• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

The Yahoo Mail Problem

This has been discussed elsewhere, but no solutions have been posted and some of the advice is flat wrong.

I crowdsourced this problem on my own forum/twitter, and this is what I've learned so far.

1. Connecting to Yahoo Mail is a simple procedure, and following the imap4/smtp directions here will work.

1b. However, step 1 (enter your username) MUST be with x@yahoo.com, not just X. The default the android offers will fail.

1c. If it doesn't load, or the folders don't load, power down and then back up. For people who find it "hangs" (little circle at top left keeps spinning)-- delete the account off of the android and set it back up.

I have tried this on literally dozens of phones, it works just fine.

But:

2. The multiple copies in the sent folder is a serious problem that I cannot fix. TURNING OFF THE SENT FOLDER ON YAHOO DOES NOT WORK-- and this is what amazes me; the Android is somehow able to override Yahoo mail and force copies into the sent box. If you send an email from your desktop, nothing is saved; but sent off the Android and the copies begin.

2b. The copies are generated each time the Android connects to Yahoo to check for mail (this is pull, not push), and whenever you send an email, and whenever you hit refresh. It seems to do it two copies at a time (why?)-- so if I send mail A, it generates two copies. When I send mail B, it generates 2 more copies of A, and 2 copies of B. When I send mail C, then we're up to 6 As, 4 Bs, 2 Cs, etc...

I've tried multiple solutions, and have not been able to fix this.
 
Learned a few things:

the problem is not on all android phones. Mytouch and Hero are fine; but motorola droid and nexus one are both infected.

It's not a carrier specific problem, because tmobile works on the mytouch, but the problem of multiple emails exists with tmobile/nexus one.

I haven't found anyone on verizon who doesn't have the problem.

Additionally, the motodroid runs 2.0, the mytouch runs 1.8, so unless it is a glitch with the upgrade, this leads me to conclude it's a hardware problem.

Google Android: "Not only are we saving all of your data, we're telling Yahoo to as well."
 
Upvote 0
I got rid of my Nexus one yesterday because of the multiple copies in sent folder in my yahoo account (after sending 1 email to 1 recipient - the receipient only receives 1 email from me). I was seriously considering the motorola droid. But now that i find out the same problem exists on the droid, i'll need to reconsider.

do you think it's the problem with the droid or v2.0? Also has anyone seen this again with v2.0.1?
 
Upvote 0
It could be the OS, though strangely previous versions (1.8) do not have the problem I have (2.0)

I talked to Verizon. Before I even finished my story, the tech support woman said that you can't get Yahoo mail on the android. I explained that she was wrong, that you could, to which she replied, "sir, sir-- I've been doing this for a lot longer than you have. Google won't support Yahoo."

Sigh.

If anyone has any ideas that don't involve fire or exorcism, please post here or on my post here where I am trying to keep a list of what's been tried.
 
Upvote 0
It could be the OS, though strangely previous versions (1.8) do not have the problem I have (2.0)

I talked to Verizon. Before I even finished my story, the tech support woman said that you can't get Yahoo mail on the android. I explained that she was wrong, that you could, to which she replied, "sir, sir-- I've been doing this for a lot longer than you have. Google won't support Yahoo."

Sigh.

If anyone has any ideas that don't involve fire or exorcism, please post here or on my post here where I am trying to keep a list of what's been tried.

As I'm a cynical git, i suspect google is trying to kill off yahoo by making android deliberately difficult to sync with yahoo's mail servers. I've noticed that there were anonymous posts that suggested yahoo developers weren't following pop3 or imap protocol. I find this very difficult to believe.
If you look at what google is trying to get strategically, i wouldn't be surprised that there is a moe sinister plan against yahoo by google.

How many of us have opened a gmail account because our yahoo account wouldn't work with the android phone, or forward our yahoo mail to gmail? I, for one, have and normally wouldn't consider gmail because I've been using yahoo for > 10 yrs. But by making my droid phone not practical with yahoo mail (multiple sent copies), google's new email account base increased substantially. Imagine what this means for google's revenue base.

Just my 2 cents.
Hope there will be a solution to the multiple copies in the sent folder for the droid phones soon so i can go back to my yahoo account.
 
Upvote 0
Which mail client are you using? The problem is not with Yahoo! perse. Yahoo! mail is using the Zimbra email server (I think). They acquired them back in 2007. If you do a Google search, you'll see that people using Zimbra mail servers are having the same problem. At least from the few searches I did. Have you tried the K-9 client to see if you experience the same results?
 
