- dovecot - dovecot.org

2.3 replication issue throwing errors
by Paul Kudla 22 Feb '26

22 Feb '26

shows same error on both servers Server 1 : # sync faye(a)scom.ca doveadm(faye(a)scom.ca)<90952><BJq9J2dHmGlIYwEA0dxyZQ>: Warning: Mailbox changes caused a desync. You may want to run dsync again: Remote lost mailbox GUID f982a82747469869ea0f0100cf58dcff (maybe it was just deleted?) Server 2: # sync faye(a)scom.ca doveadm(faye(a)scom.ca)<90952><BJq9J2dHmGlIYwEA0dxyZQ>: Warning: Mailbox changes caused a desync. You may want to run dsync again: Remote lost mailbox GUID f982a82747469869ea0f0100cf58dcff (maybe it was just deleted?) i am aware there is a mismatch on one of the servers but there does not seem to be a clear cut way to find the offending file to delete it or force a backwards sync ? How would i identify what GUID f982a82747469869ea0f0100cf58dcff means? same on both servers. doveadm force-resync -u faye(a)scom.ca '*' have tried reindex etc etc etc issue persists logs ?? mail18 02-20 06:45:24 {dovecot} [67632] (3014654310) doveadm(faye(a)scom.ca)<71073><hOl0ClRJmGmhFQEAz1jc/w>: Debug: open(/proc/self/stat) failed: No such file or directory mail18 02-20 06:45:24 {dovecot} [67632] (3014654311) doveadm(faye(a)scom.ca)<71073><hOl0ClRJmGmhFQEAz1jc/w>: Debug: open(/proc/self/io) failed: No such file or directory mail18 02-20 06:45:24 {dovecot} [67632] (3014654312) doveadm(faye(a)scom.ca)<71073><hOl0ClRJmGmhFQEAz1jc/w>: Debug: Namespace inbox: type=private, prefix=, sep=/, inbox=yes, hidden=no, list=yes, subscriptions=yes location=maildir:~/ any help would be appreciated -- Thanks - Paul Kudla (Manager SCOM.CA Internet Services Inc.) Have A Happy Friday AND Happy Sucessful 2026 ! Scom.ca Internet Services <http://www.scom.ca> 104-1009 Byron Street South Whitby, Ontario - Canada L1N 4S3 Toronto 416.642.7266 Main 1.866.411.7266 Fax 1.888.892.7266 Email paul(a)scom.ca

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How do you use doveadm fetch -S
by Steve Litt 20 Feb '26

20 Feb '26

Hi all, I have a working plain text 127.0.0.1:143 Dovecot 2.4.2 on my Qemu VM guest. The following command displays the Receive date, From and Subject for every email in my golugTech mailbox, exactly like the docs say it should: =================================================== doveadm fetch -u slitt "date.received hdr.from hdr.subject" mailbox golugTech =================================================== But when I add the -S in order to specify the 127.0.0.1 listener at port 143, it throws the following error: =================================================== [slitt@mydesk ~]$ cat junk.jnk [root@dovecotvoid dovecot]# doveadm fetch -S 127.0.0.1:143 -u slitt "date.received hdr.from hdr.subject" mailbox golugTech doveadm(slitt): Error: conn 127.0.0.1:143 (127.0.0.1:143): doveadm server sent invalid handshake: * OK Waiting for authentication process to respond.. doveadm(slitt): Error: cmd fetch: 127.0.0.1:143: Command fetch failed for slitt: Connection closed [root@dovecotvoid dovecot]# [slitt@mydesk~]$ =================================================== The docs say -S is to specify the socket_path, and it should be expressed as hostname:port. For hostname, besides 127.0.0.1, I tried localhost and dovecotvoid, the latter of which should not work because dovecotvoid is not 127.0.0.1, it's 10.0.2.15. The docs say "This allows an administrator to execute doveadm(1) mail commands through the given socket." So I guess finding the server isn't the purpose of socket_path. My plain text 143 Dovecot 2.4.2 IMAP works just fine without the -S. Is there ever a case where doveadm fetch would need to know the specific address and port of the dovecot IMAP server, and if so, how would I specify it? Thanks, SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com

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What replaced mail_home in 2.4.2?
by Steve Litt 20 Feb '26

20 Feb '26

Hi all, In my Dovecot 2.4.2 virtual machine guest I've used mail_home to indicate the value of ~ and presumably of ${home}. However, the only documentation I can find on mail_home is on https://doc.dovecot.org/main/core/summaries/settings.html#mail_home , which is NOT a 2.4.2 document. I find no reference to mail_home on any 2.4.2 documentation. Has something replace mail_home, and if so what's it called and can I put it outside of any {} blocks? Thanks, SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com

