This tutorial is available in other languages. Help translate more

Turn on debug mode in Dovecot

Don't know where Dovecot config files are? check this tutorial: Locations of configuration and log files of major components.

To turn on debug mode in Dovecot, please update below parameter in Dovecot config file dovecot.conf:

mail_debug = yes

Restart Dovecot service.

If you need authentication and password related debug message, turn on related settings and restart dovecot service.

auth_verbose = yes
auth_debug = yes
auth_debug_passwords = yes

# Set to 'yes' or 'plain', to output plaintext password (NOT RECOMMENDED).
auth_verbose_passwords = plain

If Dovecot service cannot start, please run it manually, it will print the error message on console:

dovecot -c /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf

Debug LDAP queries

If you're running iRedMail with OpenLDAP backend, you can increase debug level for LDAP in /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf with parameter debug_level, add or update it to 1, then restart dovecot service:

debug_level = 1

You can also set it to -1 which means everything.