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The Yahoo! IMAP server “imap.mail.yahoo.com” rejected the password for user

cannot get it to accept my password,

Posted on Feb 13, 2012 10:40 AM

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30 replies

Mar 30, 2012 6:57 AM in response to Doddie82

Also having this same, very annoying problem!


The Yahoo! IMAP server “imap.mail.yahoo.com” rejected the password for user “xxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com

Enter your password again or cancel.


It happens 20 times a day! If I enter the password - it connects and retrieves the email - and the settings and password saved in Mail are correct and verified. It works - sometimes.


I have repeatedly also tried the "remember this password in my keychain" tickbox.


The exact same IMAP requests/credentials from my iPad and cell phone work perfectly - without ever getting rejected. This tends to indicate it is NOT YAHOO'S fault.


I have run Keychain First Aid - no help there. It is a big problem for one Yahoo email account I have, and an occasional one on other email accounts as well.


If this keeps up I'm going to have to forget Apple Mail and go to Thunderbird or something else.

Apr 7, 2012 11:08 AM in response to Doddie82

I too have been having this issue. As a matter of fact, I spoke to several Apple Care reps which informed me they too are having the issue. I also have two other email addresses that are not with Yahoo, and neither of those ask for the password, since they are all already stored.


When prompted to enter my password, it does retrieve my email and allows me to send also. How many times it asks for the password within the same open session, and throughout the day is random, though.


In my opinion, because this is only happening with my Yahoo eMail account, this really seems to be an issue with the yahoo mail servers, and not with Apple Mail. I admit it is very annoying to be continually asked for the password, sometimes even after entering it and pressing enter, it pops open again asking for it again. Storing it or not in Keychain makes no difference either. The password is stored in Keychain, it is just that when communicating with Yahoo mail servers, it causes the problem.


I know it is not a solution, but perhaps those having this issue should contact yahoo mail support with this issue instead. It is worth a try. I just sent them an eMail at the following link:

https://io.help.yahoo.com/contact/index?locale=en_US&y=PROD_MAIL&page=contact


Make sure to select the appropriate choices from the drop-down menus, then just enter the error statement in the "Write a short description" section at the bottom.

User uploaded file

In God's Harmony

Apr 11, 2012 8:20 AM in response to Doddie82

Hi all,


Finally sorted it, its done by going into

  1. Mail
  2. Preferences
  3. which ever account requires password
  4. then save.
  5. on the top bar click on window.
  6. then go to connection doctor
  7. that will scan to see incoming and outgoing mail, if there is any fault a red dot will appear.
  8. double click around the red dot.
  9. screen will appear and click the advanced button.
  10. change to password there also to match your password, and then save.


both the passwords need to match,


good look.


Neil

Apr 11, 2012 11:06 AM in response to Doddie82

Neil,

I went over your steps, and do find a red dot beside "Yahoo!". Double-clicking anywhere (not just area around red dot), will open Apple Mail Preferences>Accounts. In the "Advanced tab beside "Authentication, is a drop-down menu where you can select "Password", but you do not actually have an option to enter a password here. I base this on what you stated in your step #10: "change to password there also to match your password, and then save."

There is no way to match anything here, just the type of authentication.


Now, if you leave the "Connection Docotor" window open, clik on "Yahoo!", then "Show Detail" button, and re-enter your Yahoo password on that annoying prompt that keeps sporadically popping up, you will see the red dot turn to a green dot. Nothing is being fixed here, just we get to see th communication from Apple Mail to the Yahoo server. Deleting the Yahoo account and adding it again did not solve this situation for me either.


This service of using a desktop computer to send/receive Yahoo Mail, is stated on Yahoo's site to be a paid service only through Yahoo mail Plus, but most of us are aware that we can access this without Yahoo Mail Plus. This issue started, at least for me, about 2 weeks ago, prior to that, no issue. So, either some OSX update on my iMac has caused this, or as i stated before, the Yahoo servers are causing the problem. I'm prone to think it is the latter (the Yahoo servers) since I have not had any password prompts for the other two free online mail accounts which I access in Apple Mail.

Apr 11, 2012 11:24 AM in response to rawsaxy

Yes - reasserting the password through various means may make it go through temporarily - but it does not fix the problem, as it will always ultimately return!


While blaming Yahoo is possibly partially valid -

I don't have the problem using Thunderbird,

or from my HTC EVO

or from an iPad -


Only OSX/ Apple Mail.


Casual observation - Mail just seems to give up and spit errors if it doesn't work on the very first attempt.


I have found thaat rather than entering the password over and over and over again - hitting Cancel on the popup works if you reload "new messages" or - Go - > Mailbox/Take All Accounts Online - at a later time.

