Yahoo IMAP server - Rejected Password

I have been expierencing the same problem over the last two days with the follwing message appearing: The Yahoo! IMAP server “imap.mail.yahoo.com” rejected the password for user ".

After reading through most of the posts, it clicked. The other day while logged into my email through safari, I had selected "Keep me signed in" selected. After, re-logging into webmail and unselecting the "Keep me signed in", I have not seen that error for the last 2 hours. Why this causes a problem is beyond me. But as of now, no stupid message box popping up for me to enter password.

Hopefully this is the fix!

Will, dude! How did you figure this out?

From the rest of the comments it sounds like there might be some issue with multiple logins on Yahoo's side?

Found this explanation of the problem:

At last I have a solution following several online sessions with Yahoo help desk operators and phone calls from one of their Supervisors.

Summary of the problem: Yahoo, which is used by btinternet or BT Mail say that they have recently introduced changes to their system to no longer allow two devices to log onto and collect mail at the same time from their server. They say that this is to improve e-mail security and is for our benefit.

So, if your iPhone or iPad is set to automatically fetch mail and you are also connected to the same mailbox on a Mac or PC, the desktop application will at some stage be locked out by Yahoo and the indication of this is the MacBook or PC asking for your user name and password. When you input the username and password it will be rejected. On the face of it, this is a bit odd and suggests that you have the wrong password or user name or errors in your settings and you probably have these all set correctly.

If you then go to web mail directly at Yahoo.com, then log out of your account and back in again , the process will reset the system allowing you back into your desktop mail system. This solves the problem for a short time until the iPhone or iPad fetches mail again automatically and you will find yourself in a frustrating loop between the desktop mail and web mail. This will be even more maddening if you have more than one mailbox on Mac Mail.

The Solution: Finally, after a week or more back and forth with Yahoo, I was advised to turn off the automatic downloading of e-mail on all my devices and then to fetch mail manually and this seems to work fine. 24hours later I have not had further problems.

On the iPhone and my wife's iPad this means that mail is collected only when we click the mail icon and so there are no longer any audible or visible prompts that new mail has arrived. This is not ideal and does not seem like the progress that Yahoo claim for my e-mail experience but may be better than moving to another provider involving changes of e-mail address.

Its just a pity that Yahoo or BT did not warn us about their new security plans or provide guidance about managing multiple devices going forward. But frankly, I seems likely that the consequences of the changes that they made came as much of a surprise to BT and Yahoo as it did to us.

Why oh why would Yahoo do something like this and not email their account holders.

However others here have said they don't get the problem when using Thunderbird etc Strange.

This on Sparrow's FAQ page:

https://sparrowmail.tenderapp.com/kb/common-issues/authentication-issues-with-ya hoo

Authentication issues with Yahoo

emclellan:

I had noticed the same behavior you described under "Summary of the problem" I had tried countless possible solutions, to no avail. I implemented your recommendations yesterday. So far, for the past 24 hours I haven't had any issues, whatsoever, with the Mail app getting my Yahoo mail.

Good job!!

Thanks emclellan, that helped a lot! Finally an explanation for Yahoo's annoying behavior. 🙂

Still, I may have found another workaround: While my iPhone is connecting to Yahoo!Mail via IMAP, I managed to set up Mail.app on my Mac to use POP instead. It's a bit tricky because when you create a new account and enter a Yahoo! email adress, Mail.app sets the server type to IMAP automatically.

To prevent Mail.app from doing this, you must first enter a fake address (not ending …@yahoo.com but something else), then set the server type to POP in the second step, and finally enter the correct address and password.

No password rejection messages so far … 🙂

Not sure what has happened, but for the past 2 / 3 days no password asked for ;o))

Looks like Yahoo *may* have fixed the problem <watch this space>;o)

It's happening to me now. Looks like the issue is back. So is this happening across the board of just with Apple systems? I am starting to get fed up with Apple.

Excuse me? Yahoo changes their login policy and/or is having problems with authentication and you're getting fed up with... Apple? From what I've heard this has nothing to do with Apple and everything to do with Yahoo.

