Forum Discussion

New Contributor

10 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.

Lyndonb95
10 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.

billy767
New Contributor
9 months ago
I got it working. Thx everyone.
pwhy
New Contributor
9 months ago
This set of instructions seems to make sense, BUT on my Mac (running 14.4.1) there is no "AUTOMATIC" checkbox to check or uncheck. Am I missing something?

or on the following screen to add port information:

Am I missing something??
- Lyndonb95
  Contributor
  9 months ago
  Several folks have reported this: Just fill in the information and enter the app generated password. When the dialog box comes up saying it cannot verify--it may offer you the option to enter the ports OR edit the SMTP list--choose the yahoo account you created and server settings from the sub header--you will see the full setup screen. Alternatively go to the Mail menu and choose Preferences--then select thr Yahoo account, sever asettings as above and complete the set up.
  - GustavoG
    New Contributor
    9 months ago
    when you say 'app generated password'. which app? cox, yahoo, or mac mail, or????
    because none of the above apps generate passwords in ios..
GFogg
New Contributor
9 months ago
Thank you for the instructions. I'm still trying to work through them, but they don't match up quite the same way. In the system settings, I select a generic mail account, but that's where things go differently. It doesn't present me with a dialog box that has deselect automatic, it has a box that wants me to add my name, email address and password. The password doesn't work, and that's where things end. I can't get past this point. I've logged into yahoo's webmail, so I know what the password should be, but it won't work here. Any advice?
- Hoozere
  New Contributor III
  9 months ago
  Go back to yahoo to generate app password & the one they give you is the password to use. Then set up imap & smtp settings for yahoo email on Mac
- Lyndonb95
  Contributor
  9 months ago
  Help me clarify something. When you say that you know what the password should be having logged into Yahoo's webmail--are you using the same password that you use for webmail, or are you following this step:
  When it comes to the password, do not use the password you created for Yahoo webmail--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.
  Others have had the same issue--no option to de-select automatic --but when the verification failed they got a different dialog box and that allowed them to enter the correct information along with the app generated passwords. Another option is to navigate to email preferences (under the Mail menu in mail) Select the Yahoo account (the one you just created but did not work, and choose Server Settings from the subheader--you should then see the full setup screen as well as the two checkboxes for "automatically manage connection settings" -which should be deselected if they aren't already.
  If the outgoing fails--when you try to save it--you should be given the option to edit the SMTP server, and that too would present the full setup screen, as above.
  - djorlando57
    New Contributor II
    7 months ago
    I think this is what I ran into, I created a new mailbox, with "other" (not yahoo), Generate an App Password , pointed it to IMAP server (as my old one was POP) it worked for a day, and now it seems to be trying to find smtp.cox.net again and I don't know why. I'm running Sonoma 14.5 on a MacBook Pro 2019 . I'll try what you said , cant believe Ive had this problem for 3 months. thanks good friend! now I'm trying to repoint my old POP mailbox to the IMAP server, but I'm not sure if I can convert a POP mailbox to IMAP?
wcroak
New Contributor
9 months ago
Thank You! worked like a champ! 😁
Rhonda7
New Contributor II
9 months ago
Hey friends, gonna need your help-
So thankful to you, Lyndonb95 for your tutorial. Could not have done that without you! However, I am unable to send emails. I’ve double checked the settings that you mentioned and I’m at a loss. Do you have any suggestions? The old Cox email account is off-line. However the new Yahoo is still downloading and populating new and old messages. When I try to send a message, I get a pop-up window that says “edit or try it later with server.”
