Did you know that you can download your email messages from your Yahoo email account onto your computer? You will want to use an email client installed on your computer. For example you can use Microsoft Outlook, Apple Macintosh mail, and or Thunderbird email client.
You will be configuring your email client to use Internet Message Access Protocol. This will allow you to download your Yahoo email messages into your email client software. If you have thousands and thousands of email messages, it may take several days for those email messages to download into your email client.
If your email client asks you to "keep mail on the server" during setup, you will want to answer yes. If you answer no, all of your email messages will get deleted off of Yahoo's email server. Basically, all of your email would download into your email client software of choice, then removed.
Also, you will want to choose your email client software to download full contents of your email messages and not just previews. If you have one million or more email messages to download, you may run into major problems. You will want to move some of these messages into a new folder on Yahoo's email server so that you do not risk a major quagmire.
I will be helping you configure your Yahoo Internet Message Access Protocol setup with Thunderbird email client. You need to configure Thunderbird with these settings:
Incoming Mail Internet Message Access Protocol Server
- Server - export.imap.mail.yahoo.com
- Port - 993
- Requires Secure Sockets Layer - Yes
Outgoing Mail Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Server
- Server - smtp.mail.yahoo.com
- Port - 465 or 587
- Requires Secure Sockets Layer - Yes
- Requires authentication - Yes
You can create a new email account. You can put any information into the your name field. Type in your correct email address into the email address field. For example governmentsucks@yahoo.com.
Enter in your Yahoo email account password into the password field. Now you want to click on manual config. An expanded view will open.
In the first field called server hostname type or copy and paste this address below.
export.imap.mail.yahoo.com
Incoming server should be set to IMAP which stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. Port should be set to 993. SSL should be set to SSL/TLS. Authentication should be configured as none or automatic.
Now on to configuring your outgoing mail simple mail transfer protocol server. Outgoing is by default set to SMTP which stands for Simple mail transfer protocol which you cannot change. You can type in or copy and paste the outgoing server address listed below.
smtp.mail.yahoo.com
The port should be set to 465 or 587. Then set SSL which stands for secure sockets layer to SSL/TLS. Authentication should be configured as autodetect or one of the available options.
You can try one of the remaining options listed in that drop down list. You may need to try them all one at a time, until you can authenticate with your Yahoo email account credentials. You can test your Yahoo email internet message access protocol server settings by clicking on the re-test button.
Thunderbird will respond with a similar message if any of your settings are incorrect.
Thunderbird failed to find the settings for your email account.
Finally, you can click on done when your test is successful. If you are using a Yahoo account key, which adds a second layer of security allegedly, you would want to enter in that as your account password. You will be logging into your Yahoo email account with Thunderbird.
You will want to use the same credentials as you would, if logging into Yahoo web browser based platform.
- Email address - Your full email address (governmentsucks@yahoo.com)
- Password - Your Yahoo account's password
- Requires authentication - Yes
Download Your Yahoo Mail Using IMAP - Video Transcript
00:01
sds errone cone ultravideo parity
00:04
i'm going to show you how to enable
00:08
imap which stands for internet message
00:10
access protocol it's just a different
00:13
way to access your email
00:16
generally there are two different ways
00:19
there is post office protocol which is
00:22
pop and
00:24
imap quickly let me describe the
00:26
difference
00:27
post office protocol means that you have
00:30
to
00:31
connect to your
00:34
email service provider and then it gets
00:36
downloaded
00:38
and then the email stays on your server
00:41
or their server
00:43
imap internet message access protocol
00:47
it connects to the same server however
00:49
it will download your email messages
00:53
locally
00:55
so there's
00:56
kind of that distinction okay so
01:00
let me demonstrate
01:01
first i'm going to go over some of the
01:04
yahoo this comes directly from yahoo
01:07
and these are the instructions so that
01:10
you can properly configure your email to
01:13
use internet message access protocol
01:16
all right this allows you to download
01:19
your email from your yahoo email account
01:21
