Adding a Yahoo mail account to Outlook

Adding an email account into Outlook has been easy for a while now in a day and age where server settings rarely have to be input manually. But there are times when it doesn't work like it should and this can bring a lot of frustration.

Normally you would just add an email account to Outlook (Microsoft 365 and Outlook 2016 and up) as follows.

1. Select File > Add Account.

2. Enter your email address and click Connect.

3. Depending on the account provider: Enter your name, email address, and password, and click Next.

4. If prompted, enter your password again, then select OK > Finish to start using your email account in Outlook.

Now for Yahoo mail and other mail providers, this may not always work and you might end up with a message like the one below

But don't fret! Because there is a solution.

See: Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, Outlook.com, and AOL accounts all use two-factor authentication to help verify that you’re the person trying to access your email account.

To add your email account to Outlook, you’ll need an app password, also known as an application password. This is a different password than your regular email account password. One way you'll know you need an app password is if you see the following message: 2-factor authentication is set up for your account. Please sign in using your application password.

The steps to obtain an app password are different for each email provider.

For Yahoo, the steps are as follows

1. Go to the Yahoo website from your browser and select the settings icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

2. Select Account info > Account security. You may need to sign in again.

3. If Two-step verification isn't turned on, you'll need to do that before you continue. Then select Manage app passwords.

4. Select Outlook Desktop from the drop-down list, and then select Generate.

5. Yahoo will display an app password for you. Copy this password (without the spaces) and enter this password when Outlook prompts you for a password.

That's it, you should be all ready to receive your emails now!