1

I have a problem with one client on my mail server (Postfix, Dovecot, Spamassassin, Postgrey).

They can log in to pick IMAP e-mail up, but they can't send through the outgoing SMTP server. The imap-login line looks just like any other client login (domain and IPs changed for privacy):

dovecot: imap-login: Login: user=<mel@domain>, method=PLAIN, rip=<remote IP>, lip=<local IP>, mpid=18965, TLS, session=<4r5aO35BbcjCI9ti>

But the following line is:

dovecot: imap(mel@domain): Connection closed (IDLE running for 0.001 + waiting input for 0.045 secs, 2 B in + 10+10 B out, state=wait-input) in=11 out=366

The client is connecting from an Outlook account, but there are other clients using Outlook without any issues.

As far as I can see the client is successfully logging in (so it's not a username/password problem).

I can't find any information about what the "IDLE running" bit is about, but clearly, the client can't send any e-mail at the moment.

Can someone please explain what this log line is supposed to be telling me and how I can address the issue for my client.

Spuggiehawk
  • 59
  • 1
  • 8
  • What about the Postfix logs? – aventurin Nov 17 '16 at 15:56
  • The dovecot and postfix services both log to the same file (mail.log), their output is also in syslog, but I don't see anything prefixed with postfix for this user or their IP address. – Spuggiehawk Nov 17 '16 at 16:17
  • So there's not much information. Since other clients are able to send emails with Outlook it is likely a configuration problem, e.g. wrong SMTP authentication password, or a TLS (SMTP/SMTPS/STARTTLS) issue. – aventurin Nov 17 '16 at 19:48
  • @aventurin I can confirm that the account is OK from Thunderbird. Hopefully this is just a configuration issue as you suggest. The client is going to check their settings and try the connection from a different system. – Spuggiehawk Nov 18 '16 at 10:08
  • I have the same problem with Outlook and Dovecot. I confirm that it is not related to SMTP, but with IMAP, that Outlook connects to the IMAP server (it creates a few folders there if given an initially empty imap folder), but does not maintain the connection. If you found the solution from your problem since last November, it would probably save me some time if you posted it as an answer here! – Frédéric Grosshans Aug 20 '17 at 15:56
  • In my case, the problem was in the creation wizard of an Outlook email account, which failed to validate the account. Creating the email account first with a “real” IMAP/SMTP account, and changing the IMAP server parameter Outlook afterwards works – Frédéric Grosshans Aug 21 '17 at 19:55
  • I'm afraid that all I got was a message from the client saying that they had tried on another machine and it worked. It may have had something to do with the firewall at their office, but I didn't get anything conclusive. – Spuggiehawk Aug 27 '17 at 16:48

1 Answers1

1

The log line is related to IMAP IDLE and unlikely to tell you anything useful about outgoing messages.
Dovecot (IMAP) doesn't handle outbound information. Postfix (SMTP) does.

84104
  • 12,905
  • 6
  • 45
  • 76