Updated February 9, 2013
Save Yourself Time and Hassles by Setting Up a Yahoo Outlook Connection for Your Email
Let’s talk about how to make a Yahoo Outlook connection. That is, let’s go through the process of setting up a Yahoo Mail account and Outlook to work together. First, let’s talk about why you might want to do this.
Creating a connection between these two great products will make your life easier, since it lets you work with all of your mail in one place. Checking your mail in two different places makes no sense when you don’t have to. I’ve personally helped hundreds of people connect these two products together, which takes a few minutes work up front but results in lots of convenience and time saved thereafter. If you spend your days working in Outlook, but your Yahoo Mail is important to you, the benefits of setting this up are clear.
As I mentioned above, I’ve helped hundreds of people get Yahoo and Outlook working together. That means the instructions I provide are well tested and have the kinks worked out. There are a lot of steps but that’s intentional. If you’ve looked around the Web at other sites that purport to show you how to set this up, you’ve probably seen that their instructions are short, but assume you know all about obscure Outlook settings, virtual ports, email protocols and the like.
My instructions aren’t like that. My instructions are written on the assumption that you are just a normal person who wants to make this happen. There are lots of steps because I don’t assume that you have any special computer knowledge. We do one thing at a time, and I explain exactly what you need to do in each step. That means there are lots of steps, but anyone who can follow directions can complete those steps. So don’t worry. You can definitely do this.
There is one other side effect of my providing very detailed instructions for making this connection. Some of the details vary depending on which version of Outlook you have. So I have to send you to the correct set of instructions for the version of Outlook you are using. Click one of the links below to get instructions for your specific version of Outlook. In just a little while you will have your Yahoo Outlook connection up and running.
- Make a Yahoo Outlook 2010 Connection
- Make a Yahoo Outlook 2007 Connection
- Make a Yahoo Outlook 2003 Connection
Everything has been working then starting late Wednesday I cannot receive any yahoo mail. I can send it, but not receive it. Did any of the settings get changed by yahoo? Using Outlook 2010.
Via tweet exchanges with @YahooCare, I have a temporary fix. Disable SSL for your incoming server. On the Advanced Settings tab, uncheck the box by “This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL)”. The Incoming server (POP3) port should automatically change to 110. I kept the Outgoing server (SMPT) to use SSL and port 465. Worked fine for me on the first try and several times since.
I asked if Yahoo is working on resolving the incoming SSL issue and if so, if there’s be notification when it is. So far, no response.
Good luck!
Rhoda
Sorry kind of a repost seeing everyone is having the same issue. Hope its fixed soon.
Thanks, Wes.
I used these setting several months ago and they worked great up until a couple days ago. I can still send emails without an issue but outlook will not recieve emails.
I have not changed any settings in outlook, or PW’s etc.
Any ideas?
At least they acknowledge it to be a problem. Hopefully they will figure it out and and fix it soon.
Below is the canned response I and others received to our tweets. #notfeelingwarmandfuzzy
@YahooCareYahoo! Customer Care
“@RES_Tampa Hi, We are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it ASAP! Thank you.”
Rhoda,
The problem seems to be worldwide and not ISP-specific. I saw a message about it from a guy in the UK, and I’m connected through some unknown ISP in Southern Ecuador.
Diane,
Thanks for the kind words. It would be nice if they would issue some sort of statement to let us know what’s up.
No change, still not receiving and no response from Yahoo Help, other than the automated reply. Will send them a tweet soon. Just curious which ISPs are used by the folks having the problem. Mine is Verizon FIOS.
Stay tuned…
Still not working at 9 am est on 6/24/11
I am having the same problem as everyone else. Stopped getting email to my outlook so am having to monitor my yahoo account. I also did what everyone else mentioned – deleted the thing and outlook and just reset it up. Guess I will just be patient and hope that someone hears something soon.
Bill, you detail on how to set it up rocks. Right now I am just leaving the pages out to see if I can get it fixed anytime soon.
Hey folks,
Unfortunately I don’t have anything useful to report yet. A lot of people have been reporting this problem to Yahoo, but if anyone has heard back on it, they’re not saying. I agree that 2 days is a long time for a glitch, but don’t know what else to call it since Yahoo hasn’t announced any intentional changes. Like Rhoda, I can see the messages in the Yahoo web interface, so assuming everyone else is in the same boat, working with them there is a possible workaround for now.
Mitch, you asked about switching to IMAP. Unless something has changed, Yahoo’s IMAP is set up for mobile devices only. Some people have reported that they could get it to work, at least partially, but most people who try seem to have problems if they can get it to work at all.
That’s all I have right now. If anyone gets any solid info, or your mail starts working again, please post something here so we can all find out what’s going on.
