Yahoo Mail and Apple Catalina Mail Problems

Hello vett93,

It sounds like the Yahoo! email account is not receiving emails on your Mac using the Mail app. You are able to receive emails from other email providers, which really helps us to assist. Let's discuss how we can resolve this together.

If you can't receive emails in Mail on Mac is a good place to start.

Using the Connection Doctor can isolate this further for you. See Use Connection Doctor in Mail on Mac to learn more about how to identify the reason it won't receive those emails.

If other email providers work fine, then this could be related to the Yahoo! email account settings. Check out Mail Settings Lookup and put your email address there to look up the correct Mail app settings for Yahoo! Then open up the Mail app on your Mac > select the Mail menu on the top left > Accounts > select the Yahoo! account > then Advanced to check in the tabs that those settings are correct.

If you continue having issues with only the Yahoo! email account, let us know if you have any issues signing on the Yahoo! website using a browser on your computer and if you use any third-party anti-virus or firewall software on your Mac.

Hopefully those resources will resolve this for you. If not, we look forwarding to hearing back soon!

Hey there, Vett93!

It appears your settings are correct for the Yahoo! account in the Mail app, but every few days it will not allow you to receive emails using this account. Allow us to assist further.

If you can't receive email on your Mac walks through how to test this using webmail. Which might be beneficial to know that you don't have any issues signing in on the Yahoo! website from a browser.

Note: In the last step of the article above, it suggests adding the account back to the Mail app. If you need to take this step, we'd suggest using the article below for backing your Mac first, then proceed with removing and adding back the account.

Check for any software updates, if it continues. Here's How to back up your Mac and Keep your Mac up to date

Should it continue, we'd test this further in safe mode: How to use safe mode on your Mac

Hopefully this resolves the issues receiving those Yahoo! emails, but if not, please reply telling us how it went in safe mode and had any issues signing in on the Yahoo! website on the browser.

We'll take it from there!

Hey David,

Based on your reply, you are still struggling with the Yahoo! account in your Mail app. Connection Doctor showed no issues with incoming or outgoing servers when this happened. You don't have any issues with your password, as you can login on the webmail. Deleting the email account and re-adding hasn't resolved it. But you've also tested this in safe mode, restarted, but it persists. We'll get to the bottom of this!

When you tested in safe mode, what happened when you logged in? Were you able to open the Mail app and use it as expected, without any issues receiving emails? If so, then we know this is related to some software running on the Mac. Check in section, "If the issue continues in safe mode" here: How to use safe mode on your Mac If the issue continued in safe mode, check under section "If the issue doesn't continue in safe mode" in that article above.

If it happened in safe mode, testing in another user would help to isolate this even further: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac The results of testing in safe mode tells us if there is any potential software that could be interfering. Testing in another user, tells us if it's specific to your user or all users on your Mac.

We would also check on your network connection when this happens. Do you have any issues accessing specific websites using a browser when you can't get Yahoo! emails? Could this be related to the network or rejoining the network after the Mac is asleep? If so, this may assist:

If your Mac doesn't connect to the Internet over Wi-Fi

Hope it helps!

Hi David,

Nice job on isolating this further. It sounds like the issue hasn't been resolved with the Mail app yet. Allow us to help out.

There isn't a way to change the settings of the Mail app to not retrieve your archived folders within Yahoo! Mail. However, if the issue didn't occur in safe mode when it was happening before booting to safe mode, then there may be other software causes. Did you work through the section on, "If the issue doesn't continue in safe mode" here: How to use safe mode

If that doesn't resolve it, then we'd recommend to Contact Apple Support.

Wishing you the best!