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mail_utf8_extensions and IMAP Folder Naming
by max.wriedt＠rehost.eu 20 Feb '26

20 Feb '26

i just upgraded my 2.3 installation to 2.4. I like to be bleeding edge and i want to use SMTPUTF8. I came across problems with mailboxes that have german umlauts. when enabling "mail_utf8_extensions=yes" e.g. Microsoft Outlook gives me mUTF-7 encoded folder names. Also the folder names when list via openssl s_client are encoded in mUTF-7. Am i missing something or can i disable utf8 for IMAP (UTF8=ACCEPT) only, but keep for LMTP Transport/SMTPUTF8 from postfix to dovecot? I am using mdbox format as storage, if that matters. My namespace config (shortened): namespace inbox { inbox = yes type = private #mailbox_list_utf8 = yes # also tried this -> when folder didn't exist before it would create a new one with utf8, no matter mail_utf8_extensions is on or off mailbox Drafts { auto = no special_use = \Drafts } mailbox Entw&APw-rfe { special_use = \Drafts } mailbox Entw%26APw-rfe { special_use = \Drafts } mailbox Entw\&APw-rfe { special_use = \Drafts } mailbox Entwürfe { auto = create special_use = \Drafts } mailbox Trash { auto = no special_use = \Trash quota_storage_percentage = 110 } mailbox "Gel&APY-schte Elemente" { special_use = \Trash quota_storage_percentage = 110 } mailbox "Gelöschte Elemente" { auto = subscribe special_use = \Trash quota_storage_percentage = 110 } mailbox Sent { auto = no special_use = \Sent } mailbox Archiv { auto = subscribe special_use = \Archive } mailbox Spam { special_use = \Junk auto = no } }

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2.4.2 breaks user iterations for LDAP
by cpfeiffer＠rev-crew.info 20 Feb '26

20 Feb '26

Hello everyone, Due to the fix for CVE-2025-30189, routines like userdb_ldap_preinit() call auth_cache_parse_key_and_fields() unconditionally, with the eventually called auth_cache_parse_key_exclude() erroring if a cache key could not be constructed. It’s also noteworthy that this call happens regardless of whether use_cache is set or not, and as of such failing to construct a cache key would cause an error even if use_cache = no was set for that database. This is however an issue for user iteration with LDAP, as documented here LDAP | Dovecot CE <https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/config/auth/databases/ldap.html#user-ite…> . Such a userdb only has iterate_filter fields that would inherently not be containing any user variables. The call to auth_cache_parse_key_and_fields() uses a combination of ldap_base and userdb_ldap_filter anyway (so whatever is in iterate_filter isn’t considered), and for an iteration userdb as described in the documentation, the latter would be empty. Alas, I ended up getting the rather confusing error * auth: Fatal: auth-cache: dc=rev-crew,dc=info: Cache key must contain at least one variable With dc=rev-crew,dc=info being my ldap_base setting for the iteration userdb. I’m not critically dependent on the user iteration, so I’ve commented the userdb out for now, but this would need fixing. Regards, Christian Pfeiffer Hello everyone, Due to the fix for CVE-2025-30189, routines like userdb_ldap_preinit() call auth_cache_parse_key_and_fields() unconditionally, with the eventually called auth_cache_parse_key_exclude() erroring if a cache key could not be constructed. It's also noteworthy that this call happens regardless of whether use_cache is set or not, and as of such failing to construct a cache key would cause an error even if use_cache = no was set for that database. This is however an issue for user iteration with LDAP, as documented here [1]LDAP | Dovecot CE. Such a userdb only has iterate_filter fields that would inherently not be containing any user variables. The call to auth_cache_parse_key_and_fields() uses a combination of ldap_base and userdb_ldap_filter anyway (so whatever is in iterate_filter isn't considered), and for an iteration userdb as described in the documentation, the latter would be empty. Alas, I ended up getting the rather confusing error o auth: Fatal: auth-cache: dc=rev-crew,dc=info: Cache key must contain at least one variable With dc=rev-crew,dc=info being my ldap_base setting for the iteration userdb. I'm not critically dependent on the user iteration, so I've commented the userdb out for now, but this would need fixing. Regards, Christian Pfeiffer References Visible links 1. https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/config/auth/databases/ldap.html#user-ite…

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Search for missing To: header?
by Joseph Tam 20 Feb '26

20 Feb '26

Is there a proper way to torture doveadm search query to look for messages with a missing "To:" header? I played around with it and this seems to work: doveadm fetch -A text mailbox {box} NOT TO '' (Looking through a large spam corups: spam often exclude recipients in the headers as it gives the game away their personalized fraud was blasted to hundreds of addresses.) Joseph Tam <jtam.home(a)gmail.com>

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More Dovecot 2.4 woes: LDAP cache bug and virtual autosubscribe
by sev monster 19 Feb '26

