = %{env:LISTEN_PID}
MALLOC_MMAP_THRESHOLD_ = 131072
NOTIFY_SOCKET = %{env:NOTIFY_SOCKET}
PATH = %{env:PATH}
TZ = :/etc/localtime
}
info_log_path = /var/log/dovecot.info
listen = * [::]
log_path = /var/log/dovecot.log
mail_debug = yes
mail_driver = maildir
mail_gid = 5000
mail_home = /home/vmail/%{user | domain}/%{user}
mail_path = ~
mail_plugins {
acl = yes
notify = yes
quota = no
}
mail_uid = 5000
protocols = imap sieve lmtp
sieve_extensions {
fileinto = yes
reject = yes
envelope = yes
encoded-character = yes
vacation = yes
subaddress = yes
comparator-i;ascii-numeric = yes
relational = yes
regex = yes
imap4flags = yes
copy = yes
include = yes
body = yes
variables = yes
enotify = yes
environment = yes
mailbox = yes
date = yes
index = yes
ihave = yes
duplicate = yes
mime = yes
foreverypart = yes
extracttext = yes
editheader = yes
mboxmetadata = yes
servermetadata = yes
spamtest = yes
spamtestplus = yes
virustest = yes
}
sieve_global_extensions {
vnd.dovecot.debug = yes
vnd.dovecot.environment = yes
vnd.dovecot.pipe = yes
}
sieve_pipe_bin_dir = /usr/lib/dovecot/sieve
sieve_plugins = sieve_imapsieve sieve_extprograms
sieve_spamtest_score_max_value = 15
sieve_spamtest_status_header = X-Spamd-Result: .*?
\[([[:digit:]]+\.[[:digit:]]+) / [[:digit:]]+\.[[:digit:]]+\];
sql_driver = mysql
ssl = required
verbose_proctitle = yes
mysql /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock {
dbname = postfix_db
password = # hidden, use -P to show it
user = postfix_user
}
passdb sql {
default_password_scheme = MD5-CRYPT
query = SELECT username as user, password FROM mailbox WHERE
((username = '%{user | username}@domain1.at') OR (username = '%{user |
username}@domain2.at')) AND active = '1'
}
userdb sql {
iterate_query = SELECT userid AS username, domain FROM users
query = SELECT username as user FROM mailbox WHERE ((username =
'%{user | username}@domain1.at') OR (username = '%{user |
username}@domain2.at') ) AND active = '1'
}
namespace inbox {
inbox = yes
prefix =
separator = /
type = private
}
namespace oeffentlich {
mail_path = /home/vmail/oeffentlich
prefix = Oeffentlich/
separator = /
subscriptions = yes
type = public
mailbox Oeffentlich {
acl
[DELETED for now]
}
service imap-login {
process_min_avail = 8
inet_listener imap {
port = 0
ssl = no
listen =
}
inet_listener imaps {
port = 993
ssl = yes
listen =
}
}
service lmtp {
extra_groups = $SET:default_internal_group
user = vmail
unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp {
group = postfix
mode = 0660
user = postfix
}
}
service imap {
}
service auth {
client_limit = 1200
user = root
unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth {
group = postfix
mode = 0666
user = postfix
}
unix_listener auth-client {
group = postfix
mode = 0660
user = postfix
}
unix_listener auth-userdb {
mode = 0660
}
}
service auth-worker {
}
service dict {
unix_listener dict {
}
}
ssl_server {
cert_file =
/etc/letsencrypt/pfsense/cloud_imap_mail_smtp_LE_cert.fullchain
key_file = /etc/letsencrypt/pfsense/cloud_imap_mail_smtp_LE_cert.key
}
protocol lda {
mail_plugins = sieve
}
protocol imap {
imap_idle_notify_interval = 29 mins
mail_max_userip_connections = 50
mail_plugins {
imap_acl = yes
imap_quota = no
imap_sieve = yes
}
}
protocol lmtp {
mail_plugins = sieve
postmaster_address = logs@xunil.at
}
service managesieve-login {
inet_listener sieve {
port = 4190
}
}
service managesieve {
}
protocol sieve {
managesieve_notify_capability = mailto
managesieve_sieve_capability = fileinto reject envelope
encoded-character vacation subaddress comparator-i;ascii-numeric
relational regex imap4flags copy include variables body enotify
environment mailbox date ihave
}
sieve_script personal {
active_path = /home/vmail/%{user |
domain}/%{user}/sieve/scripts/.dovecot.sieve
driver = file
path = /home/vmail/%{user | domain}/%{user}/sieve/scripts
}
sieve_script before-0 {
driver = file
path = /usr/lib/dovecot/sieve/global-spam.sieve
type = before
}
service anvil {
unix_listener anvil {
group = $SET:default_internal_group
mode = 0660
}
}
I assume I am not far from full success, I'd just like to get rid of
these errors because tomorrow dozens of users will access their
mailboxes ...
Thanks for any pointers!

2.4 upgrade : INBOX does not exist

Stefan G. Weichinger

ls -la /home/vmail/our.tld/user\@our.tld/

doveconf -n

2.4.1-4 (7d8c0e5759): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf

Pigeonhole version 2.4.1-4 (0a86619f)

OS: Linux 6.12.74+deb13+1-amd64 x86_64 Debian 13.4

Hostname: xxxx