Yahoo Email - getting your emails onto your computer

A common misconception is that no free Yahoo accounts can download their emails to a computer based email program such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc. (known as having POP access). Some can - the determining factor seems to be whether the Yahoo address is country based such as .co.uk, .co.jp, .com.au, etc. By following the first set of steps on this page, it's easy to find out whether your Yahoo account has POP access or if you need to upgrade to MailPlus to get POP access.

(Presumably United States users can have a .com address and still download their emails but if you live in the UK and set up an address with a .com ending, chances are you would have to upgrade your account before being able to use a computer based email program.)

How to set it up

Setting up Yahoo to download emails to your computer involves two steps - setting the right options in your online email account and setting up your chosen program on your computer. It is the first step that people usually overlook or don't know about and is probably the reason for the misconception's existence. If the first step is left out, it's not uncommon to get a password error when trying to download your emails - this usually confuses the issue and has people testing their password, changing their password, asking if they have another one, etc. before either solving the problem or finally giving up and assuming they mustn't be able to download their emails.

Sign into your email account at Yahoo.
Near the top right corner you'll find a link to Options - click on it.
(At this point, you may find that Options gives you two links, Mail Options and MailPlus - you need Mail Options.)
Look for a link to "POP access and forwarding" - click on it. (If you can't see that and can see a link to MailPlus, you need to upgrade before you can use a computer based email program.)
In the new window that popped up, click the circle beside "Web & POP Access", choose what you want done about spam mail and click Save.
Click on "POP Settings" beside "Web & POP Access" and your personal settings will be shown in a new window.
At the bottom of the window that has your personal POP settings in it, you will quite likely find a link to the email program you want to use. Follow those instructions but use the personal settings you were given previously if they are different to the ones in the instructions. Remember, the ones you were given before are your PERSONAL settings.

NOTE: If you are using something earlier than Windows 2000, the instructions may not show up for you. That's okay - just use a computer with a later operating system to get the instructions and then follow them on your own computer. It's also possible that some Macs will have problems getting the instructions.

Another problem you may have...

I recently discovered that ymail accounts (and presumably some others) need one thing doing differently to standard country-based Yahoo accounts. They need the entire email address in one particular place:

Open your email program.
From the menus across the top, choose Tools and then Accounts.
Click on the Mail tab.
Highlight your email account and then click Properties at the right hand side.
Click the Servers tab.
Opposite Account name insert your full email address.
Click OK and then Close on the remaining dialog box.

If you are using Outlook 2007, I haven't found a place to change this so unless someone advises me otherwise, I will have to assume that there isn't a specific place that needs changing. I intend to test these thoroughly at some point.

To download or not to download?

Want to get your emails to your computer but still be able to read them at Yahoo if you're away from your own computer? Why not have the best of both worlds? You can set up a computer based email account to download your emails while still leaving a copy at Yahoo. You can also decide how you want to deal with the copies left at Yahoo:
- delete them after a certain amount of time?
- delete them when they are deleted from your computer?
The choice is yours.

If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express, the instructions are similar (see below for Outlook 2007):

Open your email program.
From the menus across the top, choose Tools and then Accounts.
Click on the Mail tab.
Highlight your email account and then click Properties at the right hand side.
Click the Advanced tab.
At the bottom under Delivery tick the box marked "Leave a copy of messages on server."
This will open the two options underneath - tick the ones you want and set the number of days if you choose the days option.
Click OK and then Close on the remaining dialog box.

If you are using Outlook 2007:

Open Outlook.
Click on Tools and then Account Settings.
On the Email tab, highlight your email account and click Change... (just above).
In the new dialog box, click on the More Settings ... button.
Click the Advanced tab.
At the bottom under Delivery tick the box marked "Leave a copy of messages on server."
This will open the two options underneath - tick the ones you want and set the number of days if you choose the days option.
Click on OK then Cancel and then Close.

Last updated 31st July, 2009.