Using Yahoo email in Mac OS mail app
- 9 months ago
I posted this on Reddit and am reporting here for all:
As many of us are going through a transition to Yahoo as our email provider I want to offer some tips on what is needed to make Yahoo email work with the native Mail app on Mac. I spent 3 hours yesterday on this and found that very few Yahoo CSR's know anything at all about the Apple OS. So in the interest of saving others from that frustration, here is what I learned.
First a caveat--the transition for iphone is straightforward and Yahoo has tips as does Cox on their web site about the transition for iOS. Just add a new email account in settings as you normally would selecting the type as Yahoo. It is simple, easy and requires you do nothing except have your username and the new yahoo password you created--should work out of the box but consult the Cox notes which does have guidance for iPhone and Android mobile users (although they try to guide you into using the Yahoo app and the Yahoo web mail). I didn't want another app--I wanted to use the Apple supplied native app on my Mac so I tried --it did not work the same way and this is what I found.
These instructions are exclusively for Mail on the Mac OS.
- Do not, and I mean this strenuously, do not simply add a new account by selecting Yahoo as the email type. Instead, open system preferences--Internet Accounts and select the generic Mail Account. When presented with the dialog box, deselect 'automatic' so that you can manually enter the imap and smtp information. Yahoo's help page on their web site has a section devoted to the correct info. https://help.yahoo.com/kb/imap-server-settings-yahoo-mail-sln4075.html
- I have re-creacted the info here:
- Incoming Mail (IMAP) Server
Server - imap.mail.yahoo.com
Port - 993
Requires SSL - Yes
Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server
Server - smtp.mail.yahoo.com
Port - 465 or 587
Requires SSL - Yes
Requires authentication - Yes
Your login info
Email address - Your full email address (name@domain.com)
Password - Generate App Password
Requires authentication - Yes - When it comes to the password, do not use the password you created for Yahoo email--that is fine to use on the phone but not here. Instead you must go up to the Yahoo web site--login with your new Yahoo password. Then select your account and you'll be prompted to login again (I know--you did that already to get into your webmail but that is how they do it), and then navigate to security just below the header, select that. Scroll down and on the right hand side you'll see an option to Generate an App Password. Select that and you'll be given the option to create and copy a unique password--and that is the password you want to paste into the password field on your mac. Double check that the smtp and imap accounts are the correct Yahoo (and not cox) accounts. Save it and you should be good to go--unless of course you need to finesse the port selection for outgoing email. Good idea to send and receive a test email to another account to be sure everything is working as it should.
- Cox --to my knowledge does not show these instructions anywhere in their notes, and in my experience many Yahoo CSR's don't know this either--they'll waste a lot of your time and won't solve the issue--so be warned. The Yahoo folks are very nice but it does not seem as if they were alerted to the idea that Mac users might be calling in with questions.
I hope this helps members of this community who are mac users. I do not believe Unix or Win users have to do this --I just wanted to get mail working again so did not take the time to explore further so if you are one just ignore this post. Cheers.