Apple Mail: pop att.yahoo.com rejects password

[buckthorn]

This is an intermittent problem that has become increasingly worse (frequent). I spent 30-45 minutes with an ATT chat rep going over the mail settings. All of the settings are correct. Mail checks for and sends mail without a problem for a time, and then suddenly starts complaining about the password:

The POP server "pop.att.yahoo.com rejected the password for gfproc@sbcglobal.net

And asks for the password to be entered.

There is nothing wrong with Mail or the settings; otherwise, it wouldn't work at all. From where I sit, the only problem can be with the POP3 server itself. I'm really getting tired of this issue -- what does ATT have to say about this? Some *genuine* assistance would and a helpful response would be greatly appreciated by one of your paying customers.

Thank you.

[jeromae]

I have a very similar issue. SOmeone hacked my Yahoo e-mail and sending various kinds of soliciting e-mails to all of my contacts in Yahoo mail. I tried to change my password inside Yahoo mail options but it kep directing me to my ATT account. I tried to enter my Yahoo e-mail account info (log in and password) while inside ATT but ATT doesn't recognize it. It was very frustrating experience. Finally, someone at ATT level 2 tech support finally helped me about 3 or 4 weeks ago and was told that my problem should go away in about 2 to 3 weeks and I should be able to change my Yahoo password again. But to no avail, as of today, I still wasn't able to do it. My co-worker said he had similar problem too and the only way to fix it is to find a competent ATT tech support that knows how to fix this problem coz not everyone at ATT tech support knows how to handle this problem. I was tossed before between Yahoo tech support and ATT tech support. Yahoo tech support cannot help me. Up to this day, my hacker still sending unsolicited and annoying e-mails to all of my Yahoo contacts. I cannot afford to give up my Yahoo mail account because I have to many important files on it. I pray and hope that you're problem gets resolved and hopefully soon. I was also told to change your Yahoo e-mail account password, you must change your network or modem password or something like that. I don't know how true it is...goodluck buddy!!!

[buckthorn]

Our problem is a bit different. There's nothing wrong with the password -- Yahoo web mail works fine, and the password sent from the Apple Mail client succeeds more often that it fails. It's just that every so often (and it's become more frequent), the pop server suddenly rejects the password.

One would *think* that the POP3 server logs would show these instances, and perhaps provide clues about the cause of the problem. I'd really like the opportunity to converse with someone at ATT  who is both technically competent and sincerely interested in resolving the problem. That's not too much to ask for my money, is it?

[Lucretia_1]

Hi buckthorn,

We apologize for the inconvenience caused and can understand how frustrating this can be.

I appreciate your patience and efforts while performing all the relevant steps in trying to fix the issue.

Since you have tried most of the troubleshooting steps, I would request you to contact AT&T technical support at 1-877-722-3755 ( toll free number), open 24/7.

We look forward to speaking with you to resolve this issue.

[buckthorn]

Well well. After over an hour on the phone with two reps, getting disconnected (yeah, by ATT) and not being called back, almost being sent to a pay-forsupport section because the problem was supposedly with *my* computer, a supervisor made a stunning admission: this has been a long-standing problem between ATT's mail servers and Apple Mail. And they can't figure it out. Incredible. And so, apart from actually fixing the' problem, why can't ATT post this information publicly in the appropriate places (support pages, this forum, etc.)? Why make us waste an hour on that support line with those incompetent level 1 "techs" who know almost nothing about computers, and don't even call customers back after being disconnected? ATT can allow us to watch 10 programs at once on TV and they can't resolve an email problem? Something's wrong with this picture....

[BigJon46]

    I have been have this problem for over a month. I have two Bellsouth.net email accounts, one of the two works most of the time, but the second, primary account, hardly ever works anymore.

    After searching for almost an hour, I finally found a way to contact Bellsouth tech, where the tech did help me change my password, but within two days, somehow, the password had reverted back to the old password. Tech no. 2 worked on the problem, password changed, this time the password remained changed for two weeks.

    Then I had, believe it or not, problems with my modem. It seems that now Bellsouth is assigning passwords to personal modems, owners of modems can no longer enter their own password, finally got that changed and modem and route working, email account began to work correctly, here it is less than two days later and now I'm back to the same old, unable to use my primary email account reason, PASSWORD NOT RECONNISED. I guess I'm going to have to delete that account complete and open a new account, but I bet Bellsouth won't help in notifying all of my email accounts that have been at that address for many, many years. Not counting person email that goes out from that account.

