Intermittent Yahoo Mail communications (Mail Sync)

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Intermittent Yahoo Mail communications (Mail Sync)

I finally poked Google the right way, and found reports that others have encountered the same intermittent mail-sync issue between the native iPhone Mail Application, and Yahoo Mail accounts.

I have encountered this issue intermittently >for years<, across at least 3 generations of iPhones.

It doesn't matter if I'm on Cel Data, or a good local WiFi, such as my home FiOS connection.

I maintain 3 different Yahoo mail accounts, and between all of them, 98% of the time there is no issue with any of them. Then for some reason, one of the accounts (randomly), when it cycles to Checking For Mail, one of the accounts errors out, and only a random amount of time passing clears it up.

Typical: Last Updated time is displayed (bottom), and it is some time in the past hour or two. As I write this, my one account last sync'd @ 7:30pm, and it's almost 9pm. It reports Account Error [an Account Name], and the Details reports "Cannot Get Mail, The connection to the server failed" But of course, the other 2 Yaho accounts, talking to the SAME Yahoo mail server, are just fine. If I try to do anything that requires a mail server query, it will fail every time - only leaving it alone for awhile lets it fix itself.

This never happens with the two other GMail accounts I also have set up on the phone. Ditto for the iCloud mail (which I rarely have any activity in).

On my PC, I periodically use a similar (communication method) Thunderbird mail client, with two of the Yahoo accounts. It's SMTP/iMAP4 communications/sync process are flawless - even while an error is present on the phone for one of them.

As a 30+ year IT professional having administrated/managed several mail server platforms, including user POP3/IMAP4/SMTP experiences, I suspect there is either an undetected flaw in the iPhone mail client, or (more likely) there is something that the iPhone client is doing which triggers Yahoo's anti-abuse/anti-spam mechanisms, and the login is (probably) being denied for a period of time.

The problem of course will be to reproduce it, but with an appropriate sniffer tool watching along the route of communications (which is using secure protocols now).

Yahoo has no incentive to help - they will tell you to use their app so as to flash ads in your face - no way.

iPhone SE (2nd generation)

Posted on Jun 26, 2023 6:15 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 11, 2024 6:02 PM in response to TheBajaGuyRI

My wife and I have been experiencing the exact same email download issue, where mail doesn’t download on demand. Both of us are using the Apple mail app to fetch our ATT Yahoo mail on an iPhone 8 with the latest iOS (currently iOS 17.5.1).

Very often (multiple times per day), when we try to get mail, the “Checking for Mail” message displays, then it times out, with a message of “Cannot Get Mail. The connection to the server failed.” But at the same time, everything else on our 500 Mbps internet connection works fine.

If we try again later (usually at least 15 minutes later, but sometimes longer), the email header may be downloaded, but very often the body of the message has not downloaded. When we try to open the email, it displays the message “This message has not been downloaded from the server.”

If we try again later (at least 15 minutes, but sometimes longer), the mail content is finally there.

I have tried deleting our Yahoo accounts from the Apple Mail app, then restoring them, but that hasn’t changed anything. If I check mail via the Yahoo web mail application, the mail is always there without fail. But I hate that app’s design, and so that’s why we use the Apple Mail app.

My best guess is that the Apple Mail server is to blame. Maybe it’s programmed to periodically throttle customers as a way of evenly distributing the load. But who do I complain to about this? I posted a message about this in these support forums on 1/20/23 and never got a reply. That message can be seen at:

Apple Mail download performance is sporad… - Apple Community

— Peter

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Answer 2

Jun 11, 2024 6:43 PM in response to PeterNemo

My wife and I have been experiencing the exact same email download issue, where mail doesn’t download on demand. Both of us are using the Apple mail app to fetch our ATT Yahoo mail on an iPhone 8 with the latest iOS (currently iOS 17.5.1). The same problem occurs on our iPads, which are also running the latest iOS.

Very often (multiple times per day), when we try to get mail, the “Checking for Mail” message displays, then it times out, with a message of “Cannot Get Mail. The connection to the server failed.” But at the same time, everything else on our 500 Mbps internet connection works fine.

If we try again later (usually at least 15 minutes later, but sometimes longer), the email header may be downloaded, but very often the body of the message has not downloaded. When we try to open the email, it displays the message “This message has not been downloaded from the server.”

If we try again later (at least 15 minutes, but sometimes longer), the mail content is finally there.

I have tried deleting our Yahoo accounts from the Apple Mail app, then restoring them, but that hasn’t changed anything. If I check mail via the Yahoo web mail application, the mail is always there without fail. But I hate that app’s design, and so that’s why we use the Apple Mail app.

My best guess is that the Apple Mail server is to blame. Maybe it’s programmed to periodically throttle customers as a way of evenly distributing the load. But who do I complain to about this? I posted a message about this in these support forums on 1/20/23 and never got a reply. That message can be seen at:

Apple Mail download performance is sporad… - Apple Community

— Peter

Reply

Intermittent Yahoo Mail communications (Mail Sync)

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