[exim] dovecot_login authenticator failed for (User) [45.12…

I have added the dovecot_plain and dovecot_login config sections in exim.conf as mentioned at https://lists.exim.org/lurker/message/20160510.131600.8a2b3a46.en.html#exim-users

but while i try to connect to the smtp server from the mail client from macOS, I get the error:
dovecot_login authenticator failed for (User) [45.125.66.123]: 535 Incorrect authentication data

I was able to connect to dovecot but unable to connect to exim.

$ dovecot --version
2.3.5 (513208660)

$ exim --version
Exim version 4.92 #3 built 22-Apr-2019 22:42:30

$ uname
Linux

Thank you

… Necktwi