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bethmac's avatar
bethmac
New Contributor
9 months ago

Using Yahoo email in Mac OS mail app

I have created my Yahoo account in my Mac OS mail, but I can't seem to bring it online-attempts to change it from offline to online are futile.  

Anyone with a Mac able to help?  I tried Yahoo chat, the AI bot is useless and if I want help from Yahoo I have to pay.  

I can't stand Yahoo in the browser.  I can't see the text very well b/c my eyes are old now.  The ads are annoying and I will drop Cox before I pay for Yahoo premium.  

We were looking for a reason to switch to the new Verizon 5g box.  Might be now.

Thank you in advance.

  • 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.

    1. 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
    2. I have re-creacted the info here:
    3. 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
    4. 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.
    5. 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.

  • Billy03's avatar
    Billy03
    New Contributor

    Thanks for the instructions, I finally got mine to work. The location of the "Generate App Password" took me a while to figure out. Here are screen captures in case anyone else is searching for it.

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  • GustavoG's avatar
    GustavoG
    New Contributor

    I can't get it to work... i tried those account settings on my MacOS Mail app and nothing.  My email was one thing keeping me from staying with Cox. Now that is gone I'm having a hard time justifying the high price when I can get internet a lot cheaper with TMobile 5G

    • rbeforee's avatar
      rbeforee
      New Contributor III

      I can’t fault your reasoning, but one suggestion is inspired by something some computer programmers do. (Some love it, many hate it when their employers foist it upon them) It’s called Peer Coding/Peer Programming. In the case of coders, one person sits at the keyboard and does the typing, writing the code, and a second person sits with them and they actively talk through what they are doing, bouncing ideas back and forth. That also puts two sets of eyes on the screen to look for errors. 

      If you have an indulgent friend you can convince to be your co-pilot they might be able to help you spot any discrepancies in how your system is set up or what might be. They don’t have to be better at tech than you; they just need to be able to follow instructions and have enough computer familiarity to watch for anything that doesn’t look like what they expect from those instructions. Even if they don’t understand it all, by you answering their questions you may spot exactly what isn’t as if should be. (I’ve even found that people with a little less understanding sometimes are better at seeing mismatches because they are only looking at patterns, symbols, and general concepts rather than meaningful details that they have preconceived notions about. Not always, but often; as long as they aren’t feeling like they are going to be quizzed on the information.) 

      The peer doesn’t need to learn or teach. They are a sounding board. but I totally understand the e-Mail address having been the reason to stay. It’s a nightmare to change addresses. At least with the webmail access you could transition gradually.

      Actually, that’s a question… How long will Cox give customers before telling Yahoo to close e-mail accounts that are associated with closed Cox accounts? I mean now the process of severing from your cable company involves canceling with two companies. (Unless they give Yahoo control to create and close cox.net addresses?) It really bothered me when Cox disallowed extra e-mail addresses. We had a family address as our primary used only for the cox account purposes and then each had our own personal e-mail addresses. When Cox changed that policy and required me to make my personal address the user account that meant I had to give my password to the second head of household so that they could also manage the account. Otherwise their e-mail only gave them limited access to the account management, no authority to billing, customer service, etc. it was totally inappropriate that I should have to share my personal e-mail password with another person. Each e-mail had to have a real person, no second addresses for a person allowed. I wonder if that policy still stands. Presumably Yahoo has the capability to handle more addresses (I assume Cox was just minimizing the number of e-mail accounts they had to manage, and the associated server storage space.)

      At least Apple lets + users create anonymized e-mail addresses so that their 3rd party account logins do not connect directly to their personal address, reducing the risk of identity thieves connecting all of your accounts. (If all of your various website accounts use your same personal e-mail address as the username then it is easier for scummers to use social media data mining to break into more of your accounts. They just keep trying to login with your address. But if you have an anonymized address then your actual personal address won’t be recognized by the website. Plus you’ll be able to tell an e-mail is phishing if it comes addressed directly to your personal address (instead of forwarded to it) since that isn’t the address associated with that website. 

      Anyway, enough of my bird walking. I hope you find your best solution. 

      • Lyndonb95's avatar
        Lyndonb95
        Contributor

        Great response.   Are you by chance a fellow former coder?  Sounds like you know your way around.

  • lheiny's avatar
    lheiny
    New Contributor

    Thank you for this. Now if it would only also work the same on iPad and iPhones...

    • Lyndonb95's avatar
      Lyndonb95
      Contributor

      It should be easier5--just use your cox address and the Yahoo password you use to access Yahoo web mail as the credentials--create new account for Yahoo in settings and enter the credentials.  Was that not successful?

  • DS1979's avatar
    DS1979
    New Contributor

    Was just transitioned this month and I was having the issue of not being able to send emails.  The error I got was "The sender address xxxx@cox.net was rejected by the server smtp.mail.yahoo.com."  Using a little modification from the amazing information above in Mail I went to Mail->settings and selected the "xxx@cox.net" account.  On the Server Settings tab I deselected "automatically manage connection settings", changed the port to 465 and changed the authentication to password.  That seemed to fix it and I can now send emails from my Cox.net email address.

    • bbd007's avatar
      bbd007
      New Contributor II

      This all works on a DESKTOP MAC, but after selecting the Yahoo among the list, on my iPHONE, the OUTGOING Mail user name, password boxes are grayed out, not allowing me to input anything. I can only change the port number, but that’s correct. I can RECEIVE mail, just get an error when trying to SEND. Again, this only pertains to Mac Mail on my iPHONE.

