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I can't install yahoo.com mail account into Thunderbird mail apps. Anybody help ?

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  • Last reply by e.tomioka

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Dear Sirs, I tried to install yahoo.com mail account into Thunderbird, but it failed. Apps told that user name or password are not correct. But both of them are really correct, because I use it in the other mail apps or itself. I do not outlook.com and hotmail.com, those mail account can be easily installed, but not yahoo mail. please kindly help me to solve this probelm so that I can install yahoo mail account into Thunderbird. Thanks ! by E. Tomioka

Dear Sirs, I tried to install yahoo.com mail account into Thunderbird, but it failed. Apps told that user name or password are not correct. But both of them are really correct, because I use it in the other mail apps or itself. I do not outlook.com and hotmail.com, those mail account can be easily installed, but not yahoo mail. please kindly help me to solve this probelm so that I can install yahoo mail account into Thunderbird. Thanks ! by E. Tomioka

Chosen solution

Yahoo (like gmail) have recently made changes requiring people to jump through a few hoops. They would really like you to use their webmail. note: if you have a decent password of say 8 characters with a mix of letters numbers etc then it is not less secure. Have you switched on 'less secure apps' option ? If no, then you are deliberately being blocked by yahoo, so switch it on.


If you use a phone as well as computer to access emails then you might consider 'Two step verification' method. More info here: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN5013.html You would need to generate an application specific password to use in Thunderbird instead of the normal password.

note : Yahoo and OAuth2 for IMAP accounts: In the past there have been some real issues because yahoo were not being helpful by deliberately not being prepared to issue tokens for mail applications to use; but according to the following bug report where there has been much effort on this, it looks like OAuth2 should be available in version 63. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1293958

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Chosen Solution

Yahoo (like gmail) have recently made changes requiring people to jump through a few hoops. They would really like you to use their webmail. note: if you have a decent password of say 8 characters with a mix of letters numbers etc then it is not less secure. Have you switched on 'less secure apps' option ? If no, then you are deliberately being blocked by yahoo, so switch it on.


If you use a phone as well as computer to access emails then you might consider 'Two step verification' method. More info here: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN5013.html You would need to generate an application specific password to use in Thunderbird instead of the normal password.

note : Yahoo and OAuth2 for IMAP accounts: In the past there have been some real issues because yahoo were not being helpful by deliberately not being prepared to issue tokens for mail applications to use; but according to the following bug report where there has been much effort on this, it looks like OAuth2 should be available in version 63. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1293958

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Hi Toad-Hall, Thank you for your very quick response and solution. I could understand the way due to your plain explanation(except technical terms like OAuth2?). Please keep developing a good mail apps. Thanks ! By e.tomioka