Yahoo POP3 email settings

In addition to the free email account, there is also Yahoo! Mail Plus that costs about $20 annually. The Plus upgrade lets you access to the email account via the Post Office Protocol (POP). And how is this helpful? The Yahoo POP3 email settings allow you to download messages from your account and store them on your computer through an email client such as Outlook Express, Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail etc.

Though Yahoo charges for POP access, it's available for free on Gmail accounts. Free Hotmail POP3 settings have also been announced and will probably be available for all accounts by the end of 2009.

Important note: Free email account holders can download Yahoo email to their computer without spending a penny! But this is possible only via Zimbra Desktop, the Yahoo email program. As mentioned above, free Yahoo email accounts are not POP3 enabled and, thus, cannot be set up on other popular email clients. People who wish to store a copy of Yahoo emails on their computer should either install Zimbra Desktop or upgrade to Yahoo! Plus.

What are the Yahoo POP3 settings for configuration in an email client?

To configure a new POP3 account in an email client you need to know the incoming and outgoing server addresses, and the login details (username + password). The Yahoo POP3 settings given below will work only for accounts with the Plus upgrade.

• Email address: Your full Yahoo! email address; for example, yahoo-ID@yahoo.com.
• Password: The password of your account.
• Name - Account name or Login name: Your Yahoo ID; the part before the 'at' (@) sign.
• Incoming Mail (POP3) Server: plus.pop.mail.yahoo.com. You need to use SSL and put 995 as the port.
• Outgoing Mail Server: plus.smtp.mail.yahoo.com. SSL usage is required with port 465. You also need to employ authentication.

Detailed instructions for the world's most popular email client can be found in - how to set up Yahoo account on Outlook Express.

Cannot send email from Yahoo account configured in an email program?

Sometimes users report not being able to send email from Yahoo accounts configured in an email client - they can receive but messages don't seem to leave the outbox folder. Though it is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of the problem without knowing the details, there is a high probability that the ISP is blocking the outgoing port. Contacting the ISP customer support and getting the alternate outgoing server information should solve the problem.