sieve issue after upgrad

[Tim Dickson]

i recently upgraded a server from dovecot 2.1 to 2.3
unfortunately sieve does not appear to be working. The user scripts have 
not changed, and neither has the dovecont config. using managesieve 
allows me to create new sieve files and setting one as default updates 
the link in ~/ to point to the correct file, but the .dovecot.svbin file 
is not changed (unless i run sievec /home/username/.dovecot.sieve )
I have tested an out of office script that was working on the old 
system, and a simple test script that flags the mail as $label1 as per 
an example.
email arrives in users mailboxes but sieve scripts don't appear to be 
doing anything. below is the output of doveconf -n (hostname changed for 
security)

# 2.3.1 (8e2f634): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# Pigeonhole version 0.5.1 (d9bc6dfe)
# OS: Linux 4.19.14 x86_64 Slackware 14.2 ext4
# Hostname: mail.myserver.net
base_dir = /var/run/dovecot/
debug_log_path = /var/log/dovecot.log
default_client_limit = 6000
default_process_limit = 1300
hostname = mail.myserver.net
info_log_path = /var/log/dovecot.info
lda_mailbox_autocreate = yes
lda_mailbox_autosubscribe = yes
listen = 10.1.1.100
login_greeting = Dovecot at mcfadyens.net
login_log_format_elements = user=<%u> method=%m rip=%r lip=%l mpid=%e %c
mail_location = maildir:/var/spool/dovecot/%n
mail_log_prefix = "%s(%u): "
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 index ihave duplicate mime foreverypart extracttext
passdb {
   driver = shadow
}
plugin {
   mail_log_events = delete undelete expunge copy mailbox_delete 
mailbox_rename
   mail_log_fields = uid box msgid size
   mail_log_group_events = yes
   sieve = file:~/sieve;active=~/.dovecot.sieve
   sieve_dir = ~/sieve
   sieve_user_log = ~/.dovecot.sieve.log
}
protocols = imap lmtp sieve
service managesieve-login {
   inet_listener sieve {
     port = 4190
   }
   service_count = 0
   vsz_limit = 128 M
}
ssl = required
ssl_cert = </etc/ssl/certs/dovecot.cert
ssl_dh =  # hidden, use -P to show it
ssl_key =  # hidden, use -P to show it
userdb {
   driver = passwd
}
protocol lda {
   mail_plugins = " sieve"
}
protocol lmtp {
   mail_plugins = " sieve"
}
protocol imap {
   mail_max_userip_connections = 30
}

Any pointers on what might be wrong or how to test would be appreciated, 
thanks, Tim
(the os is 64bit slackware 14.2, in case it is relevant)