How to change the default location of mailboxes in Plesk for Linux?

By default, Plesk stores all mailboxes in the /var/qmail/mailnames/ directory. How to change this location?

Connect to the server using SSH

Find what SMTP and IMAP/POP3 servers are in use:

# /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/mailmng --features | egrep 'SMTP_Server|IMAP_POP3_Server'
$features['SMTP_Server'] = "Postfix";
$features['IMAP_POP3_Server'] = "Dovecot";
$features['SMTP_Server_package'] = "postfix";
$features['IMAP_POP3_Server_package'] = "dovecot";

Stop the SMTP service:

# service postfix stop

Open the file /etc/psa/psa.conf and change the PLESK_MAILNAMES_D variable: specify a new location for mailbox directory so that it is like

# grep PLESK_MAILNAMES_D /etc/psa/psa.conf
PLESK_MAILNAMES_D <new_mailnames_directory>

Move mailboxes from the current directory to the new location with the command:

# cp -ap /var/qmail/mailnames/* /new/mailnames/directory/

If dovecot is in use, set the new location in the file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf by modifying values in the lines below:

# egrep 'mail_home|mail_location' /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
mail_home = <new_mailnames_directory>/%Ld/%Ln
mail_location = maildir:<new_mailnames_directory>/%Ld/%Ln/Maildir

Restart the dovecot service:

# service dovecot restart

After all the steps are done, start SMTP service and reconfigure mail settings using the mchk utility:

# service postfix start
# plesk repair mail

Before creating new mailboxes on new domains configure SELinux in the following way:

# chcon -R -t mail_spool_t <new_mailnames_directory>

Set the new home directory for the popuser. In /etc/passwd file change /var/qmail/popuser to the required one:

From:

popuser:x:30:31:POP3 service user:/var/qmail/popuser:/sbin/nologin

To:

popuser:x:30:31:POP3 service user:/<new_mailnames_directory>/qmail/popuser:/sbin/nologin