I can't add my Yahoo email account into my iPhone

Hi I am new to smartphones so please have patience with me.

A few yrs ago somebody gave me their old iphone 5, but the screen was too small for me so i gave up.

I did manage to load my yahoo email account though (in what i think is the apple mail account - the icon with envelope symbol on the home screen) & send & receive a couple of msgs.

However somebody recently gave me their old iphone 6plus, which is much bigger & i can manage it.

I went to the envelope icon again, & selected YAHOO option from the list of email options & followed the instructions to sign in. But instead of loading the account it just took me back to the list of options again.

I wondered if perhaps the old iphone 5 being still in a drawer somewhere was somehow messing things up so i deleted my email account from there.

I tried changing the password, restarting, several times but now neither iphone will load my yahoo mail account.

I went on my laptop & signed out of yahoo & back in again with the new password which worked fine.

Every time i go through the sign in process on my iphone trying to get my email account to load, i get an email (seen on laptop) that i have signed in on my iphone.

Am totally confused i cant understand what i am doing wrong. Can somebody help an old dinosaur out please?

iphone6 plus, running 12.5.7

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Jul 25, 2023 8:58 AM

Top-ranking reply

brbo

Level 8

38,635 points

Posted on Jul 27, 2023 5:03 PM

Re: Sorry i have no idea what that means?

Looking through Yahoo's online "help" seems there may be an extra security requirement when using older software

https://au.help.yahoo.com/kb/new-mail-for-desktop/securely-access-yahoo-mail-sln27791.html

says:

"If you try to use Yahoo Mail in a third-party email client using less secure sign-in technology, you might get a "Server password has changed" or an "Authentication failed" error message. This is because those email apps use outdated security protocols and access to Yahoo Mail is disabled to them by default".

Ie: The older Mail app on your Mac can not securely access your Yahoo Mail (unless)

The answer seems to be to obtain a special app-specific password from Yahoo to allow the Mac's older Mail app to access your Yahoo Mail account.

"The app specific-password gives a non-Yahoo app (Mac Mail 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."

This is the page (NB: for my country 🇦🇺) where you can generate that special password by clicking a link on the Yahoo web-page:

https://au.help.yahoo.com/kb/new-mail-for-desktop/password-sln15241.html

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20 replies

Aug 1, 2023 3:21 AM in response to brbo

Hi brbo thanks so much for trying to help me.

I have restarted the phone, and the app, multiple times, thats one of the first things i tried.

Its not that emails from yahoo to my phone are getting through on my laptop... the emails i get on my laptop are just security notifications that yahoo send to let you know that your account has been signed into - so if its not you then you can be aware of it & change password etc. Same as you get when you sign into your netflix account from a different device or whatever.

The issue isnt that the emails dont come through on the iphone, but that the account will not load. Hence the title of the thread.

I open the mail app,

i chose yahoo from the list,

it takes me to the yahoo sign in page where i enter my username and then password...

whereupon it ought to then take me to my email account...

but it doesnt, it just takes me back to the beginning with the list, and i choose yahoo again, sign in again... and on & on ad infinitum. Restarting the phone and the app makes no difference at all.

When i go to settings to look at what accounts are there, it has not registered that i have loaded an email account. The phone refuses to register that i have done anything at all, its as if i never signed in.

But the issue cannot be with yahoo because each sign in is generating a security notification email.

Its bizarre

Aug 4, 2023 2:53 AM in response to brbo

brbo wrote:

Thank you for your reply, and your patience. Seems the link you followed was quite different from obtaining the one-time password. This one-time password was to permit the Yahoo account to be used in Apple's Mail app.

I may be wrong, perhaps you tried both links.

Eh? Sorry that doesnt make sense to me... what do you mean by "both links"? Do you mean the link i provided and the link you provided? If so then no i didnt try both links because they both say exactly the same thing - see screen shots of both links attached. just one hosted in au & one in uk

It seems from your post that the link you followed was for a third-party app password. (You discovered that the third-party (Yahoo) app could not be used on your device.)

I dont think you realised that the link you gave says the same thing? But in any case both links are hosted by yahoo, so the 'third party app' in this case is apple mail, not yahoo. Yahoo cannot be talking about their own app as a 'third party' app.

thanks brbo i appreciate you sticking with this, and for your own patience! :)

brbo

Level 8

38,635 points

Aug 4, 2023 2:53 PM in response to HummingbirdBlue

Thank you kindly. Sorry I took the two different links you were given (one hosted in au & one in uk) at face value ... 🤔

On this page: Yahoo I see calls the app "Mac Mail" ... am surprised at that.

https://au.help.yahoo.com/kb/new-mail-for-desktop/download-email-yahoo-mail-imap-sln28681.html

Aug 5, 2023 7:30 AM in response to brbo

Hi brbo

tried using Mac mail, and Apple mail

doesnt workand i dont think it ever will whilever the app is asking me for user name & password, because the app is using the standard yahoo sign in page so its expecting my usual credentials

brbo wrote:

Remove your Yahoo account and re-add it to the Apple email app on your mobile device. When you re-add the account, look for the Yahoo provider logo to trigger the secure sign-in method.

There is no yahoo account there to remove & re-add, thats the whole point, it wont load the account in the first place.

I tried loading the account manually using the imap server details as it says in the link & clicking 'save'. But it doesnt save it. When i restat all my apps and my phone the account still isnt there.

I am giving up now, i dont have any more time/energy to devote to this absurd problem.

thanks so much for you help, perhaps this thread may help someone else in the future

brbo

Level 8

38,635 points

Aug 5, 2023 4:28 PM in response to HummingbirdBlue

Thank you for patiently trying suggestions, and I respect your decision to give up.

At the least we eliminated the automated avenues open to achieve the result.

Seems Yahoo could not use the automated methods on older iOS devices for security reasons, leaving only the manual method, which you also tried.

Add an email account to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

All the best :-)

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I can't add my Yahoo email account into my iPhone