Apr 13, 2012 1:05 PM in response to Doddie82

OK, so far so good. After much prayer and asking God, Please Lord give me a solution, a few minutes later I get the usual pop-up in OSX Lion informing me of a new update. This particular update is as follows:


After updating and installing the Java for OSX 2012-003

This Java security update removes the most common variants of the Flashback malware.

This update also configures the Java web plug-in to disable the automatic execution of Java applets. Users may re-enable automatic execution of Java applets using the Java Preferences application. If the Java web plug-in detects that no applets have been run for an extended period of time it will again disable Java applets.

This update is recommended for all Mac users with Java installed.

For details about this update see: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5242

_____________________________________________________________________

I clicked on install, and then got a yellow triangle with white exclamation mark:

Malware was found and removed from your computer.

The “OSX.FlashBack.iv” malware was found and removed.


Well, I have restarted my computer several times, opened and closed Apple mail several times in the last several hours, and all seems to be working as it should. Also, I had an issue with Safri hanging when I clicked to quit, which now is also working as it should.


I don't know if any of you have tried this yet, but if you have Lion, it may solve your problem. If you have Snow Leopard or Leopard, the update may not work for you nor be available. There are some steps to check and eliminate from your system using Terminal. This malware poses as an Adobe Flash Player installer, and compromises your system even if you don't click on an actual installer. Just visiting a rogue website will do it.

If any need the steps for Terminal, let me know.


In God's Harmony

May 2, 2012 6:54 AM in response to Doddie82

I was having the password reject problem since buying my iMac three months ago. After much frustration and wrong advice I found a hint on a BT help forum suggesting changing the password on the email account. The advice was to shorten it as my informant suggested Apple Mail was truncating it, hence the rejection. I don't know if it does truncate the password, but what I do know is that I changed my BT YAHOO email password from 13 characters to the minimum allowed 8 characters and it worked first time. It's been working great for three days. Fingers crossed.

May 8, 2012 1:30 PM in response to Doddie82

Well, well, well! ... feels good to hear all this. I have been having a very similar problem on and off since around the middle of March but I don't think my problem is solved yet. I am running Snow Leopard on an iMac and have also never had the probelm on my iPhone or through the Yahoo web portal.


What's more peculiar for me is that I have Verizon (FIOS) email and they are (or were, as some of the many, many tech supports I've spent hours with say) in partnership with Yahoo using their web portal. I signed up for this option when I started FIOS because Verizon only offered 2 GB of server fro emails and I use 3 or 4 addresses in my account. I've even paid MY tech support people to talk to THEIR tech support people and the best explanation that came up was that the Verizon and Yahoo passwords were not syncing.


Usually when I call Verizon, they have a way to get the Yahoo password changed, they will sync and it works again for a while. When I change the password eitehr through Mail, Yahoo aor Verizon, it still gets rejected. Then, out of the blue, sometimes weeks later, I'll start getting the 'rejected password' again. It happened yesterday morning and I was unable to get email until late in the day. It happened again this morning and after re-entering password muliple times, taking 'all accounts online', rebooting, everything I could think of, it still didn't work. Then, a couple of hours later, it randomly began to download emails again. Sometimes, I'll go 2 or 3 days without getting email on the computer but it seems that eventually, it will kick in.


Of course, Verizon says it's an Apple Mail problem but I also have multiple accounts with other servers with no problems, and another email address in same account on another Mac (macbook Air), tells me that's not really the case (my password is actually 7 characters). My guess - Apple, Verizon and Yahoo justdon't work very well together and won't until they decide to fix this.

May 9, 2012 9:45 AM in response to Doddie82

Sorry, I realized my email is POP, not IMAP and teh password rejection came again today. The message is :


The verizon.net POP server “incoming.yahoo.verizon.net” rejected the password for user "(my user name)".


I found an old discussion post from 2009 that is 'EXACTLY' what I am experiencing and they were told by Verizon that they cut off their relationship with Yahoo and the user had to switch portals to Windows Live. That's funny, because I signed up for Verizon FIOS at the end of 2010 and was offered the Yahoo option! Now I'm being told that they only recently cut off the Yahoo relationship! I smell something fishy...


Verizon/Yahoo Mail Problems

Jun 4, 2012 12:22 PM in response to Doddie82

Doddie82's solution worked for me with the following caveat... There appears to be multiple places where a password can be stored: incoming server, outgoing server, and Keychain. And as someone mentioned, the password field isn't always available. I also had a problem where the outgoing mail server was pointing to a different account.


My sense is that this is about how Mail manages accounts. It would explain why other email programs, such as T-Bird, don't see the same behavior.

The Yahoo! IMAP server “imap.mail.yahoo.com” rejected the password for user

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