Not a day goes by when I don’t get a bunch of feedback concerning Yahoo mail problems. Though most of these are account access issues it seems users have all kinds of troubles with the free mail service. Today I decided to do something about it – put up a page with troubleshooting information.
Correctly identifying the Yahoo mail problem is the first step you take towards solving it. If you cannot find a solution, I encourage you write to me using the form at the end of this page. Please be as descriptive as possible and don’t send a simple query like “What is wrong with Yahoo Mail?” – I won’t be able to offer much help without details.
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Why can’t I open Yahoo mail?
As I mentioned at the start the most common of all Yahoo mail problems is account access – users are not able to open Yahoo mail account.
- Yahoo account login fails because the ID and password do not match. Make sure that the ID, which may already be displayed in the field, is the one you want to access. The ID and password need to “match”… its like a key combination.
- Yahoo mail password are case-sensitive. If the password is not working the culprit might be the Caps-Lock key. This is a toggle key and could have been accidently pressed. Switch it off and try again.
- Phishing page that looks like the Yahoo login page. Signing in via a fraudulent web page on a phishing web site will not take you to your Yahoo email account. Double check the web address in the browser. And if you have provided the login details on such a site quickly change the password by going to the actual Yahoo page – this is important – do not delay!
- You’ve forgotten the Yahoo email password: New users, especially, seem to be plagued with this problem. The best solution is to recover the Yahoo password by resetting it through the alternate email address or answering the security questions.
- You forgot the Yahoo ID: The Yahoo ID is the first part of your email address – the characters before the “@” sign. If you can’t remember it, ask someone to whom you’ve sent an email – they would be able to tell you the ID because they have your email address! By the way, for new users who seem to have “lost their account details”, I suggest creating a Yahoo ID again because this is quicker than trying to retrieve the information of the lost account.
Is Yahoo mail down today?
If you are cocksure that the login details you are entering are correct but still cannot access your account there can be 4 reasons why Yahoo mail appears to be down (assuming you have been working from the same computer):
- Internet connection problem: The net connection may be inactive, slow or there may be a huge file being downloaded in the background that you are not aware of. Try opening other web sites to check for the health of the internet connection.
- Firewall is blocking access to Yahoo mail:if you or someone else has installed a firewall on the computer (or the network) which is inhibiting access, Yahoo mail would appear to be down. Please ask the system administrator or the person who installed this software. You can also check with your ISP (Internet Service Provider) is they have made changes on their servers.
- Yahoo mail is indeed down today: This is not so common and has happened before. Certain Yahoo mail servers might be down for maintenance. Thus, your account might not open while one of your friends will. There is no need to fret because the problem is temporary. People at Yahoo would generally be aware and working hard to fix and get the server online quickly. Remember, if a Yahoo mail server is down, it would be affecting many users not just you! Ask other Yahoo! Mail users or contact the Yahoo support over phone or email.
- Your account has been hacked: The possibility exists, particularly when the password or security information were something others could guess in a few tries. Contact the Yahoo team via the “I can’t access my account” link on the login page – select the “My account has been compromised” option.
Yahoo mail not working
Sometimes basic Yahoo mail account functionality might be faulty such as email not being received quickly or troubles with the web browser. Below are some issues people that have faced.
- Trouble with reading and previewing email or problems with forwarding and replying.
- Yahoo toolbar disappears
- Email search not working well
- Delay in receiving email
- Browser hangs
It is not easy to pin-point the cause of these problems. These could be affecting all Yahoo accounts or only those on one server or just yours. I suggest using a different web browser program, checking the internet connection speed and firewall access limitations, switching from one Yahoo version to another.
Problems with Yahoo email – miscellaneous issues
- Can’t send email to Yahoo or Yahoo blocking my email: Please make sure that the email address you are using is correct. If you are not receiving certain emails check the spam folder; the message might have been marked as junk and automated shifted to this folder.
- Yahoo mail takes time to load: Possible causes could be slow internet connection speeds, mail server is busy or your computer is slow because of a program being run in the background. First, shift to the Yahoo Mail Classic version (the old interface) which loads faster and works on all web browsers. If this doesn’t solve your problem, wait for a few minutes, restart your computer and check again.
- Yahoo Spam problem: If the account’s spam filter is not helping much, suggest you download Yahoo mail and use a third party spam filter.
- Want to change my Yahoo email address – please refer that link for details.
- Want to create another Yahoo email address – for step by step instructions please visit that link.
You may also like to read about the Yahoo Mail spell checker problem faced by many subscribers. Or if you cannot login at Yahoo and get a LaunchOutage error, be patient… it’s only temporary.
