Are you getting imap-login error read(anvil) failed eof error while restarting the mail services?

Often this error happens due to the expiry of the cPanel license temporarily or due to incorrect mail server settings.

At Bobcares, we often get requests from our customers to fix imap-login error read(anvil) failed eof error as part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s get into the details of reasons for this error on how our Support Engineers fix it.

When does imap-login error read(anvil) failed eof error occur?

IMAP is a standard email protocol to access emails. And, it helps to retrieve email messages from a remote web server from a local client.

However, in many situations, this IMAP server may not work as we expect. Often, customers may have difficulty in sending emails when IMAP and Exim are not working.

Recently, one of our customers tried to restart the IMAP service and it produced an error like,

Dec 19 17:41:22 54-37-xx-xx dovecot: imap-login: Error: read(anvil) failed: EOF
Dec 19 17:41:22 54-37-xx-xx dovecot: config: Warning: Killed with signal 15 (by pid=11246 uid=0 code=kill)

This was apparently caused by the expiry of the cPanel license temporarily. To check the license status, we used the following command.

/usr/local/cpanel/cpkeyclt

We renewed the license to fix the error.

How we fixed imap-login error read(anvil) failed eof

At Bobcares, where we have more than a decade of expertise in managing servers, we see that many of our clients face problems with mail servers.

Now, let’s see how our Support Engineers fix such IMAP email errors.

Problems with mail permissions

Recently, one of our customers had a problem with an email server. He was unable to send or receive emails externally.

Also, he had temporarily disabled Exim and Dovecot and enabled it again. But when restarting in WHM generated the following error.

Oct 3 2:05:33 server dovecot: master: Dovecot v2.2.16 starting up for imap, pop3 (core dumps disabled)
Oct 3 2:05:33 server dovecot: log: Warning: Killed with signal 15 (by pid=2815 uid=0 code=kill)
Oct 3 2:05:33 server dovecot: imap-login: Error: read(anvil) failed: EOF
Oct 3 2:05:33 server dovecot: auth: Error: net_connect_unix(anvil-auth-penalty) failed: Permission denied
Oct 3 2:05:33 server dovecot: auth: Error: read(anvil-auth-penalty) failed: EOF

A force cPanel update can solve the error. So, we ran cPanel updates. In addition, our Support Engineers found that some mail permissions were set improperly. So, we repaired the mail permissions in WHM.

After that, we ensured that IMAP was running properly.

This solved the error.

Incorrect configuration file

Similarly, another customer had problems after upgrading the Ubuntu server(Virtualmin). When he logged into Thunderbird or my blackberry phone, he was unable to see the mail folders.

On checking the mail log, /var/mail/mail.err, our Support Engineers found the error as

Jul 6 20:36:18 cerberus dovecot: imap-login: Error: read(anvil) failed: EOF 
Jul 6 22:14:50 cerberus dovecot: auth-worker: Error: no talloc stackframe at ../source3/param/loadparm.c:4864, leaking memory 
Jul 6 22:14:50 cerberus dovecot: message repeated 4 times: [ auth-worker: Error: no talloc stackframe at ../source3/param/loadparm.c:4864, leaking memory]

This error may occur when Dovecot configuration had overwritten during the upgrade.

Here, we found that the line mail_location = maildir:~/Maildirwas commented in /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf file. So we had to comment out the entry in 10-mail.conf and solved the error.

[Need assistance to fix IMAP email errors? We’ll help you.]

Conclusion

In short, imap-login error read(anvil) failed eof error occurs when expiring the cPanel license temporarily or due to incorrect mail server settings. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers fixed this email error by updating the cPanel license.