19 Feb '26

8 months ago I messaged this list communicating some of the issues I had with 2.4. Before I could even start testing 2.4 properly, 2 bugs had to be fixed—one that caused crashes on startup (https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/issues/17050) and one that caused passdb to use the same caching key for all connections and as such always have the same user log in. There was another bug, one that prevented me from using LDAP binds for passdb, but it had a workaround that mostly worked without side-eeffects. All of those have since been fixed, hurray! So in my infinite naïveté, I decided to give 2.4 another shake. And it, again, does not work. Surprise! I did manage to massage the configuration to allow me to at least run 2.4 without crashing and with users able to access (most of) their mailboxes, but there are still blockers to full functionality. I face the following issues: 1. Christian Pfeiffer back in November found a bug where auth caching with LDAP did not work, and due to how it's implemented, even turning caching off would still raise an error. I experienced the same issue for both userdb iteration and passdb bind logins. I had to comment out the userdb and use a static one instead (all my users, currently, use the same UID and easily composable path, so this wasn't a big deal) and start using a service account for LDAP binds. 2. Virtual mailbox autosubscribe does not work anymore. It throws an error about trying to create the virtual mailbox. This worked in 2.3. My virtual mailbox config: namespace virtual { type = private prefix = Search Folders. mail_driver = virtual mail_path = /etc/dovecot/virtual mail_index_path = ~/dovecot-virtual.cache mail_control_path = ~/dovecot-virtual.cache mail_volatile_path = ~/dovecot-virtual.cache hidden = yes list = children subscriptions = no mailbox All { auto = subscribe special_use = \All comment = All messages, excluding Junk and Trash } mailbox Unread { auto = subscribe special_use = \Important comment = All unread messages, excluding Junk and Trash } mailbox Flagged { auto = subscribe special_use = \Flagged comment = All flagged messages } } If there is something wrong with this config that might be responsible for my issue, please let me know. Otherwise, I believe this is a regression. I understand autosubscribe is documented to (and in other situations with non-virtual boxes) create mailboxes if missing, so if this is actually a fix to make the feature work as documented, we need a new option that allows for autosubscription without attempting to create the mailbox. Otherwise, my users will not know they even have these mailboxes—no one anymore knows or cares about mailbox (re: folder) subscription and won't know where to look to get them to show up in their client. With autosubscribe enabled, I can see the mailboxes in my mail client without explicitly subscribing, but attempting to open them will throw a server error. Removing the setting will make the mailbox disappear without going into settings and explicitly subscribing. Any ETA on the first bug being fixed, and any help with the second issue (bug or not) would be greatly appreciated. Best regards. P.S.: I wanted to spread this information that wasn't mentioned at all in the documentation. The shadow passdb was removed in the move to 2.4; why exactly is neither here nor there, though I will remark that I still don't know why it was done. I had believed at the time this necessitated enabling PAM for Dovecot, which it is not by default in my distro's package (Alpine), so if I wanted to continue allowing local users to log in, I would have to build Dovecot it myself and install PAM, neither of which I particularly wanted to do. I did play with passwd-file in the past, but there were issues with it that prevented me from using it—I don't remember what they were exactly, but I believe they have since been fixed, since in my testing now it does seem to work properly in the use-cases I tested. Anyway, while going over my config and getting ready to re-install PAM, I had a thought. /etc/shadow uses the same format for the first two fields as /etc/password, and Dovecot still (supposedly) allows for passwords to be used when reading /etc/password, so wouldn't it be possible to point the driver at the shadow file? Turns out, yes, it works! I am now able to authenticate local users from /etc/shadow again. Thanks to this, I no longer need to build with PAM support and don't need to install PAM on a PAM-less system. I hope this isn't considered a bug or something and support for this use-case is removed, because I really don't want to bother once again with adding PAM when I don't have to. :)

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Fedora 43 and Dovecot version 2.4.2
by Bill Steinberg 19 Feb '26

19 Feb '26

Hello, I am running Fedora 43 on a server which is running a dovecot server, version 2.4.1-8. I am not running a cluster, there is only one dovecot server running on the Fedora 43 instance. Redhat has just updated the dovecot version on Fedora 43 to version 2.4.2-5. I would like to upgrade dovecot to version 2.4.2. I assume that the dovecot_config_version should be changed to 2.4.2. Should the dovecot_storage_version be changed to 2.4.2 as well? Are there any steps that should be taken to upgrade the dovecot storage to version 2.4.2? FYI the mail_driver on the dovecot server is mbox: mail_driver = mbox. Best regards, -Bill Hello, I am running Fedora 43 on a server which is running a dovecot server, version 2.4.1-8. I am not running a cluster, there is only one dovecot server running on the Fedora 43 instance. Redhat has just updated the dovecot version on Fedora 43 to version 2.4.2-5. I would like to upgrade dovecot to version 2.4.2. I assume that the dovecot_config_version should be changed to 2.4.2. Should the dovecot_storage_version be changed to 2.4.2 as well? Are there any steps that should be taken to upgrade the dovecot storage to version 2.4.2? FYI the mail_driver on the dovecot server is mbox: mail_driver = mbox. Best regards, -Bill

