Dovecot permission denied error in logs

Question

I am getting the following errors in the logs even though there is no "apply" user in the /etc/dovecot/users file.

I'm not sure what to do next to diagnose. Can anyone advise please? It says 'refer to server log for more information' but I thought this was the server log?

May  1 22:40:44 ip-xx-xxx-xx-xx postfix/local[18901]: 1B17763738: to=<apply@localhost>, orig_to=<[e-mail]>, relay=local, delay=147501, delays=147501/0.54/0/0.06, dsn=4.3.0, status=deferred (temporary failure)
May  1 22:40:44 ip-xx-xxx-xx-xx dovecot: lda(apply): Error: user apply: Initialization failed: Namespace '': mkdir(/home/vmail//apply) failed: Permission denied (euid=1001(apply) egid=1001(apply) missing +w perm: /home/vmail/, dir owned by 5000:5000 mode=0755)
May  1 22:40:44 ip-xx-xxx-xx-xx dovecot: lda(apply): Error: user apply: Initialization failed: Namespace '': mkdir(/home/vmail//apply) failed: Permission denied (euid=1001(apply) egid=1001(apply) missing +w perm: /home/vmail/, dir owned by 5000:5000 mode=0755)
May  1 22:40:44 ip-xx-xxx-xx-xx dovecot: lda(apply): Fatal: Invalid user settings. Refer to server log for more information.
May  1 22:40:44 ip-xx-xxx-xx-xx dovecot: lda(apply): Fatal: Invalid user settings. Refer to server log for more information.
May  1 22:40:44 ip-xx-xxx-xx-xx postfix/local[18926]: 9E5376357A: to=<apply@localhost>, orig_to=<[e-mail]>, relay=local, delay=235638, delays=235637/0.6/0/0.06, dsn=4.3.0, status=deferred (temporary failure)
May  1 22:40:44 ip-xx-xxx-xx-xx postfix/local[18908]: 252106364B: to=<apply@localhost>, orig_to=<[e-mail]>, relay=local, delay=218930, delays=218929/0.6/0/0.06, dsn=4.3.0, status=deferred (temporary failure)
May  1 22:40:44 ip-xx-xxx-xx-xx dovecot: lda(apply): Error: user apply: Initialization failed: Namespace '': mkdir(/home/vmail//apply) failed: Permission denied (euid=1001(apply) egid=1001(apply) missing +w perm: /home/vmail/, dir owned by 5000:5000 mode=0755)
May  1 22:40:44 ip-xx-xxx-xx-xx dovecot: lda(apply): Fatal: Invalid user settings. Refer to server log for more information.
May  1 22:40:44 ip-xx-xxx-xx-xx postfix/local[18900]: 9A94063274: to=<apply@localhost>, orig_to=<[e-mail]>, relay=local, delay=306900, delays=306900/0.66/0/0.03, dsn=4.3.0, status=deferred (temporary failure)
May  1 22:41:23 ip-xx-xxx-xx-xx dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<[e-mail]>, method=PLAIN, rip=101.103.174.186, lip=10.172.21.51, mpid=18952, session=<mc9XXV74CwBlZ666>
May  1 22:41:24 ip-xx-xxx-xx-xx dovecot: pop3([e-mail]): Disconnected: Logged out top=0/0, retr=0/0, del=0/424, size=57179196
[/var/log]

Answer 1

The Dovecot service tries on a Maildir folder in the user's "apply" directory, but this does not succeed. To simply solve this problem, edit the file /etc/aliases The corresponding alias can be entered in this file:

apply: [e-mail]

I have used postmaster as an example, but you use whatever email address you would like it delivered.

After the file has been saved, the file must be converted to its binary form and the corresponding services must be restarted:

newaliases
Service dovecot restart
Service postfix restart

Answer 2

Your /home/vmail/ folder is owned by '5000' of group '5000', but lda process is running as 'apply' (UID 1001) user.

Change the ownership of the /home/vmail/ to 'apply' user:

chown apply:apply -R /home/vmail/

Next try to deliver again:

postqueue -f