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User profile for user: wendyfromreidsville
wendyfromreidsville Author
User level: Level 1
66 points

Why does AOL say OS 10.10.5 Yosemite Mail is insecure?

After slogging through the new AOL/Yahoo/Oath security/privacy options, Mail was unable to connect to the AOL IMAP and SMTP servers and I received the following from AOL:


Your account is currently not enabled to sign in from apps that do not meet modern security standards (ex. Older versions of mail and calendar apps such as Outlook). As a result, we prevented a sign in to your AOL account.


We strongly recommend that you switch to AOL's apps such as AOL Mail on desktop and mobile and remove your account from all other less secure apps.


If you still want to use an app that uses less secure sign in, go to https://login.aol.com/account/security#other-apps and turn on "Allow apps that use less secure sign in." This is not recommended and may leave your account more vulnerable to compromise.


When I changed the settings to allow “insecure apps” to access AOL, I received the following from them:


You just allowed apps that may use a less secure sign-in method to access your AOL account. This change allows email applications that do not meet AOL’s recommended security standards to access your account and may leave your account more vulnerable to security risks.


Is this just an AOL marketing ploy or are Mail’s security settings out of date?

17" MacBook Pro, mid-2010, 8Gb RAM-OTHER, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 1TB Samsung 850 EVO SSD

Posted on May 24, 2018 12:09 PM

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User profile for user: Eric Root
Eric Root
User level: Level 10
684,027 points

Posted on May 25, 2018 12:47 PM

Google and AOL are both doing this and some people have posted that even with the latest version of Mail, they are have to use the less secure setting. The email standards may have tightened some, but as far as I know, you should be okay. They want you to use their applications/apps.

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User profile for user: Grant Bennet-Alder
Grant Bennet-Alder
User level: Level 10
126,961 points

May 26, 2018 8:43 AM in response to wendyfromreidsville

I am sort of a developer, so I am always breaking things. I have had no end of trouble with my email accounts for completely different reasons. So I have re-established ALL my email accounts more times than I would like to talk about.


Unlike most email Providers, AOL, Yahoo, and Google have implemented a sign-in that converts the password you enter into a Certificate, stored on your computer. That is why you should use their special setups:

User uploaded file

If you delete your account, then set it up again using Mail's special settings for creating these specific accounts, it will automatically give you the new setup, which is more secure. Once I did this for AOL, no more grousing from them about Security. (But they have not stopped hustling me for useless anti-Virus solutions.)

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User profile for user: wendyfromreidsville
wendyfromreidsville Author
User level: Level 1
66 points

May 30, 2018 6:01 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks for the reply. I also have had to recreate my AOL account in Sys Prefs/Internet Accounts several times in the past year and have always done so as prescribed. This particular issue was caused by the new post-GDPR AOL/Yahoo/Oath privacy settings and I solved it by turning on "Allow apps that use less secure sign in."

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Why does AOL say OS 10.10.5 Yosemite Mail is insecure?

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