Upvote 0
1. Connecting to Yahoo Mail is a simple procedure, and following the imap4/smtp directions here will work.

1b. However, step 1 (enter your username) MUST be with x@yahoo.com, not just X. The default the android offers will fail.

1c. If it doesn't load, or the folders don't load, power down and then back up. For people who find it "hangs" (little circle at top left keeps spinning)-- delete the account off of the android and set it back up.

I have tried this on literally dozens of phones, it works just fine.
I'll have to verify this on my fiancee's Droid. I'm fairly certain I've tried this and it's hit-and-miss for her. Sometimes Yahoo works. More often than not, it doesn't.
 
Upvote 0
Which mail client are you using? The problem is not with Yahoo! perse. Yahoo! mail is using the Zimbra email server (I think). They acquired them back in 2007. If you do a Google search, you'll see that people using Zimbra mail servers are having the same problem. At least from the few searches I did. Have you tried the K-9 client to see if you experience the same results?

Just using the stock email client that comes with v.2.0.1. I just tried it again (sent 1 email to my gmail account) and that same email was replicated 5 times in my yahoo sent folder.
 
Upvote 0
I'll have to verify this on my fiancee's Droid. I'm fairly certain I've tried this and it's hit-and-miss for her. Sometimes Yahoo works. More often than not, it doesn't.
Yeah -- it's exactly as I stated. Nothing in the link above that I haven't done. Sometimes Yahoo Mail works with the Mail app. More often than not she gets invalid username or password. No rhyme or reason. She doesn't use WiFi at all so that's not relevant.
 
Upvote 0
It's a well known Yahoo issue.

Coincidence that it comes after they ditch Ygo! application, and sell Zimbra around the same time mid jan this year?

Perhaps the server resources needed by IMAP isnt viable for them with struggling profits, and they're finding ways to stop people using it through their own choice?

IMAP also only seems to work for you guys in the states (most of your carriers have affiliations with Yahoo). I've never got the IMAP settings working on my N96 or the wife's new Galaxy spica - despite paying for premium mail. Both use home wifi, parents wifi and both on T-mobile UK.
 
Upvote 0
2. The multiple copies in the sent folder is a serious problem that I cannot fix. TURNING OFF THE SENT FOLDER ON YAHOO DOES NOT WORK-- and this is what amazes me; the Android is somehow able to override Yahoo mail and force copies into the sent box. If you send an email from your desktop, nothing is saved; but sent off the Android and the copies begin.

2b. The copies are generated each time the Android connects to Yahoo to check for mail (this is pull, not push), and whenever you send an email, and whenever you hit refresh. It seems to do it two copies at a time (why?)-- so if I send mail A, it generates two copies. When I send mail B, it generates 2 more copies of A, and 2 copies of B. When I send mail C, then we're up to 6 As, 4 Bs, 2 Cs, etc...

I've tried multiple solutions, and have not been able to fix this.

Phone: NexusOne
Carrier: T-Mobile

I've got the same issues with duplicate messages being posted to my sent folder and it is crazy annoying! One message I sent from my phone created 983 duplicates!! I pay for the Premium Yahoo Mail services (originally so I could POP download them). I'm not sure how/if this affects things. I'm in some ways just glad to hear some other people are experiencing the same problem although it seems to be a small subset of the Android users. I hope there is a solution soon and this isn't just a symptom of the bickering between Google and Yahoo.
 
Upvote 0
I've had some annoyances with Yahoo... delayed emails... keep having to delete the same emails like 2-3 times. So I figured, no problem, I'll just forward to my gmail account... NOT... you need to PAY in order to be able to forward emails...

At that point, screw yahoo... I just changed all my accounts and told my contacts to use my gmail from now on (I had the yahoo account a while... before my gmail)... It'll work out better in the end anyways (less mailboxes to manage, and with filters, and lables, gmail allows me to organize things quite well anyways)... Yahoo really dropped the ball on IMAP and allying themselves with handset makers... I'm DONE with Yahoo. :D
 
Upvote 0
Please forgive me for asking a question that is off the topic, but I thought I would get a definite answer from you guys as you are using the Yahoo service through IMAP.

I have set up my Yahoo account on my HTC Desire using the settings given in the first post and it works fine (without the problems you are experiencing!). The problem I have is that I can't seem to access my custom folders at all from my phone. Also when I send or delete a email in my phone it is shown in the sent or trash folders in the phone but not the webmail equivalent.

I just wanted to ask if any of you have the same problem as I'm trying to work out if it is a Yahoo thing or a problem specific to my model of phone.

Thanks.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones