I’m actually surprised that making POP3/IMAP access available to everyone took Yahoo! this long. Competition in the free email world is fierce, and this has been an obviously lacking feature.
Until now, that is.
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Email programs
Various desktop and mobile email programs will ask for this information in a variety of ways and in different places.
Typically, when you set up an email program, you will configure one or more email accounts. An account includes:
- Your email address
- Your account user name (sometimes, this is the same as or derived from your email address)
- Your account password
As you enter this information, your email program may also ask about the protocols that it will use to communicate to the servers of your email service provider.
That’s what we’ll go over here with Yahoo!
SMTP
SMTP is an acronym for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol which is the protocol used to transport email messages from computer to computer until they reach their destination. SMTP is used to send mail.
The SMTP configuration parameters for Yahoo! are:
- Server: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
- Port: 465 or 587
- Authentication: Yes/Password
- Encrypted Connection: SSL
- User name: Your email address
- Password: Your password
Configured as described above, you should be able to send email from your desktop email program using Yahoo! Mail.
POP3
POP3 is an acronym for Post Office Protocol version 3. POP3 is the primary communications protocol or language for receiving email from an email server or provider. Your email program uses the POP3 protocol to download email from your email service provider’s server.
The POP3 configuration parameters for Yahoo! are:
- Server: pop.mail.yahoo.com
- Port: 995
- Encrypted Connection: SSL
- User name: Your email address
- Password: Your password
IMAP
IMAP is an acronym for Internet Message Access Procotol. As its name implies, IMAP is a protocol for accessing email messages. This differs from POP3, which is primarily a protocol for transferring or moving messages. When IMAP is used
Your email program uses the IMAP protocol to copy or mirror email stored on an email server to your desktop or device.
The IMAP configuration parameters for Yahoo! are:
- Server: imap.mail.yahoo.com
- Port: 993
- Encrypted Connection: SSL
- User name: Your email address
- Password: Your password
IMAP is perhaps the most convenient way to access email across multiple computers and devices as it keeps them all in sync. The downside is that a more-or-less continuous internet connection is typically required for the best experience.
I have had the Free POP3 email from Yahoo for years. At one time they gave you the option to get free POP email if you signed up with them to receive occasional offers from them.
I’m currently using port 110 in my email client Seamonkey. I’m wondering if this is going to change? Anyway if I wake up one morning and cannot access my email, at least I know what happened. :-)
Hi Leo,
Nice detailed answer.
I have been following your newsletters since few months. Enjoy them and look forward to them.
When I went through your post on e-mail, that one should have extra copy all the time.
My main e-mail is yahoo. But till few days back, it was supporting only POP. So I was not able to synchronize the folders properly.
So I came up with this idea. I forwarded all yahoo mails to Gmail and by using Outlook (through IMAP) get them on my hard disk.
But of course for first time you need to work on creating folders and filters.
But once I did this, the best thing which happened is, I am not getting any spam in Gmail and hence in outlook. Means Gmail is blocking all the spam coming from yahoo mail very effectively and I am not getting any spam at all in my outlook.
You may be already knowing this. But thought of sharing it, so that others will benefit.
Regards,
Vikas
That’s interesting but I wouldn’t want to have to create yet another email account to do it.
Unfortunately at this moment I cannot import POP3 settings for Yahoo! Mail into my Outlook.com account and I have tried all the ports available in settings. I MIGHT be missing something…not sure but I’ll try again sometime later.
OOPS. I figured out I had to set up as send-only (I think). I’ll see if I can get someone to email that account now. Thanks Leo!
Steven, this article isn’t really about getting your Yahoo into an outlook.com email account. The reference here is to the Microsoft Outlook email client program.
Having Verizon DSL, I pay for Yahoo top-tier service, but when there isan issue with Yahoo mail, they pass the buck to Verizon, as if Verizon is going to be able to address anything like that.
In the last few weeks, on the Yahoo mail mobile site, they have eliminated the capability of viewing most emails formerly viewable, including the Ask Leo Newsletter. You must “download” then open in a browser, which is cumbersome as my android tablet takes up to a dozen tries to download anything.
Amazingly, you cannot even see plain text emails. For some reason these emails, including the Leo Newsletter, show up in the form of a transmittal message and two “attachments.” But whereas Leo’s also has a link to view on the Web, regular emails do not, which causes the problem.
There is no mobile option to select to enable viewing as before.
If not for the Yahoo Addressguard, I would not be using Yahoo.
I’ve tried Yahoo’s mobile site, and it truncates Leo’s Nls and other emails, but I normally I use the native Android mail app and occasionally the Yahoo Mail app and I get the full Newsletters there. I assume iOS and other mobile OSs have similar apps. I don’t know if those would be a solution for you.
Leo, Yahoo claims to have problems on their Yahoo Mail server. I have nothing in my inbox, no contacts, no folders. The web page displayed was blank. I filled in contacts
folders and email address. So far I have only received 2 spam mails. I wish to subscribe
using my Hotmail address. I exported from Yahoo to Microsoft Outlook. Thanks, Esley
Thank you for the clear explanations of the settings. I wish I had seen this before improperly setting the POP and SMTP settings.
However, you do not say where / how I can find the configuration settings so I can fix them up properly. I am confident of finally reaching the goal if I knew where to plug in the settings you have so kindly laid out
I am over 70 and new to Yahoo and email programs not associated with my isp or website.
Oh, Bugs Bunny has a point. I have tried so many help forums and pages of directions only to find that they are old, written for earlier versions. Yours looks current to what I am trying to achieve.
It’s different for different email programs. That’s why Leo couldn’t give specific instructions. If you mention which email program you’re using, someone here should be able to give more specific instructions.
I have a question:
I have two separate Yahoo email accounts, one I use for anything ecommerce related, another for friends & family. Recently (like a week ago), the ecommerce account stopped working on my outlook client on my PC. I try mirroring the settings used in my friends & family account, and that didn’t work. I also went back to login on yahoo via my browser, and verified my ID and password haven’t been messed with. I also tried the settings recommended on this site. So I am stumped.
Any suggestions from the experts here? Is there some file in my system related to the “F&F” account that may have been corrupted? How do I debug this?
Appreciate any clues….
Sounds to me like you changed your password. If you can login online try setting it again, and mirroring that in your Outlook client. Worth a chance.
I need to talk with someone at Yahoo Customer Service. My ‘paid’ account has not worked properly since May and now I am locked out for the last 4 weeks…. I try and reset it and security asks me where I was born… damn, I get it wrong every time wth… I have yahoo groups I can’t even access…. Do you know the #? So frustrating…
To the best of my knowledge there is no phone number. (And phone numbers that you might find by searching are often scammers.)
I do not now anything about what yahoo is making us do before 3/31/17. I dont know how to set up email (my daughter did it many years ago. I am 1000% lost about what to do to change the POP to the IMAP thing whatever it means anyway. Can someone please walk me through the process. Im getting nervous because I cant seem to find anyone to help anywhere. Thank you for your time reading this and hopefully some kind of help.
That message means that any emails from other accounts which you are using Yahoo Mail to download will no longer be downloaded. If you are not using Yahoo to access other accounts, you don’t have to do anything. If you do have Yahoo downloading another email account’s mails, then you can simply go to that email account’s website to read your emails. Or you can set up an email program such as Thunderbird or Outlook to access your emails.