It's "always" everyone elses fault. That's the issue with Apple. They don't play well with others. They always have some kind of issues with other systems. It's like if Apple doesn't make it and control it 100%, then things don't work well and you blame that company. Well guess what, that makes for a negative user experience.

I never had this many issues with my PC's. Sure... if I went to **** sites I would get viruses if I didn't have a firewall on. And as a consultant who has to work with a lot of 3rd party applications, it's fustrating being told that I have to do 15 extra things just to do what I could natually do with a PC. It gets to a point where all the extra work just isn't worth the effort.

I purchases Apple products because of their superior build quality, however, their watered down programs, lack of business and third party applications, and lack of intersystem connectivity have taken me to the brink of selling everything on ebay come this fall when Window's 8 goes live.

Even iTunes has turned into a usless application that really doesn't know it's place now that icloud is active, yet, icloud doesn't replace your iphone settings like itunes use to if you ever have to replace it.

I am not bashing Apple because they are a good company, however, the reason that I went to apple was because hardware was trash with other companies and Windows Vista was horrible. But now that the PC industry was kick started again after seeing how Apple was taking all of their business, it seems like they have taken the lead in the computer market. The iphone is still the superior phone, however, the ipad will be deemed obsolete after Windows 8 is released. There will be no tablet market anymore. People will just have tablet computers and not need two products. Unless Apple turns the ipad into a true computer, then they will quickly lose market to these new computers about to come out on the PC market.

You can't be serious. Despite your very apparent troll-scent, I will bite.

If you read emclellan's post, Yahoo! changed their Mail login/authentication policies. Yahoo!'s not allowing us to have simultaneous Mail log-ins anymore. That's not Apple's choice, nor can Apple do anything about it. That also means all other mail applications are affected.

Allow me to use your logic and reasoning on a hypothetical case: if Shell decides to change the formula of the gasoline they sell at the pump so much that gasoline internal combustion engines won't run smoothly with it, it is Toyota's fault their cars are choking on Shell's fuel. That does not make sense to me at all.

I will not validate your other claims by reply to them, because this will certainly go far off topic. I don't want to get into a pointless debate with an overt Apple-hater.

Ooops - spoke too soon - same 'ole problem has returned.

Yahoo really need to sort this out - 1 day fine, then not, it's a bit like cat and mouse 😢

@radbasa

I don't think that it's fair to call someone a "troll" just because they have a negative comment. I'm not an Apple-hater, nor am I a PC lover or Android fan or whatever. I am a customer. I am not loyal to any brand. I don't have Windows stickers or Apple stickers all over my cars and I don't argue about what OS is the best. All I am looking for is the best computing experience possible, regardless of the brand or OS. That's why it was so easy for me to jump and try out Apple, because it really doesn't matter to me. I currently have an iPhone 4S, Macbook Air, and a 27 inch iMac.

My user experience with these devices have been both positve and negative. The email app with Apple is very weak compared to Outlook. The Iphone email App is absolutely horrible. The icloud system has a lot of bugs in it. iTunes and icloud don't seem to like each other. The address book has issues with making duplicate copies of entries. Pages and Numbers are watered down versions of Word and Excel. Then there's the issue of limited third party applications. Try to find a good Project Management application focued on Clinical Studies for Apple and you will be very disappointed. Same for Good Business Plan and business operating models. Also there are hardly any Business Logistic Applications. Add to that that many companies don't have compatible programs becasue everything was created for IE and the realization that icloud.com is not a replacement microsoft servers or even dropbox and you realize that Apple has a long way to go.

However, Apple customer support and product support is second to none and the hardware is outstanding. Also, Apple seems to improve their products at an alarming rate. It's like evolution, but quicker. Will I leave Apple? I'm not sure, do I hate Apple? Absolutely not. Do I believe that there's a lot of room for improvment with the user experience and options available, yes I do.

But a troll, I am not. Don't be so quick to label people. And don't feel like every time someone says something negative about Apple you have to get upset. It's not YOUR company. You just own a few of their products. Plain and simple.

Yeah, Yahoo! Mail IMAP is still unstable. Yahoo! definitely changed something on their end. I've been using IMAP to access my Y! Mail several years already. I am sure this wasn't cause by a Mail.app update, because IMAP access was still fine after the last software update.