Connection between postfix and dovecot failing

[Sytse Kuijk]

Hi all,

Hope someone has been here and done that before. 
I am running a Mac mini with OSX server version 10.5, that is on El Capitan, but the problem I have started on Yosemite (the previous version) and did not change at all in the upgrade (I had hoped it would have solved itself).

As you might know, OSX server uses postfix and dovecot as mailing engines, good choice. 
Since we suffered a short power outage a little over a week ago, the mail has failed in delivering messages to the local mailboxes. 
We can send mail out, check the mailboxes (they never change right now),etc. but incoming mail was first just not delivered and after a week warning are sent back to the senders, telling there is a temporary problem (hope that this message is right and I can solve the issue). 

What seems to go wrong is that postfix cannot connect to the local MTA. The error message that appears in several places is: 

recipient=ann.cools at surikata.be
offset=769
dsn_orig_rcpt=rfc822;ann.cools at surikata.be
status=4.4.1
action=delayed
reason=delivery temporarily suspended: connect to 127.0.0.1[127.0.0.1]:10024: Connection refused

I find all sorts of explanations and cures, but none work up to now. 
I tried to find lock files that might be blocking, deleted some files ending in lck with zero size, with no result. 
I tried to switch off the spam/virus/junk features, no difference (some mail said that messages in the queue will not get through, but new ones would. Not so, not a single message up to now). 
I also get alerts in the Server application, warning that: 

An unassigned mail directory has been detected and is scheduled to be deleted.

The unassigned mail directory located in: 
   /Library/Server/Mail/Data/mail/702C16A8-6B2D-42D8-9362-659DD2949AFC
is not associated with any user account and is scheduled to be deleted in 1 days.

In the mean time no mail, and unfortunately, we need it badly.

Any suggestions?

Million thanks for your kind support.

sytse
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- Sytse Kuijk                            -       ___
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