into a third-party email application
01:24
for example thunderbird
01:27
micro slop outlook
01:29
mac and crap
01:31
mail and other third-party email
01:34
applications that support internet
01:36
message access protocol
01:40
now there's a warning if you have an
01:42
email account with a lot of content i
01:45
would say emails with attachments
01:49
it can take several days or longer to
01:51
download so there's a warning that's a
01:53
caveat
01:56
my point is that you may not want to
01:58
become impatient if you already know in
02:00
advance that you have a
02:02
plethora of email messages it could take
02:04
a while depends on your
02:07
service provider
02:09
your client your internet access
02:12
speed etc
02:18
okay now
02:20
this is for yahoo
02:22
mail i do not have a yahoo email account
02:25
i will be demonstrating later on in this
02:27
video how to configure the
02:29
server settings properly
02:31
and i will be using
02:34
thunderbird email application desktop
02:37
version okay now you want to go over
02:40
some of these pieces of information
02:43
you
02:44
want to keep a copy of your email in
02:47
your account
02:48
if your application asks if you want to
02:51
quote keep mail on the server unquote
02:53
during the setup of your email account
02:55
which i will be demonstrating in a few
02:57
minutes you want to select yes
03:00
if you do not select yes this is another
03:02
warning your email will be deleted from
03:05
your account when it's downloaded
03:08
so again at the beginning of this video
03:10
i described the difference between post
03:12
office protocol and internet message
03:14
access protocol if you are confused
03:16
instead of
03:17
deleting your email from the email
03:20
account on your service provider
03:23
well with this is yahoo from yahoo
03:25
server
03:27
and then doing a what the moment
03:31
and yelling and screaming
03:33
read over this document
03:35
and then also
03:38
become familiar with the difference
03:40
between post office protocol and
03:42
internet message access protocol
03:44
if you in order to keep your email you
03:47
want to select yes when the application
03:49
asks you
03:51
all right very important otherwise
03:53
you'll
03:54
you delete that email
03:56
those email messages off the yahoo
03:58
server they are still stored they will
04:00
be stored as long as they're downloaded
04:01
successfully to your email client but
04:03
they are no longer
04:05
on the server and then when you log into
04:07
yahoo email web-based
04:10
they're gone
04:12
and as a real world computer technician
04:14
that deals with computer issues every
04:16
day i work every day because i'm
04:18
self-employed this is a common scenario
04:20
i see
04:22
i people complain about their inbox
04:24
being empty
04:26
it may be because they set up internet
04:28
message access pro call i'm not saying
04:30
all the time but that is a possible
04:32
reason why
04:35
okay
04:36
backing up your email this is another
04:39
warning
04:40
just in case you will want to back up
04:43
your email messages
04:46
okay some applications will default to
04:48
only download a preview or snippet of
04:51
your emails until that email is then
04:53
opened
04:56
what you want to do is make sure that
04:57
your application
04:59
for example thunderbird
05:03
mac and crap mail program etc
05:06
make sure that that application is set
05:08
to download the full contents of your
05:10
email for offline use so you're going to
05:12
want to enable offline use all right
05:14
limitations for large folders
05:19
now this is for folders on the yahoo
05:22
server
05:24
that contain a million or more emails
05:27
i have
05:29
no idea why you would have a million
05:31
emails but
05:34
when i worked in corporate america which
05:35
i will never ever work in the toxic
05:38
corporate america environment
05:41
there were some
05:43
employees that just had email message
05:46
after email and then this and then large
05:48
folders i'm assuming that they're
05:50
referring to
05:52
archived
05:54
email messages
05:56
you may have
05:57
folders with a plethora of email
05:59
messages that you have archived
06:01
if if you have a million or more you're
06:03
gonna possibly run into problems
06:06
downloading all of them to your computer
06:08
your desktop email client
06:12
all right what
06:14
a possible solution is that you would
06:16
want to move some of those email
06:18
messages to a new folder in your
06:21
i'm assuming your yahoo email account on
06:24
the yahoo server
06:26
now this is very important
06:28
if you do not configure these settings
06:31
correctly
06:32
you will not be able to configure
06:34
internet message access protocol in your
06:37
email client of choice thunderbird
06:40
mac and crap mail and what was the other
06:43
third example
06:48
oh
06:49
micro slop outlook i never no i don't i
06:51
never use outlook email anymore that's
06:53
just i don't want to talk about that
06:56
wow the pst files and oh man oh just i
07:02
