Overview
After upgrading to Plesk 18.0.73, the Dovecot service may fail to start due to a configuration syntax incompatibility. Plesk 18.0.73 upgrades Dovecot to version 2.4.1-4, which utilizes a revised configuration structure compared to earlier versions. This issue is resolved in Warden Anti-spam and Virus Protection version 5.04 (released October 12, 2025).
Resolution Steps
- Upgrade the Warden extension to version 5.04 or later. Use one of the following methods:
- User Interface: Navigate to Warden -> Settings -> Panel Application -> Application update and follow the prompts to install the latest version. For additional details, refer to the Product Updater documentation.
- Command Line Interface: Execute the following command:
plesk bin extension --install-url https://www.danami.com/clients/downloads/warden.zip
- Apply the updated Dovecot configuration format. After upgrading, run the following command to rebuild and restart the Warden Dovecot configuration:
warden --task=antispam:learning:sieve --rebuild=yes --restart=yes - Verify service status. Confirm that the Dovecot service is running normally and that the configuration error has been resolved.
Troubleshooting
- If Dovecot continues to fail after applying these steps, verify that Warden was successfully updated to version 5.04 or later via the Plesk extension manager.
- Review the Dovecot error logs located at /var/log/maillog for additional context regarding configuration parsing errors.
