mac mail server settings

gpilcher - Glad to have helped, your post was the only one I found when trying to figure out what was going wrong. After consulting with a higher level Apple support person, she told me that Yahoo is sending the wrong server names to the Mail app on the MacBook. And she attempted to do the same process with selecting 'Other' but we needed the one time app password to get access to my Yahoo mail account. I called Cox which sent me to Yahoo (no charge for phone support) since it was a transition issue with Yahoo. The phone support person had their technical support person go through this with me. This is not a widely known solution but hopefully others will see your much clearer instructions. At least it only took four days to resolve for me!

May I add one item to the list above due to a mistake that I made. On the 5th step under Open Apple Mail Account please add the following.

• • Leave the Name of the Account field as Automatic.

Do not change the Name. This will cause login and process failure. My first attempt failed. On my second attempt I did not change anything except the Mail Server settings and use the Yahoo One Time Password.

Thank you very much for this help. I was stuck big time.

OMG! Success talking to Yahoo via Cox - you need to generate a one time app password for Mail in your Yahoo Mail web account.

Add account in Apple Mail on MacBook Pro using 'other mail acct', use the one time app password to get into Yahoo, you will get the imap & the smtp addresses for cox, change to yahoo and that should get you in. It's not on Apple's end but Yahoo's.

A word of caution. When I logged into Yahoo webmail a pop up asked if I wanted to use in Mac mail. I made the mistake of clicking yes. It then disabled the fix described in this thread and I had to start all over to get working again.

This worked for me too!! Thank you so much for this. For the people who already set up their yahoo account and already have an actual password like I have, just log into the yahoo web version, go into settings and generate the one time app password, then go through the prompts above on the Mail app and it will work!

Remove the email account, and re-add the account using the generic new mail account path (not the Yahoo! path) and use the credentials provided by Cox and the mail server settings provided by Yahoo!.

• https://www.cox.com/residential/support/cox-email-server-settings.html (oddly still lists the old Cox settings!)
• https://forums.cox.com/discussions/internet/pop3-or-imap-for-yahoo-email-transition/151016

Unsurprisingly for any such large hosting transition, it seems not entirely smooth sailing:

• https://forums.cox.com/discussions/internet/faq-for-cox-email-transition-to-yahoo/150793
• https://forums.cox.com/discussions/internet/pop3-or-imap-for-yahoo-email-transition/151016
• https://forums.cox.com/discussions/internet/cox-email-to-yahoo-email-transition/149797

I’d consider migrating to iCloud hosting with my own domain. This allows you to migrate mail hosting in the future without losing your own email address. ISPs and hosting providers can shuffle their domains and services, as is happening here.

COX to Yahoo Mail instructions for Mac:

Here are more detailed instructions to get you Cox email from Yahoo to show up on Apple Mail.

Transition from COX to Yahoo:

• Open a mail account at Yahoo using the old COX login information. (visit mail.yahoo.com/login )
• Put in a new password as requested
• Fill out the personal information (Privacy Hint: use a fake birthday that you can remember)
• Put in the recovery email and phone as requested (Privacy hint: Use the “Hide my email” function on the iPhone and a phone number that you don’t mind Yahoo selling)
• Generate a Yahoo 3rd Party App Password (see https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN15241.html )
  • When creating an app password, use a browser that you've used to sign into Yahoo for several days in a row and avoid using Incognito mode. If this isn’t successful, use webmail or the official Yahoo App to access your email. Customer care can’t override this process of determining App Password creation eligibility.
    • Sign in to your Yahoo Account Security page (https://login.yahoo.com/account/security?.lang=en-US&.intl=us&.src=yhelp )
    • Click Generate app password or Generate and manage app passwords.
    • Click Get Started.
    • Enter your app's name in the text field.
    • Click Generate password.
    • Use the one-time password to log in to your 3rd party app .
    • Click Done.

Open Apple Mail account:

• Open Apple Mail as usual
• Select Mail/Add Account
• Choose “Other mail account” (NOTE: Don’t choose “yahoo!”)
• Fill in the name of the mailbox, the email address (e.g. myself@cox.net), and use the Yahoo 3rd party password from above.
• On the new screen:
  • Account Type: IMAP
  • Incoming Mail Server: imap.mail.yahoo.com ( see https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN4075.html )
  • Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.mail.yahoo.com ( see https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN4075.html )
  • Sign In
• The new e-mail account will show up a “Cox” on your Apple Mail Inbox List.

• OPTIONAL: To change the name from “Cox” on your Apple Mail Inbox List
  • Select Mail/Settings
  • Select the “@Accounts” tab
  • Select the “Cox” IMAP account from the list on the left side
  • Change the “Description” to whatever you want the mailbox name to be displayed as in Apple Mail.

Adding it on to your iPhone after the above is done.

• Select Setting/Mail/Accounts/Add Account
• Choose Yahoo!
• Sign in using you email address and the password associated with the on-line account (not the one time app password)

I would to expect the generic email add path to do that, but check with Cox and Yahoo!, then.

I’ve had a tussle with mail just this week due to iCloud gremlins, and some of the default settings offered by Apple mail on iPadOS are just bad. Ended up having to remove that account, change the password on the mail server, and re-add the account, verifying all the details such as needing SSL/TLS enabled on both sets of server settings and credentials; for IMAP SSL/TLS, and for ESMTP.

If you figure it out I would appreciate a description of how you fixed the problem. I have the same issues; I cannot get Yahoo mail to work on my iMac Mail, however it works fine on my iPhone and iPad. I have tried like you to install using the "Yahoo path" and manually.

I downloaded the new OS (sonoma 14.4.1), added the account as OTHER and updated the servers as listed above, but I still get a "Unable to verify account name or password" and the account shows OFFLINE. I tried turning online, fetching mail, etc no joy. Anyone have another solution? The only option I didn't choose was POP mail bc IMAP is preferred. Also, I added the mail account to my iPhone, so I already have a password. I didn't get a one time password for the mac attempts, but don't think this would make a difference. Thank you.

I setup my cox email (yahoo) on my phone no issues. When I try to set it up on my Mac ( with the yahoo imap and smtp settings I show that it is offline. I cannot get my email over to my Mac. Any suggestions ?

Using MacOS Monterey version 12.7.4. After the Yahoo/Cox account was added and I had the outgoing mail problem, I was able to right click on the account from the list(left navigation pane) and choose edit the account. On the server setting tab, I entered the setting referenced above imap.mail.yahoo.com and for outgoing: smtp.mail.yahoo.com. I think I also had to add name and user name and made them the cox emai address.