    I have reached the point if AT&T?Bellsouth can't get their act together I'm going to just move email, Internet and phone service to the local cable service. I have been with Bellsouth for over 40 years, but I need reliable service.

    Since AT&T has been doing their things, including joining with Yahoo, it appears that Bellsouth customers have become second class citizens as far as AT&T is concerned. So AT&T get these problems fixed or lose customers.

[rhondaroni]

I am so glad that i found this post. I thought i was loosing my mind. My sbcglobal.net email started sending random and sometimes inappropriate advertisement emails to my contacts list yesterday morning. I logged in through yahoo and changed my password. Now I can't access that email address through Apple Mail or my iphone. I tried all the troubleshooting suggestions. I may end up having to abandon that email address because of this problem. Anyone else find a solution yet?

[philo-gypsy]

I began having this problem in mid-February.  ATT absolutely no help.  I found eventually that the only way my Mac Mail would work (password accepted) was to go to ATT webmail first and sign in.  A few minutes later, Mac Mail starts working again.  This is a MAJOR pain.  If I shut my Mac down or the hard drive goes to sleep, I've got to start all over again with signing in....

I am going to the local Apple store again today to see if there is anything else I can do on the computer side.

[buckthorn]

Here's how I solved my problem: Opened up a free Gmail account. Changed ATT mail settings to forward to my gmail address. Reconfigured my mail client to access Gmail's mail servers. All email problems solved. End of story. AT&T is too incompetent to run email servers, and too dishonest to admit this publicly. Customer service and tech support? They're a joke.

[motownmj]

buckthorn is right on the money here.

For the record: I lived in Italy last year and NEVER lost an email. AT&T U-Verse (even after my neighbor warned me about how horrible the service was) loses my settings on a regular basis, and now for 3 weeks I can only get my email online. NO iPhone email, no Mac desktop (Entourage), and no PC (Outlook). I have spent 3 hours with 6 people at AT&T - only to find that AT&T Tier 2 support are just salespeople shilling their Pay-FOR-SUPPORT option. Unbelievable.

ONLY AT&T would have the nerve to make their customers pay for the privilege of actually making their crappy service work.

Wouldn't you love to see the footage from the meeting where someone got promoted for authoring this novel concept?

[motownmj]

Lucretia_1

Obviously you haven't actually read the REAL issues we are having. And no, you have NO idea how frustrating this really is.

[Secigrl4u]

I cannot log into att.yahoo it does not accept my user name or password

[homersbrain]

I'm actually a linux user, but experience pretty much the same problem.  In summary, since about the same time this thread started I've had trouble accessing my att email thru their pop servers.  It had worked flawlessly prior to when it first started and has worked very poorly if at all, ever since begining.

I have found something that seems to work fairly consistently though.  If I open my email client software (evolution mail...a kinda linux outlook) and hit send/recieve it'll ask me for my password about 9 out of 10 times.  I can enter the password and it'll just pop back up and ask me for it again...and again....and again..infinate loop...."goto 10" (if you get that joke, you've been arounda  long time).  BUT, I find if while having this problem I open firfox and login to the account via the web-based mail..maybe click around a little on sent messages, spam or whatever...then go to my evolution mail client software and hit send/recieve again, it will ask me for the password once more, but will almost always work that time and download the mail.  

I'm not trying to pass this off as a solutionbecause it clearly is not.   It's a bizzare anomily that tends to make me think AT&T is doing this on purpose.  why?  well, ya see those ad's on the web based mail page?  AT&T gets paid more when more people view those ad's...if 25% of their users want to use some other way to access their mail, that's 25% less revnue they generate from this advertising.  For a company the size of ATT that probably adds up to millions a year.  So, by forcing everyone to use web based mail they generate more revenue.  Now don't go call their customer service and chew them out...these types of decisions are made and implemented at a much higher level than the 12 bucks an hour rep who answers your calls, and ATT does not send memo's out to all it's employees saying "heres how we are screwing our customers..."

 So, what do ya do?  prolly a good idea to write a letter to the ceo or something....and not just an email...a real snail mail letter....emails they can ignore....snail mail...well, people scratch their heads and say what do we do with this.  Make em work a bit.  Beyond that, change your service provider.  I'll prolly get fios once they are available where I live.

Hope this helps a little.