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deliver fails because of a permission issue with SSL private key file
by Markus Schönhaber 19 Feb '26

19 Feb '26

Hi, I'm trying to make Postfix hand incoming mail to Dovecot by using Dovecot's deliver. But this fails with a permission error: > Feb 17 15:50:12 debian13-cont postfix/pipe[13133]: 171C17206: to=<recipient(a)dest.examle.org>, relay=dovecot, delay=0.17, delays=0.1/0/0/0.07, dsn=5.3.0, status=bounced (Command died with status 89: "/usr/lib/dovecot/deliver". Command output: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/certs.conf line 3: key_file: open(/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key) failed: Permission denied ) How can I solve this (short of making the private key file world readable, of course)? Regards mks I have this in Postfix' master.cf: > dovecot unix - n n - - pipe > flags=DROhu user=vmail:vmail argv=/usr/lib/dovecot/deliver -e -f ${sender} -a ${recipient} -d ${user}@${domain} # LANG=C id vmail uid=501(vmail) gid=501(vmail) groups=501(vmail),104(ssl-cert) # LANG=C ls -l /etc/ssl/private/ total 4 -rw-r----- 1 root ssl-cert 1704 Feb 4 17:15 ssl-cert-snakeoil.key # doveconf -n # 2.4.2-2+debian13 (0962ed2104): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf # Pigeonhole version 2.4.2-2+debian13 (767418c3) # OS: Linux 6.19.0-2-MANJARO x86_64 Debian 13.3 btrfs # Hostname: debian13-cont dovecot_config_version = 2.4.2 dovecot_storage_version = 2.4.2 log_debug = category=sql mail_driver = sdbox mail_gid = vmail mail_home = /var/spool/vmail/home/%{user | domain}/%{user | username} mail_path = /var/spool/vmail/mail/%{user | domain}/%{user | username} mail_plugins { quota = yes } mail_uid = vmail protocols = imap lmtp sieve sql_driver = mysql mysql localhost { dbname = postfixadmin password = # hidden, use -P to show it user = postfixadmin } passdb sql { query = SELECT 'vmail' AS userdb_uid, 'vmail' AS userdb_gid, CONCAT('/var/spool/vmail/home/', maildir) AS userdb_home, CONCAT(quota, 'B') AS userdb_quota_storage_size, username AS user, password FROM mailbox WHERE username = '%{user}' AND active = '1'; } userdb prefetch { } userdb sql { iterate_query = SELECT username AS user FROM mailbox WHERE active = '1'; query = SELECT 'vmail' AS uid, 'vmail' AS gid, CONCAT('/var/spool/vmail/home/', maildir) AS home, CONCAT(quota, 'B') AS quota_storage_size, username AS user, password FROM mailbox WHERE username = '%{user}' AND active = '1'; } namespace inbox { inbox = yes separator = / mailbox Drafts { special_use = "\\Drafts" } mailbox Entwürfe { special_use = "\\Drafts" } mailbox Junk { special_use = "\\Junk" } mailbox Trash { special_use = "\\Trash" } mailbox "Gelöschte Objekte" { special_use = "\\Trash" } mailbox Sent { special_use = "\\Sent" } mailbox "Gesendete Objekte" { special_use = "\\Sent" } } service auth { inet_listener tcp_auth { port = 12345 } unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth { group = postfix mode = 0666 user = postfix } } service auth-worker { } ssl_server { cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem key_file = /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key } protocol imap { mail_plugins { imap_quota = yes } } quota "User quota" { } dict_server { dict mysql { driver = sql sql_driver = mysql dict_map priv/quota/messages { sql_table = quota username_field = username dict_map_value_field messages { } } dict_map priv/quota/storage { sql_table = quota username_field = username dict_map_value_field bytes { } } } } quota_clone { dict proxy { name = mysql } }

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dovecot 2.4 changes
by Curtis J Blank 18 Feb '26