      • DS1979's avatar
        DS1979
        New Contributor

        I had the same issue on my iPhone until I deleted my old Cox account on my phone (after I made sure I had everything downloaded).  For some reason it was using the old smtp.west.cox.net instead of the Yahoo servers.

  • miss_bev's avatar
    miss_bev
    New Contributor II

    Thank goodness you posted this! It worked just fine. Thank you very much.

  • cwp1's avatar
    cwp1
    New Contributor

    I can NOT believe the absolute mess Cox has created with this migration to YAHOO....  I've received several spam/phishihg emails purporting to be from Cox and have reported to their abuse as well as their spam contacts.   However recently received what looked official but again went to chat with LIVE AGENT (one each of the last three nights).  Each with a different answer but last night supposively guaranteed that I had received an 'official' migration in one of our three Cox email accounts but told that since it was our primary account (it was NOT)... I was to go ahead to migrate.  HOWEVER decided tonight to recheck before beginning the process and NOW told COX WILL Migrate all email accounts to YAHOO at the backend due to so much spam emails and then we should receive an email ineach of our Cox email accounts to proceed with directions.  HOWEVER COX WEBSITE STILL HAS ORIGINAL DIRECTIONS FOR each individual to DO THE PROCESS on their own when their email account has received the official (how does one KNOW with all the spam???)   COX IS PATHETICALLY unorganized and truly unable to facilitate this transition!  WE are getting dumped into a quagmire of ineptitude.   Cox's online site still has the apparently former directions of migration when LIVE AGENTS are advising NEW protocol....   which is:  WAIT until new email to each Cox email account that backend does...and then procede with directions in your cox account.   WHAT????

  • OzzieMike's avatar
    OzzieMike
    New Contributor III

    I ended up calling Cox technical support, and was pleasantly surprised at reaching a knowledgeable  rep who was very patient, as most of the things I'd tried didn't work. However, he persevered  and after a couple of hours, the transition was complete and my Cox emails are all here (but via Yahoo).  I did notice, however, that a LOT of the attachments in old emails didn't survive the migration. 

    At any rate, I can once again send/receive emails using my Cox email address on my Mac (Apple Mail), iPhone and iPad.

  • djorlando57's avatar
    djorlando57
    New Contributor II

    Hello friends, My problem is I fixed it 2 days ago generating an app password Thank you Londonb95!   but now I cant send messages and it says the server smtp.mail.yahoo.com so I generated another app password today from Yahoo and using that, and it still will not accept it and send email .

    I am receiving mail but cannot send any!  I am at a loss how to fix it, been working on it for 2 hours with various attempts at changing things. 

    Any suggestions? I created this new IMap account as I used POP before but it wasn't syncing desktop with iPhone.  How could it work 2 days ago and today rejecting email?

     

     

    • LisaH's avatar
      LisaH
      Moderator

      Hi djorlando57. For the outgoing server, you will need to put in the same user name that you are using for the incoming mail server. I had an issue adding my cox.net email account to my phone and after fiddling with the server settings and not getting them to work, I eventually deleted my account and added it back in and it set up with the correct server settings. I hope that this helps. Thanks, Lisa, Cox Support Forums Moderator

      • djorlando57's avatar
        djorlando57
        New Contributor II

        I took my old email offline after favoriting it so I could still see the oldCox email box.

        I re- generated a new APP Password and I put it into the UserID field that is marked "Optional" in the sending email server in the mail for Mac app.  

        I didn't know I had to refill in my cox email id where it said OPTIONAL.

        Now I can send and receive!

        Thank you!   wow this has been quite an ordeal , 3 days of 3 hours a day later.  9 hours. and I now have email working. 

        Thanks again

         

    • Lyndonb95's avatar
      Lyndonb95
      Contributor

      2 things--make sure your old cox account is deleted from Mail for Mac.  And select the "Automatically manage connection settings check box and manually edit the imap and SMTP fields and make sure the username is entered the same way in both fields.  The account name is simply how it will show up in Mail for Mac--without the identical username in both the imap and smtp fields, associated with the app generated password, Yahoo has no way of identifying the account. Account name is not UserName.

      • djorlando57's avatar
        djorlando57
        New Contributor II

        I'm concerned if I deleted my old cox account, it will delete all the emails.

        How do I preserve my old Cox emails in Mail for Mac? 

    • djorlando57's avatar
      djorlando57
      New Contributor II

      Has anyone here send cox.net email through the Apple Server?  how?

      I read in the APPLE community that it may not be possible to send cox.net email reliabily from smtp Yahoo and you have to send it through the Apple Server.      I still cannot send email through yahoo server?I receive email reliably.

      Here's what I read

      https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255446456?login=true&sortBy=best&answerId=260556545022

  • Portams's avatar
    Portams
    New Contributor

    I had difficulty setting up my email on my Mac mail app on Macbook.  I first had to log into my yahoo mail account on the internet and under the heading security create an app password.  I then went back to Mail app on computer and selected “add account”.    DO NOT select Yahoo, rather use “other mail account”.  (For whatever reason, the existing mail imap and smtp still shows Cox in Yahoo).  It will ask for your email and password (use your normal login info) and sign in.   It will tell you that it cannot log in and it shows imap.cox.net and smtp.cox.net.  Change to imap.mail.yahoo.com and smtp.mail.yahoo.com.  Enter the app password you received from Yahoo in password area.  Enter and I was able to start receiving/sending emails from my Mail app on Mac computer.