–Bill
I’m having the same problem. I haven’t received Yahoo mail in my Outlook 2010 client since the evening of 6/21 which in my book is a long time for a “glitch”. I can send mail from Outlook. New mail gets to the Yahoo server which is downloaded to my iPhone fine. I also receive gmail in Outlook without issue.
Would appreciate status from others if they’re still having the problem or if/how resolved. Better yet, would be some communication from Yahoo.
Thanks
I meant to say that I deleted my two accounts from Outlook and now can’t re-add since I can’t connect to Yahoo’s server
Hi Bill,
I’m having the same yahoo problems yesterday and today as others here. I have two Yahoo plus accounts pulled into my Outlook 2010 on Windows 7. I could send messages, but not receive. Thinking it was a problem on my end, I deleted my accounts from yahoo and went back to re-add. Now, since I can’t connect to the server (keeps saying server interruption), I can’t even re-add the accounts to send anything. I’ve written Yahoo, but can’t get a response. Do you have any idea what the problem may be? Thanks!!
Athir,
Please see my reply to Mitch above. There seems to be a problem on the Yahoo side of things right now. Hopefully they will get it sorted out quickly.
–Bill
Mitch,
I’m now seeing the same problem as you are. I believe it to be a temporary glitch for the following reasons:
Given the above points, for now I’ll say it is a glitch. I will keep monitoring the situation and let you know if I hear anything. Please let me know if your mail suddenly starts working again. –Bill
Dan,
Please see my reply to Mitch below.
I have having the exact same problem Mitch is having – I have Outlook 2010, and I have not been able to get any emails since late yesterday. I have changed my account setting to those defined in the help.yahoo.com setting and nothing is working.
Bill,
I’m back. Today all of a sudden my Outlook 10 won’t allow me to download my Pop3 email from yahoo but it does allow me to send email messages. I didn’t do anything to the configurations to make this happen. Do you have a remedy? Should I do IMAP now? I use the paid Yahoo Plus account and have the settings just as you say. Thanks for your help. Mitch
Log onto incoming mail server (POP3): The connection to the server was interrupted. If this problem continues, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).
Becky,
The protocol that Yahoo uses to connect to programs like Outlook doesn’t allow for synchronization between your Yahoo Mail Inbox and Outlook. All it does is allow Outlook to copy the messages out of your Yahoo Inbox, and tell the Yahoo mail servers whether or not to delete them after they are copied.
As a result, you can get your mail to appear in both places, but changes you make in one place won’t appear in the other. So you get a message from me and it appears in both your Yahoo Mail Inbox and your Outlook Inbox. You read it in Outlook. The copy that is in Yahoo still shows that the message is unread because there is no synchronization between the two. The same thing happens if you make changes on the Yahoo side. The Outlook side doesn’t get updated.
It can get very confusing if you tell Yahoo to keep the messages in the Yahoo Inbox after Outlook copies them because you effectively have to do everything twice. If you are ok with that, then this connection will work for you. Just don’t set the option that tells Yahoo to delete messages after Outlook copies them. The instructions on this page identify the setting you need.
I hope this helps.
–Bill
I just started using Outlook 2010 and have set up my yahoo (sbcglobal) account through it. I would like to link them, however I’m afraid that if I do I won’t have access to it except through my work pc which has it set up with outlook. I’ve been looking through different help sites online and they’re all pointing me back here. I’d like to be able to understand how it works before I get the yahoo mail plus and link them. I appreciate any help you can give.
Bill, thank you so much for this page. You rock. Thanks again.
Very good, most tutorials describe processes as if they were talking to engineers with lots of assumptions, this was easy. Thank you very much.
Jack,
What happens to messages sent to the alias? The reason I ask is that I just set up Outlook to pull messages from an alias but not the main account and it pulls in messages sent both to the alias and to the main Yahoo account.
Also, have you received any new messages since you set this up? I believe Outlook will only pull unread mail over.
–Bill
Bill,
I have a yahoo account however the above (the address you are receiving this message from) email address is a yahoo alias on the home account. I have followed your instructions to the letter in setting up my 2010 Outlook 2010. I am using my alias in the setup. I can send messages from my Outlook 2010 (when received it shows that my alias sent the message) with no issues….. however I cannot receive message in Outlook that are sent to my alias address. But if I send an email message to my yahoo home account (the main account address) I do receive these emails in Outlook.
I really need to be able to receive all of my alias messages in my Outlook….can you advise me on this?
Thanks,
Jack
Rich,
Yahoo checks to see what kind of device you are using. You can get a free connection for phones, but not for regular computers. If you want to get Yahoo Mail into Outlook, you need Mail Plus.