18 Feb '26

I just did a Tumbleweed upgrade. then I had to fix dovecot. No warning that dovecot was going to break what so ever. Below is all the things I had to fix. And then I could not read my email in Thunderbird because you changed: mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u to mail_driver = mbox mail_path = ~/mail mail_inbox_path = /var/spool/mail/%{user} and the "%u" to "%{user}" was the showstopper. What a crock of BS! I spent 3 hours determining the problem and then fixing dovecot because you decided to make major changes for no good reason. It worked just fine the way it was. You could have automated the changes by providing a utility that would make the changes the first time it started up after the upgrade. I had to try to start dovecot and when it failed to start look in the log and see the error and fix it. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and... Like I said what a bunch of BS! Yes this is a rant. And maybe openSuSE's is too blame also. Jan 24 03:33:35 server dovecot[2223449]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf line 25: The first setting must be dovecot_config_version Jan 24 03:36:45 server dovecot[4626]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf line 25: The first setting must be dovecot_config_version Jan 24 03:46:10 server dovecot[21464]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf line 2: Invalid dovecot_config_version: Currently supported versions are: 2.4.0 2.4.1 2.4.2 Jan 24 03:48:45 server dovecot[22135]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf line 92: dict { } is missing section name Jan 24 03:51:47 server dovecot[28824]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-system.conf.ext line 10: passdb { } is missing section name Jan 24 03:53:22 server dovecot[29258]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-system.conf.ext line 10: passdb { } is missing section name Jan 24 03:55:26 server dovecot[29906]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-system.conf.ext line 49: userdb { } is missing section name Jan 24 03:56:57 server dovecot[30179]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-director.conf line 40: inet_listener { } is missing section name Jan 24 03:58:37 server dovecot[30652]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-logging.conf line 64: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:01:32 server dovecot[37805]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf line 31: mail_location: Unknown setting: mail_location Jan 24 04:05:30 server dovecot[38898]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf line 32: mail_location: Unknown setting: mail_location Jan 24 04:06:35 server dovecot[39158]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf line 23: ssl_cert: Unknown setting: ssl_cert Jan 24 04:09:07 server dovecot[39707]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf line 25: ssl_server_cert_file: open(/etc/dovecot/conf.d/-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- Jan 24 04:09:07 server dovecot[39707]: doveconf: Fatal: -----END CERTIFICATE----- Jan 24 04:09:07 server dovecot[39707]: doveconf: Fatal: ) failed: File name too long Jan 24 04:14:52 server dovecot[47156]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf line 27: ssl_server_cert_file: open(/etc/dovecot/conf.d/-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- Jan 24 04:14:52 server dovecot[47156]: doveconf: Fatal: -----END CERTIFICATE----- Jan 24 04:14:52 server dovecot[47156]: doveconf: Fatal: ) failed: File name too long Jan 24 04:17:35 server dovecot[54187]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf line 72: ssl_dh: Unknown setting: ssl_dh Jan 24 04:19:04 server dovecot[54532]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-ssl.conf line 93: ssl_prefer_server_ciphers: Unknown setting: ssl_prefer_server_ciphers Jan 24 04:21:07 server dovecot[60961]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-acl.conf line 11: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:22:40 server dovecot[61409]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-acl.conf line 17: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:23:35 server dovecot[61624]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-plugin.conf line 9: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:24:40 server dovecot[61932]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-quota.conf line 17: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:25:38 server dovecot[62301]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-quota.conf line 41: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:26:12 server dovecot[62335]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-quota.conf line 69: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:26:42 server dovecot[62550]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-quota.conf line 78: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:27:05 server dovecot[62582]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve-extprograms.conf line 9: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:28:11 server dovecot[62819]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve.conf line 24: Unknown section name: plugin Jan 24 04:29:02 server dovecot[63099]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve.conf line 39: sieve: Unknown setting: sieve Jan 24 04:36:01 server dovecot[71295]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve.conf line 39: sieve: Unknown setting: sieve Jan 24 04:39:04 server dovecot[72067]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/90-sieve.conf line 40: sieve: Unknown setting: sieve (sieve_script_sieve or sieve_script_personal_sieve not found either.) Jan 24 04:47:39 server dovecot[86665]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf: ssl_options: unknown flag: 'no_compression' Jan 24 04:50:51 server dovecot[93375]: doveconf: Fatal: dovecot_storage_version setting must be set Jan 24 05:01:51 server dovecot[105836]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf line 31: mail_location: Unknown setting: mail_location Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107288><SOtYQyBJTOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107288><SOtYQyBJTOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107289><9+pYQyBJTeXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<10Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107288><SOtYQyBJTOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107288><SOtYQyBJTOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107289><9+pYQyBJTeXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:06:18 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107289><9+pYQyBJTeXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=07557289><9+pYQyBJTeXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:08:38 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:08:38 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:11:10 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:11:10 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:15:09 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:473 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:15:09 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, dir owned by 0:473 mode=0755) Jan 24 05:18:35 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:18:35 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:19:09 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<122933></apLcSBJaKrAqBTq>: Disconnected: Connection closed (SELECT finished 0.138 secs ago) in=102 out=787 deleted=0 expunged=0 trashed=0 hdr_count=0 hdr_bytes=0 body_count=0 body_bytes=0 Jan 24 05:19:58 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:19:58 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:20:20 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:20:20 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:21:17 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775) Jan 24 05:21:17 cjbnew dovecot: imap(bob)<107806><1/QbSyBJUOXAqBTz>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: Failed to autocreate mailbox: open(/var/spool/mail/%u) failed: Permission denied (euid=500(bob) egid=100(users) missing +w perm: /var/spool/mail, we're not in group 473(mail), dir owned by 0:473 mode=0775)

12 19

"Synchronization corrupted index header" with mdbox: thousands of deleted e-mails reappeared in INBOX
by Ákos Szőts 17 Feb '26

17 Feb '26

Hi everyone, Suddenly, the following messages appeared in my Dovecot error log: master: Warning: Killed with signal 15 (by pid=0 uid=0 code=kill) Error: Mailbox Trash: Synchronization corrupted index header [...]/Trash/dbox-Mails/dovecot.index: uidvalidity=0, but next_uid=73 Warning: Mailbox Trash: fscking index file [...]/Trash/dbox-Mails/dovecot.index Warning: mdbox([...]/mail/storage): rebuilding indexes: Mailbox Trash index was fsck'd Warning: mdbox([...]/mail/storage): fscking index file [...]/index/inbox/storage/dovecot.map.index Error: Mailbox INBOX: [...]/INBOX/dbox-Mails/dovecot.index reset, view is now inconsistent The first message is because I restarted the container. Since then, Thunderbird shows thousands of previously deleted e-mails again in INBOX where all my messages are marked as unread. - Do you know what can cause it and how can I avoid to happen again? - Is the used mdbox storage engine that fragile? Is the fault tolerance of other engines better? I have a backup from some days ago. Is it possible to somehow revert back to it and sync the new e-mails on top of those? Version: 2.4.2. Thank you, Ákos

2 1

Most relevant documents for 2.4.x config file syntax
by Steve Litt 16 Feb '26

16 Feb '26

Hi all, Some time has gone by, so I'm hoping there's some good documentation for somebody needing syntax help on building a 2.4.x Dovecot. I've seen https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.0/installation/upgrade/2.3-to-2.4.html , but it's not useful to me because I don't know *where* all those various pieces go. Which things go in what curly braces? It doesn't say. https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/config/quick.html looks like an excellent starting place. Do you agree? What other *simple* documentation do you recommend? Because I am not and never was a Dovecot expert, I'll need something that does a considerable amount of teaching: A sort of Dovecot 4.2 For Dummies type thing. Thanks, SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com

3 4

Configuration upgrade tool
by Aki Tuomi 15 Feb '26

15 Feb '26

Hi! To make migrating from Dovecot 2.3 to 2.4 a bit easier, we are now providing a tool that helps upgrade your existing configuration. The tool allows you to upload either a full dovecot.conf or selected ancillary configuration files from a 2.3 setup, and will attempt to convert them accordingly. You can find the tool here: https://dovecot.org/upgrader/ We do not store any of the configurations processed by the tool, nor do we track who uses it. It's offered as-is, without any warranty or guarantee. If you run into any issues, unexpected results, or have feedback about the tool, please let us know — it’s very much appreciated. Please note that the tool can make mistakes, so we strongly recommend carefully reviewing and testing the output before using it in production. There are currently no plans to release this tool as open source. Regards, Aki Tuomi Open-Xchange oy

11 18

Sdbox/mdbox purge on Public folders
by luke+dovecot＠psy.io 15 Feb '26

15 Feb '26

Hi dovecot mailing list people, After having looked through the mailing list archives, tried various search engines & asked an LLM to hallucinate an answer all to no avail, I now pose the following question to you all: For a Dovecot 2.4 system that uses mail_driver = mdbox for regular mailboxes and also has a public namespace, how might I invoke the maintenance routine of `doveadm purge` against the m.1, m.2 ... m.N files under the mail_path location? Below is the snippet of what I have in the configuration files for the public namespace: namespace public { type = public separator = / prefix = Public/ mail_path = /var/spool/mail/Public mail_index_private_path = ~/public subscriptions = yes mailbox "communal" { auto = subscribe } } Since my dovecot instance is a self-hosted matter, I am in a position to move all mail data out of there, delete any left over storage files and change the mail_driver to Maildir, if that is the easiest way to manage the risk of dbox m file sprawl/growth. Best regards, Luke

