Where Does Dovecot Store Config and Mail?
Dovecot keeps config in /etc/dovecot with mail in Maildirs or mbox. Config files, mail locations, and logs.
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Dovecot keeps its configuration in /etc/dovecot, with dovecot.conf including the conf.d snippet directory. Actual mail lives wherever mail_location says: Maildir folders per user, mbox spools in /var/mail, or dbox variants. The config and the mail are deliberately separate trees.
The dovecot-uidlist and index files inside each mailbox preserve flags and seen state; deleting them forces full re-downloads on every client, which passes for a fix exactly once. doveconf -n dumps your effective settings for audits, mirroring Postfix's postconf habit. Logs follow the syslog mail facility unless the config redirects them. Same paths on every distribution.
Where Dovecot stores this, by platform
/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
dovecot.conf plus conf.d snippets hold all settings; audit with doveconf -n. Mail lives at mail_location: Maildirs, /var/mail mbox, or dbox. Never delete index and uidlist files casually; clients re-download everything. Users come from PAM, LDAP or SQL per config, not from files here.
Frequently asked questions
why is dovecot not showing new mail
Check doveconf -n output against the mail_location line first. The two classic failures are permissions on the mail directory and a mail_location pointing somewhere the mail never lands. doveadm mailbox list verifies visibility per user. Fix ownership to the mail user before touching anything else.
how do i migrate dovecot to a new server
Copy /etc/dovecot plus the mail storage (Maildirs or /var/mail) to the new machine, preserving ownership and permissions. UIDs and GUIDs in dovecot-uidlist files keep flags and seen state intact across the move. Keep the old server offline until DNS cutover to avoid split delivery.
where are dovecot user accounts stored
No, and that is by design. Dovecot reads system users or your configured user database and authenticates against PAM, LDAP or SQL per your config. The config files hold lookup rules, not accounts. Create mail users in whatever backend dovecot.conf points at, not in /etc/dovecot.
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