If you are using a Yahoo, AOL, CompuServe, AT&T and other ISP accounts hosted by Yahoo and are having problems signing when you use Outlook desktop software, this is for you:
If you are unable to set up an Yahoo or AOL account in Outlook desktop, receiving an error that your username or password is wrong, you need to use an app password.
If the account is already configured in Outlook, you'll see this error message in the Send / Receive Progress dialog:
Task 'Synchronizing subscribed folders for ***@***.com.' reported error (0x800CCC0E) : 'Outlook cannot synchronize subscribed folders for ***@***.com. Error: Cannot connect to the server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).'
You'll see this message when you add a new account:
Something went wrong
We couldn't log on to the incoming (IMAP) server. Please check your email address and password and try again.
Unlike Gmail, iCloud and Outlook.com, you do not need to enable 2-step authentication or the secret key feature to use an app password.
To generate an app password to use in place of your "real" password:
- Log into your account security settings in Yahoo or AOL and click on Manage app passwords.
- Select your app from the list and click Generate. (Choosing the app is to make it easier to delete (revoke) a specific password if you need to later. You can use the app password in any application.)
- Copy the password and paste it into Outlook’s password dialog. If you type it in, don’t include the spaces, they just make the password easier to read.
To change the password in Outlook 2016 and newer, use the File > Account Settings > Server settings menu.
Use Ctrl+V to paste the password in the password field then click Next.
In older versions of Outlook, you can change the password in Account Settings. Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings. Double click on the account and change the password.
I recommend copying and pasting the password into OneNote, Outlook Notes, or Notepad (or wherever you save things) so you have a copy if you need it with another mail client. The app password is valid until you revoke it.
Yahoo Security settings page
Articles explaining the change:
Ways to securely access Yahoo Mail
Ways to securely access AOL Mail
AT&T Yahoo accounts
For AT&T email accounts hosted at Yahoo, you need to log into your AT&T profile to create the app password.
- Select the email account that you want to get a secure mail key for. (You’ll find a drop-down menu at the top if you have multiple accounts.)
- Go to Profile > Sign-in info.
- Scroll to Secure mail key and select Manage secure mail key.
- If you have more than one email address, select the one you want to use.
- Select Add secure mail key.
- Enter a nickname for the secure mail key to make it easier to recognize.
- Select Create secure mail key.
- Select Copy secure mail key to clipboard.
- Paste it into the password field in outlook.
It worked! Thank you!
I followed these steps and it worked! However, my subfolders no longer appear and I cannot access any emails prior to the time/date from when I readded the aol account to outlook. I cannot seem to sync and access old emails and my subfolder structure...do you have any thoughts?
It was added back as IMAP, correct? Any error messages?
Right click on a folder in the mailbox and choose IMAP folder... then click Query. Do you see your missing folders?
Added as POP, could not get it to work using IMAP
Perfect Thanks for the info. Great Help!!!!
Hi Diane...
Thanks for this info. Ended some frustration while trying to setup my friends outlook/sbcglobal-Yahoo-att account remotely.
One thing that did not migrate from Yahoo were several user created custom folders (used for organizing saved emails). I cannot find any info regarding the transfer of these folders. Any thoughts?
Thx.
Right click on a folder in the mailbox and choose IMAP folders... then click Query. Do you see your missing folders there? If they have a yellow folder icon, unsubscribe then resubscribe - if no icon, subscribe.
Much appreciated. Been trying to get this to work for over a week now.
Hi. I clicked on account security after signing in to my att.net account online and the account security page is blank. Any idea why?
The security tab is there but the page is blank? Which browser are you using? Try a different one or a private browser window.
To open a private browser window, right-click on the browser icon on the taskbar and choose the option for a new private or incognito window.
Thank Very Berry Cherry Much
Thanks so much for sharing your solution! Question: I have 3 AOL accounts that I access via Outlook on 2 laptops. I generated app passwords for Outlook on laptop 1 and then, copied/pasted those app passwords into Outlook on laptop 2 and got a "something went wrong" message indicating that it didn't work. Do we need to generate more app passwords for each laptop?
You can try using the same app password on each and see if it works. Some app passwords are single use, others can be reused. I haven't tested it with AOL & Yahoo to verify if theirs are single use.