On 09/11/2025 14:40 EET Szo"ts Akos via dovecot <[1]dovecot@dovecot.org>
 wrote:


 Hi everyone,

 When I'm trying to synchronise my e-mails from a backup with doveadm
 sync, I get an error.

 Doveadmin sync command:

 doveadm -D sync -1 -f -a "Virtual/All" -R -u [2]user@example.net -n
 inbox
 mdbox:/var/spool/mail/example.net/user_backup

 Error message:

 dsync: Error: cmd sync: Both source and destination mail_path and
 mail_index_path point to same directory:
 /var/spool/mail/example.net/user//mail/mailboxes (name
 space inbox { mail_path } is set explicitly?)

 Relevant config section:

 namespace inbox {
   separator = /
   inbox = yes

   # "home" is set in userdb
   mail_path = %{home}/mail
   mail_index_path = %{home}/index/inbox

   mailbox ... { ... }
   mailbox ... { ... }
 }
 mail_driver = mdbox

 According to the config, the two directories are explicitly set to be
 different. I verified and they exist and they are not symlinks. Do you
 know what causes this issue?

 Version: 2.4.2

 Thank you,

 Akos
 Hi everyone,

 When I'm trying to synchronise my e-mails from a backup with doveadm
 sync,
 I get an error.

 Doveadmin sync command:

 doveadm -D sync -1 -f -a "Virtual/All" -R -u [1][3]user@example.net -n
 inbox
 mdbox:/var/spool/mail/example.net/user_backup

 Error message:

 dsync: Error: cmd sync: Both source and destination mail_path and
 mail_index_path point to same directory:
 /var/spool/mail/example.net/user//mail/mailboxes (name
 space inbox { mail_path } is set explicitly?)

 Relevant config section:

 namespace inbox {
 separator = /
 inbox = yes

 # "home" is set in userdb
 mail_path = %{home}/mail
 mail_index_path = %{home}/index/inbox

 mailbox ... { ... }
 mailbox ... { ... }
 }
 mail_driver = mdbox

 According to the config, the two directories are explicitly set to be
 different. I verified and they exist and they are not symlinks. Do you
 know what causes this issue?

 Version: 2.4.2

 Thank you,

 Akos

 References

 Visible links
 1. mailto:[4]user@example.net
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I would recommend moving mail_path etc outside namespace inbox. Usually you should set a global one and override it only for non-inbox namespaces like shared ones.

Also full doveconf output would be helpful.

Aki

References

Visible links

1. mailto:dovecot@dovecot.org
2. mailto:user@example.net
3. mailto:user@example.net
4. mailto:user@example.net
5. mailto:dovecot@dovecot.org
6. mailto:dovecot-leave@dovecot.org