2 1

Is there a lint utility for 2.4.x configuration?
by Steve Litt 14 Feb '26

14 Feb '26

Hi all, I use a local Dovecot IMAP server to store all my emails, which I access from either Claws-Mail or Evolution. On 7/7/2025 my email stopped working, a few hours of troubleshooting led to a Dovecot problem, a few more hours led to the 2.3 to 2.4 config file changes, and the next 3 days I went without email while trying to get a working 2.4. Finally I managed to downgrade back to 2.3.x and restore the config from backup, and didn't lose too many emails. I've waited 6 months for all the dust to settle, and now I'm going to try to make a test VM (Void Linux) with 2.4.x, using phony baloney data because I don't want to lose my email capabilities again. So my first question is this: Is there a lint utility for my configuration, so that I can cut down on experimenting with 50 different variables at once and reading conflicting documentation? Here's what I know so far about lint utilities: * I know doveconf -n and dovecot -n dump non-default settings, but I don't think they can detect syntax errors. * dovecot-sysreport doesn't seem to give me info about syntax errors. * None of the doveadm commands seem to check syntax. Thanks, SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com

2 3

My plan for a test Dovecot 2.4.2
by Steve Litt 14 Feb '26

14 Feb '26

Hi all, I need to thoroughly test Dovecot 2.4.2 on a Virtual Machine before upgrading my real machine. Please tell me whether you think this plan is good... I install Void Linux, my Daily Driver Distro, on a Qemu VM. I also install Dovecot and Claws-Mail. Then I copy part or all of my current (2.3.21.1 (d492236fa0)) maildir to the VM, and work until I can configure a Dovecot on the VM that serves IMAP only, SSL only (ssl = required on 2.3.x), such that Claws-Mail can read, search and delete messages on the VM just the same as on 2.3.21.1 on my daily driver. I'm using few or no Dovecot features other than using it as a Maildir driven IMAP server. Maildir is a must because I write to it from Procmail, and Procmail doesn't write every kind of mail storage. Does this sound like a good, safe way to test before upgrading? Thanks, SteveT Steve Litt http://444domains.com

1 0

Clean up of dovecot.index.pvt.log files
by Sad Clouds 14 Feb '26

14 Feb '26

Hello, I'm trying to understand how to clean up old dovecot.index.pvt.log files, which are used for per user private \Seen flags. Running "doveadm purge" does not seem to remove them. I have the following public namespace configured: namespace public { type = public separator = / prefix = Public/ inbox = no hidden = no mail_driver = mdbox mail_path = /data/mailstore/%{user|domain|lower}/mail_public/mdbox mail_index_private_path = ~/mdbox/Public.index.pvt # Enable user private \Seen flags list = yes subscriptions = no # Allow users in the 'admin' group to have complete control over the namespace acl group=admin { rights = lrwstipekxa } } The problem is - if the admin deletes a public folder, the old dovecot.index.pvt.log files forever remain in all of the users' home mailbox directories, like tombstones. I see two ways around it: 1. Attempt to store private index files in the original folder's mail path, so when the folder is deleted, all files underneath it are also deleted automatically: mail_path = %{mail_directory}/Public.index.pvt/%{user|domain|lower} However there appears to be no %{mail_directory} variable which would expand to mdbox/mailboxes/<folder_name>/dbox-Mails/ and even if there was one, with public folders, for every user subscribed to this folder, there would be a user-specific directory just for the private index file. This may not scale well with thousands of users. 2. Run a cron script to list all public folders and then compare ~/mdbox/Public.index.pvt directory of each user for stale private index files which refer to non-existent folders. This can probably be done efficiently with commands like find, awk and sed, but it feels a bit cumbersome and arcane. Can anyone suggest any other or better alternatives to solve this issue? Thanks.

1 0

shared mailbox on 2.3 - will I avoid concurrency (mailbox corruption) issues if both users are on the same server
by daniel.botting＠codethink.co.uk 13 Feb '26

13 Feb '26

Hi all, Currently we are running 2.3, with a plan to move to 2.4 later this year. Our current setup is two replicating servers, I have setup on my test servers a shared name space as this is a limited requirement at this time for an assistant to view their managers inbox. I had read here: https://doc.dovecot.org/2.3/configuration_manual/shared_mailboxes/cluster_s… For two or more servers Director is required because (taken from the docs): As mentioned in Director, you can’t have multiple servers accessing the same user at the same time or it will lead into trouble. This can become problematic with shared mailboxes, because two users who are sharing a folder may run in different servers. As this is a limited requirement at this time and we'll be migrating to 2.4 where Director has been removed (I read the Docs that there is an unsupported replacement) if I have both the manager and the assistant only accessing the managers inbox via the same server will I avoid concurrency issues (ie I presume mailbox corruption). Many thanks and have a nice weekend Daniel