Please bear in mind I am not that techno savvy, so I appreciate your patience with me. Also, do we have a choice who our server is in order to keep our old cox.net email address? Can we not go to google/ Gmail instead of yahoo? Thanks in advance!
- Lyndonb95
  Contributor
  9 months ago
  Several things to unpack:
  Try waiting till Yahoo has fully populated your email to see if your outgoing email works--it may be that the server is busied out.
  If that does not work--as was the case for me you may need to delete the app password you generated--and generate a new app password and paste it into both the imap (incoming) and smtp (outgoing) fields. Be sure the TLS/SSL checkbox is selected and port 465 is selected for outgoing.
  gmail uses its own smtp server--you cannot use a gmail server with Yahoo mail.
  Finally, f all else fails try appending apple to the yahoo smtp server path ( apple.smtp.mail.yahoo.com
  I too have had issues the past 2 days and spoke to Yahoo tech support today. They claim everything is fine but I was not able to send email--although receive is just fine. I am awaiting a call back from a senior tech-someone who actually knows anything about the Apple OS. Yahoo has had intermittent issues with Mail for mac in the past and it may be that it is the case once again. If I learn anything I will post it.
  - Rhonda7
    New Contributor II
    9 months ago
    So grateful for your suggestions.
    I was on hold with Yahoo for an hour and then was disconnected. I am beyond frustrated and need to work but am unable to since I can’t send emails.
    Please keep me posted with what you find and I will do the same. Thanks again! :)
sutwil
New Contributor
10 months ago
Thank you so much for sharing this, I finally have it working thanks to your post.
d3m3tree
New Contributor II
10 months ago
Hello,
It can certainly be frustrating when trying to get accounts set up and things don't simply function how we want or need them to. When this occurs I always will recommend to remember, Google (or more specifically YouTube) is your friend in these situations. For this specific case I would start by typing "how to connect yahoo to apple mail on MacBook (or whatever device)."
How to setup Yahoo mail on a Mac - YouTube
If this doesn't work the next thing i would do is describe the specific problem like, "Cannot take yahoo mail online in apple mail on mac" or "troubleshoot yahoo mail on mac"
a little bit of internet searching yielded what is probably your issue which is answered on this apple support page:
https://discussions.apple.com/
As mentioned by the helpful apple community the issues regarding apple mail on the MacBooks or desktop imacs are due to them not being as updated as the iPhone versions (which is why it might work on your phone but not your mac without a little extra work).
Yahoo App password…
Generate and manage third-party app passwords
Some older, third-party email apps (that do not use our Yahoo branded sign in page) require you to enter a single password for login credentials. To access your Yahoo Mail account on these apps, you'll need to generate and use an app password. An app password is a long, randomly generated code that gives a non-Yahoo app permission to access your Yahoo account. You’ll only need to provide this code once to sign in to your third-party email app.
https://help.yahoo.com/kb/access-yahoo-mail-third-party-apps-sln15241.html
Hopefully you can get your mail synced up after following some of these suggestions.. I will however mention that yahoo is not a very secure email choice if you care about your privacy / security. Hacking and scamming is becoming very easy to do and increasingly difficult to avoid / catch. Try to keep up with recent tech developments if you're going to be using the internet and all the devices that depend upon it. Never click any links in emails even from what might look to be a trusted family member or friend. instead go to whatever the site is yourself by typing it in the address bar and navigating that way. you can and should also make a habit of copying any suspicious links (right clicking and copying) then pasting the link into a website URL checker like VirusTotal https://www.virustotal.com/. Another tool now easily accessible is to start using Copilot / ChatGPT. Simply asking them questions like "walk me through setting up (or troubleshooting) my yahoo mail account on my MacBook apple mail app" which will literally lay out each step and offer links to useful videos or pages.

