Is Yahoo! Mail Down . . . or Is It Just You?

Can't access email? It might be their servers, but it could be on your end, too

It can be frustrating when you can�t connect to Yahoo Mail. Ideally, there would be
a simple way to tell when Yahoo Mail services are down or struggling. But
unfortunately, as of early 2019, Yahoo! Mail does not provide system status
information for their free mail services.

Unlike many other web service providers, that means that you can�t quickly identify
the status of Yahoo!�s services. The following sequence of steps may help you
identify and/or resolve problems you have accessing Yahoo! Mail.

If you can connect to Yahoo! Mail, but it doesn�t look like what you expect, you
may be seeing Basic Yahoo Mail. Yahoo Mail may switch you automatically to Basic
Yahoo Mail when you are on a slow connection, use an unsupported browser, are on a
device with a low screen resolution, or have disabled JavaScript. When you return
to a device and connection that resolves these issues, Yahoo Mail should
automatically return to �full-featured� Yahoo Mail.

Check Twitter for Tweets from @YahooMail, @YahooCare, or even the main @Yahoo
account. While rare, a Tweet from any of these accounts would serve as official
confirmation that the Yahoo! Mail service is experiencing problems. (Note: You
don�t need a Twitter account to view Tweets.)

Additionally, a quick search of Twitter can help you figure out if other people are
experiencing problems connecting to Yahoo! Mail. Search for terms such as Yahoo!
Mail, YahooMail, or #yahoomail. Follow the links on each of these terms to see
recent Twitter search results for each item. If you see several recent Tweets from
people that mention problems with Yahoo! Mail, any issue you are experiencing
likely affects many accounts, not just yours.

Screenshot of Yahoo Mail Twitter account

Check third-party status services to see if other sites can't access Yahoo Mail.
Open your browser to the service https://isup.me, for example, and enter
mail.yahoo.com to see if the site can connect to Yahoo Mail. Alternatively,
DownDetector maintains a status page that tracks and reports connection and outage
problems for Yahoo Mail at https://downdetector.com/status/yahoo-mail. At any given
time, you should expect to see at least a few problems reported. However, if you
see hundreds or thousands of issues identified, the problem is almost certainly an
issue outside of your control.

Screenshot of downdetector.com Yahoo Mail page, showing recent problems

If either of these status services indicates an issue, you can stop
troubleshooting. The problem is one that the team at Yahoo Mail will need to work
to resolve.

If no problems are reported with these tools, it�s time to troubleshoot your setup.

Turn your device off, wait a minute, then turn it back on. Often, a restart of a
system will resolve various app, memory, and/or connection issues. On laptop and
desktop devices, a restart also often clears temporary problems with applications.
On mobile devices, a restart allows your device to re-establish network
connections. (Not sure how to restart your device? See How to Restart Anything.)

Open a web browser on your device to see if you can connect to other websites, such
as google.com. If you can�t connect to the internet, you may have a network
connection problem.

If you use a laptop, tablet, or phone, you might try to connect to a different
network. For example, try to connect to a different Wi-Fi network nearby, such as
at a local library, coffee shop, or workplace. Or, if your device has a cellular
connection, such as a smartphone, turn off Wi-Fi so that your device connects
instead to your mobile provider�s network. After you switch networks, try to
connect to Yahoo! Mail again.

Try a different way to connect to Yahoo Mail. If you typically use an app to access
Yahoo! Mail, try a browser. Or, if you typically sign in to Yahoo! Mail with one
browser, try a different browser. You might install and try Chrome, Firefox, or
Brave to access Yahoo! Mail. All three of these browsers offer versions that work
on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices. Or, if you usually use one of these
three browsers, switch to Safari (on macOS and iOS systems) or Edge (on Windows,
iOS, or Android systems).

Choose one of the above browsers, install it on your device, open it, then go to
https://mail.yahoo.com and sign in.

If you use an Android, iPhone, or iPad, you might install the Yahoo Mail app to
directly connect to Yahoo Mail. Unlike mobile mail apps that may require some
adjustment of settings or configuration customizations, the mobile app from Yahoo
is expressly intended to deliver access to Yahoo Mail on your mobile device.
Install either Yahoo Mail for Android or Yahoo Mail for iOS, then sign in to your
account.

Screenshot of sign in screen for Yahoo Mail app (Android on left; iOS on right)
If you have access to another internet-connected device, try to access your Yahoo!
Mail on that device. For example, if you�re having difficulty accessing Yahoo Mail
on a desktop computer, switch to a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, instead. Open a
browser on this different device, and go to https://mail.yahoo.com and sign in to
your account.

When the system won�t accept your account name and/or password, start the password
recovery process.

Screenshot of Yahoo Mail account recovery process, with prompt for email or phone
number
On the Yahoo Mail sign in page, tap or click on the �Trouble signing in?� link.
This will take you to the start of the account access recovery process. On this
page, enter any one of four pieces of information to start the recovery process:

An email address
A mobile phone number
A recovery email address
A recovery phone number
Follow the instructions, which will vary based on the recovery method and
information you�ve provided.

If none of the above methods gives you access to your Yahoo Mail account, you may
need to contact Yahoo support for help. See How to Contact Yahoo for Support
Information to contact the company.

Hopefully, one of the steps above helped you identify the problem. And, once the
issue was resolved, you should be able to access email once again. Yahoo!