don't want to ever ever discuss that
07:04
ever again
07:05
i'm so glad i'm self-employed and i can
07:08
choose and pick what issues i work with
07:11
microsoft outlook email
07:13
it can turn into a days and weeks and
07:17
maybe even months disaster and i'm not
07:19
making that up because it deals with the
07:21
pst files anyways i digress back
07:24
now i'm in a foul mood just thinking
07:26
about that okay now
07:28
this is the information that you're
07:30
going to want to configure
07:32
your
07:33
email application
07:35
these are the
07:37
internet message access protocol
07:39
incoming mail server settings
07:42
and now this is where i'm going to
07:43
demonstrate
07:45
all right so let me transition
07:49
the first screen you're going to see is
07:51
outlook you do not excuse me outlook
07:54
[Laughter]
07:57
thunderbird
07:58
i'm at the eight minute mark
08:00
this is thunderbird which is free
08:02
thunderbird i think
08:04
is clock cross platformed
08:07
independent you can install it on linux
08:10
micro
08:11
soft micro crap micro slot wind blows
08:14
operating system and i think even mac
08:15
and crap anyways
08:17
what you're going to do is you're just
08:18
going to choose
08:23
set up an account so go to accounts and
08:26
then you're going to click on set up an
08:27
account and then click on email that's a
08:29
link that will open up this second
08:31
window that i'm going to show
08:33
all right
08:35
and let me transition again
08:40
give me a few seconds because i have to
08:41
set it up real quick
08:44
okay now once you click on set up an
08:47
email account in thunderbird you're
08:49
going to see this window
08:52
now i already have it configured for
08:54
time constraints you're going to have to
08:56
enter in a name and you're going to have
08:57
to enter an email address again remember
09:00
this is yahoo so you're going to enter
09:02
in the your name doesn't matter you can
09:04
fill that in with anything actually but
09:07
the email address obviously you have to
09:10
type in correctly
09:11
john doe yahoo.com
09:14
password you would enter in your
09:16
password i'm not i don't have a yahoo
09:18
account
09:19
i recorded a video months ago showing
09:21
you how to permanently delete your yahoo
09:24
email account
09:26
you can watch that video if you want
09:29
you can also check the box for remember
09:31
password now click on manual config
09:34
click on that button i don't think my
09:36
encoder is going to capture this right
09:37
away so oh no it did all right
09:41
okay now this is very important down
09:44
here under server host name you're going
09:46
to choose imat for internet message
09:48
access protocol and you're going to
09:50
choose these settings that are
09:53
in the instructions
09:54
which are the proper
09:58
imap
09:59
server
10:00
on screen
10:01
you want
10:02
the imap server
10:04
export.imap.mail.yahoo.com
10:08
you can copy and paste that that is the
10:11
server that you're going to connect to
10:16
and let me transition this video will
10:18
take a little bit longer than i thought
10:20
because i have to keep transitioning to
10:22
down the street
10:23
so
10:24
where it says incoming that is incoming
10:26
right
10:29
yes incoming port 993 you see where it's
10:32
a server host name you want to
10:34
fill this in with this long
10:36
address which you can copy and paste
10:38
it's export dot
10:40
imap for internet message access
10:42
protocol dot mail.yahoo.com
10:46
and you have to type it in correctly
10:48
all right now the next field will be the
10:51
port
10:52
and we're going to change actually i
10:53
think i can change it right now port 993
10:57
it's uh there's one that you can choose
10:59
port 143 and 993 i'm not going to
11:01
discuss the technical details those are
11:04
very common
11:06
email ports all right
11:08
so choose 993. now do they stipulate tls
11:13
or ssl which stands for secure sockets
11:16
layer and
11:18
or tls let me
11:21
read the instructions
11:23
yes you want to choose ssl
11:27
so i think you would just accept the
11:29
default
11:30
start tls is actually different
11:33
choose the ssl for secure sockets layer
11:37
and then i think authentication
11:40
i think you just auto detect
11:43
all right so those three fields must be
11:45
set to what they are on screen and in
11:48
the
11:49
yahoo
11:51
article right there you have to
11:53
configure those correctly otherwise
11:55
you're not going to be able to set up
11:56
internet access message protocol all
11:58
right
12:00
what else let's go to the outgoing so
12:02
that's the incoming server settings that
12:04
tells the yahoo email server
12:07
okay
12:09
any messages that are
12:13
incoming meaning
12:15
when people send you messages it goes to
12:18
the incoming mail server and those
12:20
settings have to be correct all right
12:23
so that you can receive
12:25
email messages correctly
12:28
now we're going to configure the
12:30
outgoing
12:34
all right
12:36
