How do I completely remove Yahoo account from Macbook

Question

How do I completely remove Yahoo account from Macbook

I added a Yahoo account to my Apple Mail on my Macbook Pro the other day. Up until now I have just gotten it from Yahoo's website.

I think somehow there is some corruption to the Yahoo account because it does not receive email reliably. My iPhone and iPad receive the Yahoo mail fine and the Macbook Mail works fine for my other accounts (my company email, Comcast and my Apple Cloud account).

I tried to delete the account, but I suspect that deleting the account really only deletes it visably even though it says that all data is going to be removed. I say this because if I re-add it, all the messages are nearly instantly there again (and there are thousands).

How do I remove all traces of the Yahoo account in Apple Mail so I can create it from scratch.

Posted on Mar 15, 2014 8:51 PM

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Answer 1

ssls6

Level 4

2,879 points

Mar 15, 2014 9:00 PM in response to EricGAnderson

Instead of deleting the account, try rebuilding the mailbox. You can find the command in the mail main menu under mailbox.

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Answer 2

Mar 15, 2014 9:10 PM in response to ssls6

Strange...

When I highlight the Yahoo inbox, the "rebuild" is grayed out. It is not grayed out if I highlight sent, bulk, junk and some other parts of the Yahoo account.

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Answer 3

ssls6

Level 4

2,879 points

Mar 15, 2014 9:13 PM in response to EricGAnderson

Open system preferences and then internet accounts, from there delete the yahoo account. You can verify it's gone by opening therminal and typing

cd ~/Library/Mail/V2

open .

In the finder window that opens, verify you don't see something like this

IMAP-youryahooemail-Yahoo

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Answer 4

Mar 15, 2014 9:21 PM in response to ssls6

Oh, it is there alright!

ht.

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Answer 5

Mar 15, 2014 9:24 PM in response to EricGAnderson

What do I do to remove it safely?

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Answer 6

ssls6

Level 4

2,879 points

Mar 15, 2014 9:30 PM in response to EricGAnderson

With the yahoo imap account deleted and mail closed, I would drag that folder to the desktop. I would then open mail and add the yahoo imap account back. If everything goes well, I would delete the folder you dragged to the desktop.

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Answer 7

Mar 15, 2014 10:34 PM in response to ssls6

I did that and then did a rebuild. Now I only have 376 headers showing and they are all in November, 2011. Rebuild is once again grayed out.

This is one messed up account on my Mac. All my other devices seem to be working OK. I can send an email from one of my other accounts and it ends up on them as fast or faster than Yahoo on the web browser.

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Answer 8

Mar 16, 2014 12:01 AM in response to EricGAnderson

I set up my Yahoo account on my wife's Macbook Air. The same problem happened on her Macbook. I am thinking that my Yahoo account has a problem. It is strange that the Yahoo mail on both my iSO7 machines works well, but on 2 Macbook's with OSX Mavericks it does not.

I just found that the inbox mail looks like it is rebuilding back to 2011. I don't delete my emails and maybe that is now causing a problem. That does not seem to bother the mail on my iOS7 products, but they may not try to rebuild very old emails. I think that the rebuild is grayed out because it is still in the rebuilding phase.

Is there a way to force OSX mail to only update email that is recent?

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Answer 9

Mar 18, 2014 8:19 AM in response to EricGAnderson

Found the solution...

I was told that the server for the iPhone and iPad is different than the one used for the Macbook. I believe that since they work so differently. The iPhone and iPad do not appear to download the entire inbox database, but the Macbook mail DOES. I know because it is working hours (or maybe even days) downloading messages if you have a large database like I did. My message database had over 50,000 messages. It never bothered me and I get probably hundreds a day, so I only scan them. I do not delete or move any of them. It would take me 10 times the effort to manage email messages.

A solution was to move all but the recent emails in my inbox to a read saved mailbox. I could have deleted it, but since Yahoo said that I had only used 0.45% of my allotted space, why not keep everything. After moving all but a few month's of email, it is working well now.

For the life of me, I don't know why all the inbox mail is downloaded to my Macbook computer. That seems at odds with the spirit of IMAP which is suposed to keep the messages on the server. Why duplicate it on my Mac? Something Mac mail should review...

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