1 1

Rebuilding missing index/paths
by Alain Perry 13 Feb '26

13 Feb '26

Hello, First of all, I'm sorry if this isn't the best place to ask for that kind of help, in which case I'd appreciate a pointer to any adequate asynchronous channel. ------------ Some context (skip to next horizontal line if you don't care): I'm happily self-hosting a few services at home. Some months ago I decided I needed to backup my emails to my NAS, in a way that would allow me to read or search them from a web browser as easily as I did with my "cloud" mailboxes. Since I didn't find a modern yet simple webmail that could directly read a Maildir storage, I finally bit the bullet and ran a dovecot container to copy my emails to (using imapsync). Since I opted for an IMAP server, I thought I didn't need to worry too much about the storage format and used the sdbox that (I believe) was the default. Backing up worked and searching worked and I was a happy person. I used my local webmail a couple of times to search for an old email, found it, thought this was a job well done that I wouldn't have to worry too much about anymore. Then, it stopped working. I honestly don't remember what I did around that time that might have broken things or caused a data loss, but IMAP clients couldn't access my emails anymore. Since I had other more urgent matters to address, I let that problem rot. Now that I have a bit more time, I decided to try again. ------------ My problem is that, while it is clear that some data is missing, I have no clue what that data is and how (if ?) I can rebuild it. The folder structure is there in /src/vmail/username/Mail/mailboxes. I do see index(.log) and dbox-Mails/u.* in the folders, so it does look like it conforms to the doc in this regard. However, the paths returned for the mailboxes by "doveadm mailbox path" all use guid's, and do not exist on the filesystem. I don't quite understand how it got to this point, nor what I should have lying around at those paths but I wonder if it is at all possible to rebuild them so I might regain access to my archives. Is there something I can do to recover my emails ? Thanks for reaching this point, and thank you for any help and/or pointers you might be able to provide. Regards,

2 2

History Assignment Writing Help – Expert Assistance
by Theo Wilson 13 Feb '26

13 Feb '26

Struggling with your history assignments? Our History Assignment Writing Help service offers expert guidance to help you craft well-researched, structured, and original assignments. Fill out this form to get personalized support from experienced writers and improve your grades with ease. https://www.newassignmenthelp.co.uk/history-assignment-help

1 0

fts-flatcurve change index location
by grabsoon＠gmail.com 12 Feb '26

12 Feb '26

hi is there any way to change location ONLY FOR flatcurve indexes all I want is to write fts-flatcurve directories outside ~/Maildir path I do not want to change location of: dovecot.list.index.log dovecot.mailbox.log dovecot-uidvalidity Only for flatcurve indexes. when i set mail_index_path = ~/Indexes all indexes are saved to this new location, not just flatcurve i'm afraid that changing mail_index_path value on production environment is very riski Thanks

2 1

Re: 2.4: fts flatcurve remove?
by Michael Slusarz 11 Feb '26

11 Feb '26

> On 02/10/2026 3:07 PM MST Bjoern Franke via dovecot <dovecot(a)dovecot.org> wrote: > > in the pre release docs > https://doc.dovecot.org/main/core/man/doveadm-fts.1.html#fts-flatcurve-remo… > > doveadm fts flatcurve remove > > was mentioned, but in https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/ it's gone. ? https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/core/man/doveadm-fts.1.html#fts-flatcurve-rem…

2 1

2.4: fts flatcurve remove?
by Bjoern Franke 11 Feb '26

11 Feb '26

Hi, in the pre release docs https://doc.dovecot.org/main/core/man/doveadm-fts.1.html#fts-flatcurve-remo… doveadm fts flatcurve remove was mentioned, but in https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/ it's gone. So, how to remove the flatcurve data again? Simply a find ...--delete? Regards Bjoern

1 0

doveadm quota get issue in lcx container
by Kim Haverblad 09 Feb '26

09 Feb '26

Hi, I'm having some issues getting the quota plugin to work properly. Based on the error message, it looks like the plugin doesn't fully cooperate with Proxmox mount points for LXC containers. It appears to be referencing the secondary disk directly as /dev/nvme1n1p1, rather than the actual mount point inside the container. Here's the full error message: mlgate:/usr/lib/systemd/system# doveadm quota get -u [1]some(a)example.com doveadm([2]some(a)example.com): Error: Failed to get quota resource STORAGE: quota-fs: quotactl(Q_GETQUOTA, /dev/nvme1n1p1) failed: No such file or directory Are there any parameters that need to be adjusted to make this work, or is there an alternative plugin that would handle this setup better? //Kim

2 1

In an email client, tasks accumulate and are queued using the IMAP protocol
by Lafiel Elentari 08 Feb '26

08 Feb '26

Hello. By default, the email client uses 4 IMAP connections. However, tasks often hang, and changes to email statuses made via the web interface are not reflected in the client. I tried enabling imap-hibernate, which cleared the queue, but the issue with updating email statuses persisted. Is this a problem with the email client or the Dovecot server? -- Best regards, Lafiel Elentari mailto:lafiel@elven.pw

1 0