Unable to lock maildrop for <>

Question

Unable to lock maildrop for <>

Hello,

I have a Mac OS X Server 10.4.2 running mail services. Been going fine until now when we started getting error messages that say:

server2 pop3[4364]: Unable to lock maildrop for <<username>>: Mailbox is locked by POP server

It is mainly on one account but has occurred on a handful of accounts. Tried rebuilding as described in another thread:

su root
serveradmin stop mail
mv /var/imap /var/imap.bckold
mkdir -p /var/imap
/usr/bin/cyrus/tools/mkimap
chown -R cyrusimap:mail /var/imap
sudo -u cyrusimap /usr/bin/cyrus/bin/reconstruct -i
serveradmin start mail

Didn't fix the problem. Can anyone tell me what's going on?

Thanks
Ron Wagner

Posted on Oct 6, 2005 7:00 PM

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Answer 1

pterobyte

Level 6

11,098 points

Oct 7, 2005 1:15 AM in response to Ronald Wagner

Ron,

this has nothing to do with a corrupt database.

The problem (especially if it masinly occurs with one user) is that the mailbox is being accessed by two clients at the same time. Can be many combinations: SquirrelMail plus Mail Program for example.

Another possibility is that you have network disconnections and so tha mail server still "think" somebody is connected.

Alex

P.S. Note to all: Rebuilding the database is not a cure for everything and should be done only, I repeat only if there really is a database corruption problem.

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Answer 2

Oct 7, 2005 3:22 AM in response to pterobyte

Hi Alex,

Had a feeling it was related to multiple clients on one account. We have one client who has one email account, but likes everyone in his office to access it from their own computer so they all get incoming email from their website.

Another account which reported the error a few times tonight definitely does NOT have multiple mail clients accessing it at once. Maybe it is partly network trouble on one end or the other.

Thanks for the warning on rebuilding the database. Certainly sound advice. I did see an error of some kind relating to the database but forgot what it was exactly. It hasn't been repeating like the lock error message, but figured I'd try to see what changed.

Thanks,
Ron

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