okay so we have incoming we set those
12:38
already let me close this other window
12:40
my timer that already went off at the
12:42
minute mark
12:44
outgoing which is simple message
12:46
transfer protocol that is what smtp
12:49
stands for
12:51
simple message transfer protocol is the
12:56
part of the email server that sends
12:59
email messages out when you
13:01
compose a new email message with yahoo
13:04
and you type the subject and
13:07
and the address and then the
13:10
text the actual message and click on
13:12
send
13:14
that is the part of the server simple
13:17
message transfer protocol that sends the
13:19
email out from your email account
13:22
the server has to be
13:25
smtp.mail.yahoo.com it has to be exactly
13:28
smtp
13:29
periodor.mail.yahoo.com
13:33
you can copy and paste
13:34
the port is either 465 or 587 and then
13:39
let me demonstrate
13:41
for you let me show you the quick
13:44
where we're at here where it's
13:45
highlighted and i copy and paste in
13:47
yahoo article
13:49
now let's transition and i'm going to
13:51
put in the correct
13:52
server
13:53
you take out the yahoo.com that most
13:56
likely is not going to work you want the
13:58
full
14:01
address
14:03
uniform resource locator it's already
14:05
set to smtp you can't change that
14:09
now the port click on the drop down
14:12
where it says support the port column
14:14
you can either choose 587 or 465. i
14:17
think i'm going to just choose 465 since
14:20
it's the first one
14:21
on that list
14:22
and it's at the bottom now these three
14:25
587 25 465 i'm not going to describe
14:28
technical details about ports
14:30
and the specific ports
14:33
these are very common
14:35
you know what i'm saying
14:36
choose 465 or
14:39
587 if port 465
14:42
if you know that all the rest your
14:44
settings are correct and dealing with
14:46
simple message transfer protocol just
14:48
try them both until one works all right
14:51
now i'm assuming that they're going to
14:53
require
14:54
secure sockets layer which they are
14:56
according to the
14:58
article here
15:00
is it stipulates
15:02
require ssl which stands for secure
15:04
sockets layer yes
15:06
now let me transition again
15:09
and then we're going to it's already set
15:13
to secure soccer slayer tls so we'll
15:15
just leave it that authentication
15:18
i i i'm not sure that me
15:20
oh okay
15:22
that i is when it would ask you for your
15:24
username and password i think at the
15:26
time of
15:29
authentication
15:32
so we'll just leave it at autodetect
15:36
here i'm saying these can get i don't
15:38
want to describe that because it could
15:40
get a little bit more technical just
15:42
choose auto detect
15:45
now
15:46
and then
15:48
request oh
15:49
now if you notice incoming
15:55
internet message access protocol did not
15:57
require authentication
15:59
in the instructions
16:01
outgoing does require authentication so
16:04
we're going to change the settings
16:07
and then
16:08
we're going to choose on the right hand
16:10
column under authentication choose
16:15
requires on authentication
16:17
well
16:19
these are different
16:20
this one would encrypt your password
16:22
this one would be a normal password that
16:24
is not encrypted which is kind of a
16:26
security risk or more of a security risk
16:28
kerbios
16:30
intel i'm not going to go over these i
16:32
think i'm going to still recommend that
16:34
you choose auto detect
16:36
if for whatever reason auto detect does
16:38
not work for authentication
16:41
then you would want to look up on your
16:44
own
16:46
what these other options are and what
16:49
the way i learned
16:51
was i would just choose each one of
16:54
these one at a time until it finally
16:56
worked
16:58
that's my tip
17:00
if for whatever reason auto detection
17:02
does not work try one of these one at a
17:04
time
17:05
you just select one and then you click
17:08
on retest
17:11
outlook has a testing mechanism so that
17:13
you do not have to
17:15
configure your email account
17:17
first and then
17:19
then you get all these errors oh well
17:21
your password is incorrect well your
17:22
port's wrong well your ssl isn't enabled
17:26
there's a test button right here
17:28
which i'm not going to click because i
17:30
do not actually have a yahoo email
17:32
account this is just a made up email
17:35
account all right let's set it to auto
17:36
detect what you would do is click on
17:39
retest
17:42
and then i think you have to enter in a
17:44
password and then you would click on
17:45
done to set up your email account
17:47
anything further there
17:51
okay
17:52
yes you would i think i can demonstrate
17:54
that i'm just going to type in random
17:56
characters and then you would click on
17:58
continue well you know what i'm saying
18:00
or
18:01
you can go back
18:03
and click on retest it'll test those
18:06
this is what i recommend
18:08
it will test the outgoing
18:11
simple
18:13
message transfer protocol or simple mail
18:15
