SOGo session expires immediately on login / Redirect loop with clean Mailcow

Tansoft

Hello,
I deployed a fresh installation of mailcow-dockerized on an Ubuntu VPS for domain tansoftit.com (hostname: mail.tansoftit.com).

The Issue:

Mailcow UI loads properly.

When accessing SOGo webmail (/SOGo), after submitting credentials, the session does not establish. It immediately throws a session error / redirect loop or fails to persist login.

Attempted running clean containers, verified permissions and Nginx configuration, but SOGo authentication/session handshake fails.

Environment:

OS: Ubuntu (Clean install)

Mailcow Version: Latest Dockerized

Reverse Proxy: Default built-in Nginx (ports 80 & 443 bound directly)

DNS: Hosted via Cloudflare (A record set to DNS only / Grey cloud, proxy disabled)

How can I properly trace the SOGo auth/session handshake logs, or what is the recommended fix for this session persistence issue?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Jniklas2

Tansoft Mailcow Version: Latest Dockerized

Please write the version directly and not “latest”. When you login, you’ll see the version in the table between the “Show public IP” button and the current system time or in the footer of the page.
Have you restarted sogo after adding your domain? As far as I know, sogo only loads some things only on startup, so just adding the domain without restarting it will cause problems. (That’s why there is a warning at the bottom of the dialogue)

esackbauer

What do you mean with “reverse proxy”? The default mailcow nginx container is not really a reverse proxy.
what is “grey cloud”? Cloudflare is a difficult topic…
Mailcow should work right out of the box with proper minimum DNS records. If its not working, most likely in your case it is cloudflares fault.
Also always install/administer mailcow as root user, never with sudo.

Tansoft

esackbauer Hi @esackbauer,

Thanks for chiming in!

To clarify:

Root user: Yes, everything was deployed and administered directly as the root user.

Cloudflare: By “grey cloud”, I meant Cloudflare proxy is completely turned OFF (DNS-only mode, so Cloudflare is acting purely as an authoritative DNS server with direct resolution to the VPS IP, no CDN or caching proxy in between).

Nginx: Not using any external proxy—just the standard built-in Mailcow Nginx listening on ports 80 and 443.

When attempting to sign in to SOGo, the session doesn’t initialize properly and returns an immediate session expiration / loop.

esackbauer

Tansoft
Are you trying to log in directly to SOGo, using SOGO’s login screen? That is not supported, you have to go through Mailcow login.

Tansoft

esackbauer thanks…now all problem fixed..