Upgraded to Dovecot 2.4 when I upgraded to Ubuntu 26.04. Now I can't get my existing emails.

23 Sep 2026


      I was afraid this would happen.
I held off on upgrading to Dovecot 2.4 because of all the configuration
changes, but I finally bit the bullet.  I ran the conversion tool and
it was okay as far as it went, but I'm still having problems.
For the past three days I've been tweaking Dovecot's conf files, and I
think I've finally got them to a working state, but my email client
(Evolution) only shows me an empty inbox.  No Drafts, no Junk, no Sent,
and no Trash.  Just an empty inbox.  I'm sorry if I'm being redundant,
but I'm quite frustrated.
Here's the current output of doveconf -n:
2.4.2 (0962ed2104): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
Pigeonhole version 2.4.2 (767418c3)
OS: Linux 7.0.0-31-generic x86_64 Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS
Hostname: localhost
dovecot_config_version = 2.4.2
dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.2
fts_autoindex = yes
fts_autoindex_max_recent_msgs = 999
fts_search_add_missing = yes
listen = *
mail_control_path = ~/
mail_driver = maildir
mail_inbox_path = ~/
mail_index_path = ~/
mail_path = ~/
mail_privileged_group = mail
mailbox_list_layout = maildir++
protocols {
imap = yes
lmtp = yes
sieve = yes
}
sql_driver = mysql
ssl = required
mysql /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock {
dbname = postfixadmin
password = # hidden, use -P to show it
user = postfix
}
passdb sql {
default_password_scheme = ARGON2I
driver = sql
query = SELECT username AS user, password FROM mailbox WHERE username
= '%{user | lower}' AND active = '1'
mysql 127.0.0.1 {
dbname = postfixadmin
password = # hidden, use -P to show it
user = postfix
}
}
userdb sql {
driver = sql
iterate_query = SELECT username AS user FROM mailbox WHERE active =
'1'
query = SELECT CONCAT('/var/vmail/', maildir) AS home, 2000 AS uid,
2000 AS gid FROM mailbox WHERE username = '%{user | lower}' AND active
= '1'
mysql 127.0.0.1 {
dbname = postfixadmin
password = # hidden, use -P to show it
user = postfix
}
}
namespace inbox {
inbox = yes
prefix =
separator = .
type = private
}
service imap-login {
inet_listener imap {
port = 143
}
inet_listener imaps {
port = 993
ssl = yes
}
}
service submission-login {
inet_listener submission {
}
inet_listener submissions {
}
}
service lmtp {
unix_listener lmtp {
mode = 0666
}
unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp {
group = postfix
mode = 0660
user = postfix
}
}
service imap {
vsz_limit = 1024M
}
service submission {
}
service auth {
client_limit = 2048
unix_listener postfix-crypto-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
}
}
protocol lda {
mail_plugins = $mail_plugins sieve
}
protocol lmtp {
mail_plugins = sieve
}
service managesieve-login {
inet_listener sieve {
port = 4190
}
inet_listener sieve_deprecated {
port = 2000
}
}
service managesieve {
}
ssl_server {
cert_file =
/etc/letsencrypt/live/subdomain.mydomain.tld/fullchain.pem
key_file = /etc/letsencrypt/live/subdomain.mydomain.tld/privkey.pem
}
Help!
Ken

Upgraded to Dovecot 2.4 when I upgraded to Ubuntu 26.04. Now I can't get my existing emails.

Ken Wright

2.4.2 (0962ed2104): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf

Pigeonhole version 2.4.2 (767418c3)

OS: Linux 7.0.0-31-generic x86_64 Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS

Hostname: localhost