Best of Luck.
- savanhecke
  New Contributor
  9 months ago
  Many thanks for this. I had several cox.net email addresses. I've successfully migrated my primary Cox email, but can't discern how to retrieve the others. Using the link in the original email Cox set to me re: migration to Yahoo did not work, as I've now already set up a Yahoo account for the primary Cox email address. Setup for additional Yahoo accounts (one for each of the other Cox addresses was my thought) fails because it wants to assign a Yahoo mail address to me, it won't let me enter the other Cox email addresses. I'm stumped; any suggestions?
  - rbeforee
    New Contributor III
    9 months ago
    My secondary user’s cox.net e-mail was not migrated at the same time as my primary e-mail was. They received the migration announcement e-mail separately perhaps a week after I received mine. I do not know the order of operation for the migration but apparently it is not by Cox account.
- Lyndonb95
  Contributor
  10 months ago
  So, my usual MO is to google first but I have found that the results--whether a YouTube video or even a support page can be incomplete, misleading or in a few cases absolutely useless. Google does not curate or vette results--and you can burn up a lot of time looking for an answer. That's why forums like this are valuable--and why I posted a detailed step by step instruction on resolving this issue last week.
  Your advice is good and thanks for posting it. I've found that providing the answer and then the additional advice on how to solve future issues is what most folks want--an answer, now, and someone to reach out to if they have any additional problems. Having said this--I truly fault Cox. They had to know that this would be an issue-so the emails they send out should provide a link to an FAQ for users-regardless of which platform--who may require a non-standard approach. Mac users may only be 14% of the marketplace but they should not be left to fend for themselves.
  But I guess at this point Cox just wants to offload this entire email business as fast as possible and get out of Dodge.
  - JulianN
    Moderator
    10 months ago
    Hello, I am very sorry you have not had the best experience with Cox. We understand how important communication and email services are. We value your business, and I would be happy to help if needed. Please email us your “full” name, “complete” address, and a copy of your post to Cox.Help@cox.com for further assistance. Thank you!
LTB
New Contributor
10 months ago
Your account has already transitioned to Yahoo? Mine is still accessing via Cox. Did you just log into Yahoo using your cox.net email and your Cox password? Appreciate any help. I'm not computer savvy at all. Thx for any help!
Catherine64
New Contributor
10 months ago
I couldn't agree more.
I have gone through this process on two separate Macs, one works fine and one only receives. We took that one to a local computer repair yesterday and they had already had over two hundred customers with the same issue. By the way, 200 is a lot in this small community. They suggested that we wait it out over the weekend and see if they can work out the kinks. So then my thought was "Who at Cox is going to be working on this over a holiday weekend?" Certainly not the dim bulb that hatched this plan.
- LTB
  New Contributor
  10 months ago
  Yours already transitioned? Were you "prompted" to go to Yahoo? I'm still receiving my email via my regular Cox mail app.
  - rbeforee
    New Contributor III
    9 months ago
    My mother and I are on the same cox account yet we were sent the e-mail update notice to our individual addresses many days apart. So, they aren’t even necessarily transitioning all addresses under the same account at the same time.
    Perhaps they are following some hidden sort order that we cannot see. But it is a good thing it is being trickled out since we needed Lyndonb95 to solve it for us first :D
- Lyndonb95
  Contributor
  10 months ago
  It does seem as if Cox or Yahoo or both failed to QA their solution for Mac users--not the first time the Mac community has been orphaned. Even when I did find the answers in a yahoo support page--they were lacking in sufficient detail for the average user to follow. That's why Imde the post--we have to stick together an save ourselves.
  - Hoozere
    New Contributor III
    9 months ago
    Thank you so much for your help. I worked for hours on this until I found your solution which was the only thing that worked. There are so many Mac users having problems on all social media.
    If only Cox would provide your instructions on their help page. My cox email is one of the major reasons I didn’t switch providers. I wonder what will happen if I now move to another internet provider.
Lyndonb95
Contributor
10 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.
- toddandleanne
  New Contributor
  6 months ago
  I followed your directions and got my yahoo account in my Mac OS app, but it will not send any emails. It only receives emails. I have the correct imap and smtp that you provided. Any ideas?
  - LisaH
    Moderator
    6 months ago
    Hi toddandleanne. The best way to fix the issue is to delete the email account from your MAC and then add the account back so that the system will create the correct settings. Thanks, Lisa, Cox Support Forums Moderator
- dhigbee
  New Contributor
  7 months ago
  This doesn't work for me. I'm using Sonoma 14.5, going into Internet Accounts, selecting the generic email. There is no dialog spot where I can deselect "automatic." All I can do when it fails is to enter the IMAP and SMTP server info, but again there is NO place to deselect automatic, and NO place to enter the port info, etc. Please help. I'm usually pretty good at this stuff.
  - ChrisJ2
    Moderator
    7 months ago
    Hi, there. I'm so sorry for the problems you're having with Apple Mail. Have you tried creating a new account after generating the app password at Yahoo? I had to do that with my wife's Macbook.
- toddandleanne
  New Contributor
  7 months ago
  I cannot get in to the account dialog box to not go automatic. If I add to my other account, it says I still have that account (the cox one) even though I've deleted it off my mac. There is no way to enter in the info. If I select yahoo, it adds it, but nothing connects. It just sits there with the triangle exclamation mark. I don't seem to be able to follow your instructions as I don't have any of those choices. Any other ideas?