[buckthorn]

And why has this been moved to another forum? It sounds like the same stupid problem. AT&T is sure conspicuous by their absence on this thread. Have you nothing to say, AT&T people? Too embarrassed to admit that you can't figure out how to properly configure an email server? Or do you just not care? Probably both.

[pamelaz]

Hello buckthorn,

Please note there are 2 separate Internet Categories: DSL and Uverse.

This specific post was moved as it's Uverse related.  

Thank you.

[conebeckham]

---

philo-gypsy wrote:

I began having this problem in mid-February.  ATT absolutely no help.  I found eventually that the only way my Mac Mail would work (password accepted) was to go to ATT webmail first and sign in.  A few minutes later, Mac Mail starts working again.  This is a MAJOR pain.  If I shut my Mac down or the hard drive goes to sleep, I've got to start all over again with signing in....

I am going to the local Apple store again today to see if there is anything else I can do on the computer side.

---

I have the same problem, see my thread in the UVERSE forums from today.....???

[conebeckham]

---

philo-gypsy wrote:

I began having this problem in mid-February.  ATT absolutely no help.  I found eventually that the only way my Mac Mail would work (password accepted) was to go to ATT webmail first and sign in.  A few minutes later, Mac Mail starts working again.  This is a MAJOR pain.  If I shut my Mac down or the hard drive goes to sleep, I've got to start all over again with signing in....

I am going to the local Apple store again today to see if there is anything else I can do on the computer side.

---

I have the same problem, see my thread in the UVERSE forums from today.....???

[conebeckham]

Wow, after reading this thread, I feel.........like I'm not insane, and not alone.

Also, I feel like perhaps I should abandon AT & T.  If this is really a backhanded "marketing ploy" to use only webmail so we're exposed to ads, someone should investigate this.......

[Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].

[conebeckham]

[Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].

Look, either it's an individual user issue, an over-all Mac/Software/Mail Client issue, or an ATT issue.

Can anyone from ATT confirm it is NOT an ATT issue?  I know there's a wide variety of "ability" and "knowledge" in terms of users, but there are some pretty knowledgable and savvy folks who can't seem to get their e-mail in very popular and widespread E Mail clients--and from what I can tell, these issue are only occurring with ATT/Yahoo servers.

People forward to G Mail and set up their clients with Gmail server settings, and voila! Problem solved..or like me, and several others, you log in via a web browser and, for a period of time, problem solved!  This latter situation/scenario doesn't appear to be a Mac problem, or an individual user issue...which leaves one option.

If it is an ATT problem, at least let us know.....[Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].......address the CONTENT, and the FRUSTRATION will go away.

[trr99]

I wasted about 4 hours between online and technical support and found out the following.  Use Yahoo mail on your IPAD and enter your id xxxxx@att.net.  DO NOT USE other has the email type and enter in the ATT.NET servers.  It will not work. 

If you use the Yahoo mail has the account type and let the system find the Yahoo settings for POP it works.... Finally.

[pl0905]

Out of curiosity, why would you respond to buckman's comment about why you moved a comment on not on how to help us with our problems?

[ellie2]

I'm not sure what you are talking about.  Are you sure you were responding to something I said???

[ellie2]

I wanted to give kudos to your solution, but nothing happened when I clicked the thumbs up. Imagine that. Also, when I tried to insert a smiley face, I got the following (smileyvery-happy It worked for me. It took some tinkering, but I forwarded my ATT mail to my gmail account and am now able to check my mail with Thunderbird. Thanks!!

[skelskey]

Wow spend money to fix e-mail client issues for third party software, must be making a mint. Wonder how many people spend the money for support? I have to log in every 2 weeks at att.net. Wow

[Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].

[RoyalBlood · Accepted solution]

I don't know how to make this turn green and say solved... but this seemed to work for me.

I think it's stupid... But here it goes... I was getting the same error and retyping my password multiple times, to no avail...

ATT chat support had me log into the YAHOO mail login with my ATT.NET email address and password.  Then when I went back to try my Mac Mail 5.2, it worked.  The "technician" told me that if you don't log into your mail account at the:  www.mail.yahoo.com/    website every 30 days, the pop automatically blocks you.  The "technician" said that this was for security purposes.  

Also there is a page that lists the Incoming and Outgoing servers and all the info if you need it.

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB401738#fbid=HKGDR3dURrP

Anyway... I hope this helps some.

