Yahoo Mail fails on a combination of MacOS (Sequoia) and iOS (18.7.2). Anyone seen this?

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Yahoo Mail fails on a combination of MacOS (Sequoia) and iOS (18.7.2). Anyone seen this?

I am having a problem that appears to be an interaction of MacOS, iOS, and Yahoo Mail. Posting in case someone has seen similar and has an idea.

The symptom on my iPhone is as in the images below. I get a popup asking for a password. But there is also a notice about an account error. When I click that, I get the second image which is about a "rate limit" for authentication.

I have been using this email account via my MacOS (currently Sequoia) and iOS (currently 18.7.2) for years.

First symptom was that email using Mail on Sequoia was not connected. I had been authenticated with my password and it appears to create an Oauth token that it used to connect. Worked fine for a long while. On my phone, I was connected via a Yahoo Mail App Password.

When I could not get it to re-connect on MacOS, I removed the account from mail. I then recreated it using the flow that made use of the App Password. This seemed to work. The account folders repopulated.

But it seemed that the connection on MacOS would sometimes disconnect and then reconnect. It would also tell me that it wasn't authenticating (but I would get emails saying that I had used the account to login from MacOS ... you can see those in the image background). So it was in this state of working for a bit and then failing. At the same time, the connection on my iPhone (iOS) started to disconnect as described above.

Finally, I got into some state when it seems that even sending email wasn't reliable. So, I removed the email again from my MacOS. I thought, maybe I should try to go back to my Oauth setup (regular flow for adding Yahoo Mail). I also removed the old Oauth tokens from my Keychain to be sure.

When I tried to do that flow, it now tells me my regular password doesn't authenticate -- but only again get notifications that it did authenticate. This was also true when it originally decided to fail on my MacOS.

So, for now, I have not added the Mail account on MacOS. For now, it seems stable and usable on my iOS and via the browser directly with Yahoo Mail.

But I am kind of stuck for using via the MacOS Mail app. If I try to use the "Add Account" "Yahoo" flow (that uses Oauth), it claims it fails to authenticate. I can use the "Add Account" "Other Mail Account" flow (that uses the App Password) but then it causes my email on my iPhone to become unreliable due to this rate limit.

[Edited by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 15.7

Posted on Jan 22, 2026 7:05 PM

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Answer 1

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KiltedTim

Level 10

226,122 points

Jan 23, 2026 6:28 PM in response to jiceman

Unfortunately, there is literally nothing you can do to fix it. Yahoo has dozens, if not hundreds of servers. They get out of sync. You can't control which server your mail client hits.

The solution on iOS is to use the Yahoo Mail app.

Since there is no Yahoo Mail app for macOS, the solution on macOS is to access it in a browser.

Other than that, all you can do is pray you can get lucky and hit a working server.

It's been this way since the days of dial up internet. Yahoo was the mail provider for AT&T/Ameritech. I had these problems with them starting in the 90's. They haven't gotten better. When it works, it works fine. Then all of a sudden it doesn't work. If you wait long enough, it will start working again.

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Answer 2

jiceman Author

Level 1

20 points

Jan 23, 2026 11:57 AM in response to SravanKrA

I thought that I mentioned it, but in case I did not, the iOS login is using the App Password. So that is not the issue.

Edit: I see that I did mention it, but it is a bit buried. Again, the issue only happens when I also add the account to my Mac OS Mail also using the App Password. At that time, the iOS app started disconnecting and asking for a password, but then does connect for a time in an intermittent way and complains about the rate limit. Now that I don't have the Yahoo account in my Mac OS Mail, my phone is fine. But that's not a good solution, as I want to use my mail from the desktop as well.

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Answer 3

SravanKrA

Level 10

431,630 points

Jan 23, 2026 4:51 AM in response to jiceman

I guess probably you have enabled two-step verification for extra security on Yahoo! Mail.

In that case you need app specific password for iOS mail app.

Watch the GIF below for generating and using app specific Yahoo password on iOS mail app. On other Yahoo app and on a web browser you do not require to generate this app specific password

GIF for app specific password

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Answer 4

KiltedTim

Level 10

226,122 points

Jan 23, 2026 11:56 AM in response to jiceman

The problem is that Yahoo's mail servers are garbage and often get 'out of sync' with each other. This has been a problem for over a decade. You can't control what server you're going to hit when you set it up in a client other than the Yahoo Mail app.

Best fix is to switch to an email provider that's not garbage.

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Answer 5

SravanKrA

Level 10

431,630 points

Jan 23, 2026 4:52 AM in response to jiceman

You may have enabled 2-step verification for the email service provider. In that case, you need to generate an App-specific password for the iOS Mail app. Sign in to apps with your Apple ID using app-specific passwords - Apple Support (IN)

Google

An App Password is a 16-digit passcode that gives a non-Google app or device permission to access your Google Account. App Passwords can only be used ... Sign in using App Passwords - Google Account Help

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Answer 6