How To Use Free Yahoo! Mail With POP Or IMAP

Yahoo! Mail is in fact available to use freely now (meaning a Plus! account is not required) to use with POP or IMAP.

For the POP settings, all of that is available here:

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/mailplus/pop/

For IMAP on the other hand it’s a different story. Easy, but different.

If you want to use Yahoo! Mail with IMAP right now, use the latest version of Mozilla Thunderbird.

On the first screen for setup, enter your Yahoo! Mail account credentials as you normally would:

On the next screen, Thunderbird will contact the Mozilla database for the proper server addresses and automatically fill them out – however – you must specifically tick the option for IMAP:

Once you tick IMAP, click Create Account at bottom right.

The only thing you’ll encounter is an error that states the ‘Drafts’ folder cannot be accessed, so you’ll need to change this to use Local Folders for drafts.

The error will look similar to this:

Right-click the account and select Settings:

Click Copies & Folders on the left, and change Keep message drafts in to Local Folders > Drafts. It will look like this when done:

The error will no longer appear and you’re done!

Why Thunderbird and not another mail client?

Thunderbird has the special GUID "1" command in it to pass along to Yahoo! Mail’s servers so that it can communicate over IMAP. Other mail clients don’t have this, so for Yahoo! Mail via IMAP on a desktop computer you have to use Thunderbird. POP on the other hand can be used with any mail client.

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Floyd
Doesn’t work. Yahoo still says I have to have Yahoo Plus.

Rich
Does work. I’ve tested it with 3 separate Yahoo! Mail accounts that do not have the Plus! subscription.

Anon
When did you create the Yahoo! accounts you tested with?
POP works for me with an account I created a long while ago, but not for a more recently created one.

Rich
They are older accounts; I have no reason to create new ones.

Floyd
Well, it’s still not working on one of my Yahoo accounts. It still requires Yahoo Plus. On the other account it has always worked as I activated Yahoo Plus on that account many years ago. I let my Yahoo Plus expire after one year as I was no longer using Yahoo as my primary mail account. But the pop feature kept working and is still working after many years.
Courrierdemoi-6
@a6f70608d2b14eaa1d2e7d9873424bb6:disqus : Interesting that the pop feature keeps working after Yahoo mail plus expiry.
Has anyone else noticed this? I’m interested because I’d like to unsubrscribe from yahoo mail plus without loosing the ability to receive my yahoo emails in my gmail account.
Anon
AIUI, POP was originally offered with Yahoo! accounts, but was later withdrawn from most countries.
Yahoo! continue to honour POP for such accounts; it looks as though they now offer IMAP too.

Anon
Me too, see my post about setting your region to Yahoo! Asia

http://twitter.com/ThisIsAdamB ThisIsAdamB
Rich, do you know if it’ll work with TBird on the Mac the same way? I set up a friend with an older Mac and she’s been using a Yahoo! account forever and so far has been stuck in the browser…

Rich
It should. TB 3.1.10 for OS X should connect the same way it would on Windows or Linux; the code for the stuff is supposed to be the same regardless of the platform it runs on.

User
Thank you! IMAP works, but POP does not.

Rich
Wrong. POP and IMAP both work on free accounts. I’ve tested and confirmed this.

Anon
Doesn’t work, authentication failed

Rich
Incorrect. Does work.

Anon
I did get this to work by setting my regional site and language to Yahoo! Asia. Tried it on 3 different accounts and none would authenticate (although test messages were sent by Outlook, wtf?)
Yahoo! may still be updating their servers in the meantime here’s instructions for setting your regional settings to Yahoo! Asia. Please note IMAP does not work with this setting.
from Yahoo! Mail Options->Mail Options->Account Information (enter password) -> Set language, site, time zone -> Yahoo! Asia from first drop down.
After this you can go to Mail Options->POP & Forwarding to verify POP is enabled. You’ll have an option to download spam or not.
Keep trying the US servers, I have a feeling they are just not all updated yet.

Pbbeachgirl50
I cannot find pop & forwarding option where is it?

Dan
Yahoo.co.uk says “The ability to access Yahoo! Mail using an email reader program such as
Outlook, Eudora, or Thunderbird is only available to customers of our
premium Yahoo! Mail Plus service “.
Why bother? Yahoo web mail is pretty good. Years ago with dial up pop was useful. Less clutter on my hd.
Pbbeachgirl50
I cannot get it to work for me either-can you go step by step and explain this.
Force Flow
Doesn’t work. And I have an account that’s over 6 years old.
Accessing the POP/Forwarding options in the account only displays an upgrade notice. As much as I’d like to see free POP access, I really don’t think yahoo is opening things up like other mail services have.

rdy4ever
It only works with IMAP dude. Forget about POP, just check IMAP and it will work like a charm.
rdy4ever
…and skip directly to thunderbird setup,don’t follw the firs link, POP will not workexcept if you have a .co.uk ID. Just do the IMAP thing.