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Dovecot fails to start after a Plesk update to 18.0.73: Unknown setting: mail_location

Leo Mastropierro
Updated
kb: bug kb: fixed Plesk for Linux kb: technical dovecot

Applicable to:

  • Plesk for Linux

Symptoms

  • Mailbox location was customized.
  • Dovecot service fails to start after updating Plesk to version 18.0.73.

  • The following errors show up in dovecot's unit journal:

    systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 203.
    systemd[1]: Starting dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
    dovecot[451240]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf line 164: mail_location: Unknown setting: mail_location
    systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=89/n/a
    systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
    systemd[1]: Failed to start dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.

Cause

Product issue:

  • #PPPM-15145 "Fixed the issue where, after updating to Plesk Obsidian 18.0.73, Dovecot failed to start if the default mailbox location had been changed using the KB article."
    Fixed in:

Resolution

Please consider updating your server:

Workaround

If update is not possible for some reason you may try the following

workaround
  1. Log into the server via SSH.
  2. Using the vi text editor open the /etc/dovecot/conf.d/99-custom_dir.conf file

  3. Change the lines below from

    CONFIG_TEXT: mail_home = /new_maillocation/mailnames/directory/%Ld/%Ln
    mail_location = maildir:/new_mail_location/mailnames/directory/%Ld/%Ln/Maildir:UTF-8

    To

    CONFIG_TEXT: mail_home = /new_maillocation/mailnames/%{user | domain}/%{user | username}
    mail_path = /new_mail_location/mailnames/%{user | domain | lower}/%{user | username | lower}/Maildir

    Note: in the configuration lines above, replace new_mail_location with your custom mail location directory

  4. Save the changes.

  5. Run Plesk repair utility to update the changes:

    # plesk repair mail -y

    Note: the execution could take a long amount of time

     

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