-- RoyalBlood

[Soonerfan54]

It works--logging in to Yahoo mail, then opening Outlook.  However, not for 30 days, but maybe 30 minutes or so (haven't tested it to see how long it works).  I too went through the stages--1.  Must be something I did  2. Per AT&T, it is your email client problem, we don't support it, why don't you re-install  3. Dadgum it AT&T, this is your problem, you fix it!  I don't want to use webmail, I use local email client, and that is that.  And, despite your beliefs, my time is valuable, so why not let your customers know on the first call there is a problem and this is the workaround?

[mlasseigne]

I have experienced the same problem. After receiving a service announcement email from ATT on 4/5/12 stating "We recently experienced an issue syncing emails for some of our users when accessing email from an IMAP device like an iPhone or an Android phone.", my email went hay wire. When I tried to send/receive, it continually asked for my password (which I never messed with in the first place). After several attempts, I contacted ATT chat for help. They reset my incoming and outgoing server names as well as the ports. Well, it worked for about a week and then the same password conflict occurred (again, i didn nothing to change/alter my password). After another AT&T chat session, they deleted my account and reinstalled - changing the ports as well. It worked....for a few days. After calling AT&T tech support, they suggested i call support.com for expert technical assistance. I think the fee was over $100 but I was willing to pay for a solution. AFTER SEVERAL HOURS AND NO RESOLUTION, they refunded 1/2 my fee because they did optimize a few things...whatever. I called AT&T again and they now recommended connect tech (another fee based tech support). I chose a single incident fee $50 vs a $15/month (with a year commitment) for tech support with a 5 day money back guarantee. To make a long story short, they would change the ports and it would work but the following day, I had the SAME PASSWORD CONFLICT. After 5 days and literally hours each night on the phone, they refunded my money. AT&T now suggests I contact Microsoft (I use outlook and windows live mail on my two home computers) because "it's obviously a conflict with the mail client since my web mail continues to work". I'm no IT guru but if you are able to fix it on several occasions but your solution doesn't last for more than a day, doesn't that mean that the problem is on your end? To further this claim, one of my many error messages says contact the administrator or your ISP provider. Well guess what, my ISP provider (AT&T) is NO HELP. I have had this email address for over 10 years and never had an issue and now I can't even read my email without going to web mail. Sorry for the long rant but I've had enough of AT&T's dead end run -a-round tech support- and I'm going to find a new ISP that provides quality customer service. After reading numurous forums, I know I'm not the only one with this problem.

[annab30144 · Accepted solution]

I have had the same problem with both Outlook and Apple Mail. Here is the solution to your problem.

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB401570&cv=804,703,902,102&source=EZSS250000000000&wtEv...

SETTINGS HAVE CHANGED:  instead of pop.att.yahoo.com for inbound change it to:  inbound.att.net

Instead of smtp.att.yahoo.com change it to outbound.att.net.  Save your changes and it should work beautifully.

[voltn]

Okay, I have an apple computer also and my the popserver is also rejecting my password.  It wasn't last week.  It started this week.  It wasn't on Monday, but then it was on Tuesday.  Not on Wednesday but now on Thursday.  It isn't my computer settings and I don't have it set up wrong and I refuse to sit on the phone with those "techs" who just read through a series of steps when you call them.  I don't have the time and I sure as you know what ain't gonna pay them to fix their problem.  I would like it to work.  It has been working the past 2 years, why stop now?  

SK

[EWG]

I am an AT&T DSL user and have been ever since AT&T bought SBC. I never had this problem with SBC..

I have had this problem intermittently for many months. All the Yahoo boards and the Yahoo client mail setup pages say that POP3 client support is not available for users who set up an account after some time last year. New users who want POP3 support must buy "Mail Plus." One post on help.yahoo.com is from 2008, with exactly the same problem.

Is it possible that AT&T can not even check whether a user has an old, grandfathered account before rejecting the password? 

I, like many others, have spent hours with chat room techies changing passwords, reviewing POP3 account properties, and deleting and rebuilding accounts, with both Outlook Express under XP SP3 and WLM with W7 SP1. Today, for the first time, a rep said this is a known problem and I should simply wait until later today to see if it's fixed yet (she said four hours, which is still a little over an hour from now). 

I am so happy I created an alternate account on hotmail to check that WLM really worked before uninstalling it and reinstalling it, which was, yes, the last rep's final solution.