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Level 1

2 points

Yahoo! mail stopped working with Yosemite

Ever since I upgraded from Mavericks to Yosemite my Yahoo mail account via Mac-Mail has failed to work - cannot send/receive anything.

This saga started a couple of weeks ago when I decided to upgrade from Mavericks to Yosemite. Upgrade went smoothly however my Yahoo mail accounts failed to connect. My Gmail, Outlook, and iCloud accounts all work. My Yahoo account works just fine on my iPhone and iPad, and of course via Web (Safari/Firefox). After trolling through the internet on this I found very few clues for Yahoo mail issues directly linked to Yosemite.

I've deleted the accounts and re-added them (several times). There are two ways email accounts can be added - via Internet Accounts from the System Preferences and also from the Mail application itself. From the Mail application you can also verify the detailed settings of each of the mail accounts. I've checked, double-checked and nothing worked. The following are a sample of the errors I've been receiving:

Mail couldn't log in to the Mail server “Unknown”.

Notes couldn't log in to the IMAP server “Unknown”.

Mail couldn't discover the account settings for the Mail server “Unknown”.

Unable to verify account name or password.

Mail can't connect to the Yahoo! account - Enterpassword for xxx.

There was a problem setting up the Mail account - Mail couldn't discover the account settings for the Mail server

I am constantly prompted to enter my password. I've checked my settings over and over - the detailed mail account settings via Mail--> Preferences. MyYahoo Contacts, Calendars, Message and Reminders all appear to connect just fine by Mail never does.

After all of this I decided to perform a clean install of Yosemite - so I did and . . . no change . . . Yahoo! mail problem persists.

Not sure what else to try. I am wide open to any ideas or suggestions

Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Nov 7, 2014 7:33 PM

60 replies

Nov 12, 2014 6:42 PM in response to JohnWidhalm

Well I finally got an IT guy in. He said that my old yahoo address ( rocket mail.com) was unknown to my phone/ Mac book pro and that I had to enter it as "other" not YAHOO! And that put them all back on track. All working now.

Nov 13, 2014 7:46 AM in response to susiepomme

None of my accounts are working. Not just yahoo. Gmail, and even my icloud email account gives the same error messages. I have even set up a new user account and tried adding them on there and they do not work. The accounts are all fine as they work on iphone, ipad and a windows pc. Just not on the mac. Not going to spend any more time on it. I have a new mac coming next week anyway (despite recent problems I am still upgrading) so will try again with that, if nothing else then at least I will be eligible for Apple support again.

Nov 13, 2014 12:48 PM in response to JohnWidhalm

Does anyone know if Apple Support monitors the Support Communities? If not how do we get this problem to them so they can do a fix?

JohnWidhalm Author

Level 1

2 points

Nov 15, 2014 8:47 PM in response to JohnWidhalm

UPDATE: I found that this solution only temporary. The client still times-out with the server after a day or two. If you delete the account and re-add it it will work. This is obviously unacceptable behavior. After further tinkering I wanted to try and use POP instead of IMAP and found that Mac-Mail will not allow POP to be configured on BOTH incoming and outgoing (it used to allow this in previous versions). As a result, I changed mail clients from Mac-Mail to Thunderbird and set up my Yahoo account using POP and it's been working just fine. This really doesn't explain why it works fine on my iPad or under Mavericks.

JohnWidhalm Author

Level 1

2 points

Nov 16, 2014 6:34 AM in response to JohnWidhalm

chadinga

Level 1

4 points

Nov 19, 2014 6:56 PM in response to JohnWidhalm

I was having problems sending outgoing emails through os x mail from my yahoo account, though I could receive yahoo email just fine. I have yahoo's second sign-in enabled, so I have to go to my webmail account for it to generate random but specific app passwords for os x mail, iPhone/ipad mail, iPhoto, Facebook, etc. I was able to solve my problem with os x mail by entering the app password in incoming mail server password field, but also had to enter that same password in the outgoing mail server password field (mail<preferences<accounts<yahoo!<outgoing mail server(smtp)<edit smtp server list<advanced<password)

sykomimi

Level 1

5 points

Nov 22, 2014 8:34 PM in response to JohnWidhalm

This worked for me for my Yahoo.

http://osxdaily.com/2014/10/28/fix-mail-smtp-sending-errors-os-x-mac/

Good luck!!

Nov 23, 2014 12:43 PM in response to JohnWidhalm

Set up at OTHER account and it DOES WORK for sure!

freakbsd

Level 1

0 points

Nov 23, 2014 1:09 PM in response to nicholaspaulsmith

I found a permanent solution. It seems it is a problem with "auto settings". Just go to Mail -> Preferences -> Accounts -> Select your Yahoo Account -> Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) - Edit SMTP Server List -> Advanced -> Set OFF "Automatically detect and maintain account settings". Next: Mail -> Preferences -> Accounts -> Select your Yahoo Account -> Advanced TAB -> Set OFF "Automatically detect and maintain account settings".

Receiving and sending is working without fixes.

Gunaguy

Level 1

0 points

Dec 7, 2014 6:56 PM in response to JohnWidhalm

I got my Yahoo mail to work.

1. I deleted my Yahoo account by going to settings/internet account/ delete account

2. I then scrolled down from the list of email account options and choose "Add another account".

3. I entered my email information and my email instantly began working again.

Dec 15, 2014 8:24 PM in response to JohnWidhalm

Adding "Otther" email worked for me too, on the 3rd try. Thanks!

mlgs2

Level 1

12 points

Dec 16, 2014 9:51 AM in response to Gunaguy

Yes, this works, but I have to do every few weeks! I have thousands of emails in my yahoo account, so it takes a long time to re-establish the account in Mail. It's very frustrating, sigh.

StuS

Level 1

8 points

Dec 19, 2014 7:28 AM in response to mlgs2

I took my wife's mac book pro to the nearest Apple store last weekend. The Genius could not create her account (att.net) and said it was a problem with the AT&T (mirrors Yahoo) account.

Jan 5, 2015 1:49 PM in response to JohnWidhalm

Thanks this solution worked for me too! Although just want to point out that you need to delete your malfunctioning account first then add yahoo as "other" account.

WDI

Level 1

83 points

Feb 21, 2015 10:40 AM in response to JohnWidhalm

My yahoo mail account was working fine until last night. I figured I'd just delete the internet account in system preferences in Yosemite and set it up again. Easy right. Nope! I think the problem is Apples internet account set up is trying to decide all the information and is not getting it right. It would set up everything except for notes, which I'm not sure is even supported and I don't care about anyway, and more importantly mail. I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get this set up right. So after adding the yahoo account in system preferences/internet accounts to bring in my contacts etc, and email still not being set up, I set it up manually in the mail app under Mail/Preferences/Accounts, clicking the + at the bottom to add a new account, selecting other. When the create email account dialog box open type in your information and then the important thing is to hold the option key down which replaces the create button with a next button so you can manually add the appropriate information. If I didn't hold down the option key and selected create instead, apple added my information for at&t instead of yahoo. It did appear to bring in my email, but no folders and all the email was marked as unread. So by holding option down and selecting next I could put in the appropriate information for the yahoo servers which then brought in my email correctly including all my folders.

Here is a link to the server information for setting up a yahoo account manually...

https://help.yahoo.com/kb/mobile/imap%C2%A0settings-yahoo-mail-sln4075.html

Also, make sure to disable apple from attempting to update you mail server settings by as stated in this article...

http://meandmymac.net/2014/10/trouble-with-yosemite-mail/

Yahoo! mail stopped working with Yosemite