–Bill
I have a droid phone and tablet which took 2 seconds to setup with free yahoo. why do I need to upgrade for it to worj in Outlook? Confused.
Jo,
I’m sorry it took so long to get back to you. I’ve been getting bombarded with bogus posts and didn’t see your legitimate one in the pile. Here’s the information I have on getting Yahoo contacts into Outlook 2010:
http://living-with-outlook-2010.com/contacts/2010/08/yahoo-contacts-import-your-yahoo-contacts-to-outlook-contacts/
I hope it helps!
–Bill
Glad to help!
THANK U THANK U THANK U… this was so very helpful..and now I finally get to use Outlook for my yahoo+ account. I really appreciate the time and effort you spent, spelling it out for the rest of us.. ((hugs))
Hi Bill
After searching how to transfer Yahoo to Outlook your website was fab! V V straight forward thank you so so much.
Please can you tell me how I can export a group on contacts in yahoo to becoming a group on Outlook??
Many thanks, Jo
Art,
Can you provide more info? Is there a specific error message that appears? Did you try the test after setting it up and did that succeed?
–Bill
most helpful website. THANKS!
só preciso da configuração do outlook ,,
thanks Bill — after spending hours trying to figure this out I was blessed to find this info and did it in less than 5 minutes. THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mitch,
I’m sorry to hear that you had such a tough time of it. And I’m happy you finally found your way here and our info was useful!
–Bill
Bill,
I stayed up to 3am last night working on this and I just couldn’t figure it out. I finally migrated to Windows 7 from XP so had to do the clean install which means I needed to start from scratch really. I did move up to OUtlook 10 so your directions were wonderful for a non-techie like myself. Now if I can just make sure my upgraded Blackberry software works properly.
Thanks again, you really, really, really helped me out by avoiding another long night. I searched and searched all over the web for detailed instructions and finally saw your posting at the end of many hours of working on it.
Thanks again, Mitch
Laszlo,
Sorry to hear you couldn’t make it work. An IMAP connection for Yahoo would be very nice to have!
–Bill
Actually, scratch that. imap-ssl.mail.yahoo.com is far from regular or dependable. Guess it’s going to be POP3.
Why anyone uses Yahoo is beyond me…
Hi Bill,
Thanks for the response. I managed to find a source which references imap-ssl.mail.yahoo.com as the IMAP incoming mail server. Using this value, I was able to succesfully import my yahoo mail plus account.
Incredible how Yahoo fails to publish or even mention this kind of information…
Laszlo,
Yahoo provides some kind of IMAP support for smartphones, but not for desktop and notebook computers. I’ve read that people have hooked up a computer to the smartphone IMAP connection at Yahoo, and that sometimes it works, or works intermittently or not at all. Given that it is an unapproved and apparently unreliable connection, I’ve never tried to set it up myself, and don’t know any of the required settings.
Sorry I can’t be of more help.
–Bill
Hi Bill,
I’ve scoured the internet for information on setting up my Yahoo Mail Plus account in Outlook as an IMAP account type. Do you happen to know what the inbound server (IMAP) address might be? The POP3 settings you provided work, but I would prefer IMAP.
Thanks
Thank you Serina. I’m glad I was able to help.
–Bill
Thank you so much for posting this! I knew how to connect my work email to my home outlook and the settings to use, but I’ve never set up an internet based email to Outlook. This saved me so much time, and even better, aggravation of having to rely on yahoo. YOU’RE AWESOME =o)
Thank you so much. This provided so much more detailed information than the yahoo site or customer service ever did.
Thanks Bill! Wish I had contacted you in the first place before spending hours on the phone with no results. One more thing, can you advise as to how to transfer my contacts list? I don’t have a ton, but enough to make it time consuming to enter them all one by one.
Thanks again!
Damsel in distress
Dear Damsel,
I wish I could be your knight in shining armor on this one, but no such luck. Yahoo doesn’t provide a way to export messages from folders. Contacts yes, messages no. There are two ways to do this that I’ve seen. One is to forward the messages one by one to Outlook, then move them into folders you create on the Outlook side.
The other approach involved saving the contents of both your Yahoo Mail Inbox and your Outlook Inbox into temporary folders, then moving the contents of one of the Yahoo folders into the Yahoo Inbox and letting Outlook copy them over, then move them to their new folder in Outlook, then repeat the process for all other folders, then move the original contents of the Yahoo Inbox (if any) and the Outlook Inbox back into their original locations. Conceptually a simple process, but pretty tedious.
Sorry I can’t be of more help on this one.
–Bill
Bill,
Thanks for the help – can you also advise how to download the folders I set up in att yahoo that are under the inbox section, to migrate over to Outlook 2010? These folders contain email within them that I need to be transferred.
Any help is appreciated!
Damsel in distress