transfer protocol server settings and
18:18
also the
18:20
incoming
18:21
internet message access protocol that
18:23
way if you run into any problems it will
18:26
tell you right away and then you can
18:28
troubleshoot
18:29
and just go through the list and make
18:30
sure the port is correct make sure the
18:32
server is typed incorrect make sure
18:35
the requires secure sockets layer is
18:39
selected and then make sure that
18:41
authentication is selected and make sure
18:43
you're using the correct type of
18:44
authentication
18:46
all right now let's move along
18:48
this video is already lengthy let's
18:51
finish this up
18:53
this last part i cannot demonstrate it
18:56
says your login information now if
18:58
you're using a yahoo account key or some
19:02
older email applications will then
19:04
generate an application password
19:08
you will want to use that for your
19:10
account password
19:12
otherwise now
19:15
yahoo account key is kind of technical
19:18
it's another key
19:20
is it's similar i would say to
19:22
two-factor authentication
19:25
if you're familiar with tooth factor
19:27
authentication what that is is that it
19:29
requires
19:30
not just your username and password but
19:33
it requires another
19:38
second
19:39
authentication sometimes it's just a
19:41
code sometimes and so you would want to
19:45
look up two-factor authentication if
19:47
you're not familiar with it
19:52
just another key so you would enter in
19:54
your username your password for your
19:57
yahoo email account and then
19:59
the account key or you would configure
20:02
your application to save the account key
20:05
if somebody were tried to circumvent
20:07
your yahoo email account and they did
20:09
not know your yahoo account key
20:12
but they did maybe know your password or
20:14
they were able to change it somehow
20:16
chances are they would not be able to
20:18
access your email account because they
20:20
did not know or they did not have the
20:22
account key configured and the email
20:25
application that they are using to
20:27
access your yahoo email
20:30
account
20:31
all right so that's what that means if
20:34
you if you do not have a yahoo account
20:36
key
20:38
or you have an application that
20:40
generates an application password
20:44
that is similar to a code
20:47
then you would just and use your email
20:49
address which i showed you in the
20:50
demonstration it has to be correct your
20:53
full email address which is
20:56
your yahoo
20:57
name username john doe or whatever your
21:01
yahoo user name is for your yahoo email
21:03
account
21:04
at the at sign
21:06
yahoo.com
21:09
if it is incorrect you will not be able
21:11
to authenticate correctly your password
21:14
which is your yahoo email account
21:16
password and then
21:18
requires authentication you want to
21:21
select yes or you want to choose
21:24
ssl
21:26
secure sockets layer so another way to
21:29
describe
21:30
this last part your login information is
21:33
a lot of
21:34
end users on the internet they may not
21:37
know how to configure and i'm not being
21:39
condescending i'm just telling you after
21:41
decades of real world experience as a
21:43
real world computer technician
21:46
some end users they do not know how to
21:48
properly configure an email client they
21:51
do not use thunderbird they do not use
21:53
microsoft outlook they do not use any
21:56
other third party
21:58
email client or on macintosh the the
22:02
already installed email software client
22:06
they access their yahoo email account
22:09
web-based
22:11
yahoo.com and then
22:13
the mail sign into the mail so they
22:15
they're using a web browser
22:17
so what you would use is you would use
22:20
your yahoo
22:23
address
22:25
from your web browser
22:27
that you log into yahoo mail and the
22:29
password
22:32
and that should get you in
22:34
but you may have to also select request
22:36
authentication if that option is
22:39
available
22:40
you choose yes alright so hopefully
22:43
after this video you are now able to
22:48
use internet access message protocol to
22:51
access your email
22:53
your yahoo email in your email client
22:55
software the desktop
22:58
software that's installed on your
22:59
computer and you could probably use this
23:02
i would say also
23:03
on a smartphone excuse me a dumb device
23:06
i mean smartphones i do not use
23:07
smartphones anymore but you know most a
23:09
lot of people do google android or ios
23:12
you would use the email application on
23:14
your google android or your apple ios
23:17
and
23:18
probably also a ipad
23:22
one other warning remember this allows
23:25
you to download your
23:27
yahoo email messages from the yahoo mail
23:31
server onto your computer into your
23:35
email application
23:38
you want to follow the warnings at the
23:40
beginning remember you want to
23:43
keep your email messages on the yahoo
23:46
server when it asks you
23:48
you may also want to back them up just
23:50
in case