My ‘public’ email address, the one I post on this blog and use to correspond with readers and also the address that winds up getting harvested for every travel PR distribution list on the planet, is my Yahoo account.
It’s been open for about 17 years, I think. It’s a fairly high volume account. And I’ve run into a problem I cannot seem to get past.
Recently it asked me to re-log into my account. No problem, should be fine, but I entered the password and it didn’t work.
I tried to reset the password and could not. I have no problem getting the verification emails or answering security questions, so I advance to the screen where I should be able to choose a new password.
The problem is that the system won’t accept any new password I choose even though I’m clearly selecting passwords that meet Yahoo’s stated criteria.
- Between 8 and 32 characters
- Cannot use name or Yahoo ID
- Both letters and numbers
- Add special characters
- Mix capital and lowercase
Literally every password I try still shows as ‘weak’,
Your password is weak. Please choose a stronger password.
I couldn’t solve this problem right away but it was manageable since I remained logged in on my Android phone. I could check and answer emails that way, and I’ve been doing that exclusively for several days.
Only… the Yahoo Email mobile app updated, and now it’s only showing emails in my inbox from Thursday and before, nothing more recent. So I really need to fix the problem and reset my password. (Update: turning the phone off and on solved that problem.)
My guess is the inability to reset a password is a problem in the javascript or similar on Yahoo’s password reset page, since the page itself gives the response that the password is too weak — it’s not a response after I hit submit. But it’s been a persistent problem, not something intermittent for a few hours or a day that I can just wait for Yahoo to fix.
Any suggestions out there? Right now I am missing out on your emails and it is killing me. Please know that I am not ignoring your questions! I make a habit of trying to answer every email, and that policy hasn’t changed. We’ll see once I get this fixed how well I can dig out from this!
Thanks in advance..
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Try using a different browser, and then a different computer. While certainly possible, it’s not too likely that there’s an error with Yahoo’s systems. This will help narrow down whether the issue might just be your specific and/or computer and/or account.
Yahoo sucks so bad now its criminal
They have screwed up their site in almost everyway imaginable
Security on down.
Don’t get me started
I am going anywhere but yahoo. Thinking Gmail?
Yahoo nce was the best IMHO
Its virtually unusable now
If only there was a way to contact the morons.
I suppose you could write but good luck getting a response
Keep us posted
I’ve encountered weird stuff like this before with Yahoo, especially from mobile browsers. The solution has always been: fire up the PC, and use a normal desktop browser like IE or Chrome to reset the password. Yahoo must have interns running the mobile department. I have a browser on my iPad (Atom) that can identify itself as a desktop browser specifically for brain-dead sites that think we are still living in 1998.
I had this same issue this morning from a PC. Its a system glitch this week. Close the sign in page, and then click on the reset pass word link from your main email again in IE. Funny it kept telling me that all these really complicated passwords were weak and then I tried a simple one after clicking the link again in IE and it worked!!!
I find that yahoo works much better with IE.
Oh and dont get me started on yahoo. Lucky me I got the new flicker yahoo and… HATE IT!!! Now the tabs are gone, which was the only good thing about the new yahoo.
Please bring back the functionality of classic that worked so well on low bandwidths and for everything and everywhere else. Classic allowed you to do things that the newer yahoos still cannot do. Where can we complain? and to whom?
Can anyone open their drafts in the mobile app?
In the new flicker PC yahoo where is the save to drafts button? If the internet goes down in between moving from a draft to inbox or somewhere else the draft gets lost!!!
This was an old yahoo problem circa 2006!!! and its back!!!
I can’t log in to my Yahoo email today either. It really is sad that their email has gone so far down hill the last 1-2 years.
Yahoo does have a support number you can call, although I don’t know it off hand.
you got phished my friend …
try a computer and clear your cookies
Go to a new PC, open Firefox, delete all history and cookies, type mail.yahoo.com in the browser address box and start all over. I hope this helps.
http://help.yahoo.com/
You can leave a message to the Yahoo help folks there. The loss of the sort by sender feature is really a deal killer for me.
A few years ago when I got phished and the system was unable to verify my identity, I was able to contact them at (866) 562-7219 and get my password reset.
If you are using ADBLOCK or any services like that, turn them OFF. Yahoo has recently changed their handling of additional services, cookie requirements, etc., to disable a lot of functions with services like this running on any of the yahoo domains required. Give it a try with a browser that has no additional services or settings turned on
I had the same problem when I tried to reset my password through. Chrome. Once I change to IE, I was able to reset password without any problem.
So what do the experts suggest using as a replacement for Y? Pleeeze do not suggest GMail – since that too has taken a decided turn for the worse.
@schrott how about Juno or net zero? Lol
Their hours of operation are M-F 12:00 am to 12:00 pm PST
Call Yahoo toll free at 1-800-318-0612
You might try a service that will intercept emails to your Yahoo address, and automatically forward them to a new address. I had this some years ago, but the name escapes me.
HTH
Ahh–here it is: Return Path. Not sure if they offer that service any more, but give it a try.
http://www.returnpath.com
It’s concerning that your old password stopped working in the first place. You might have been hacked.
I’d first try to get back in *without* resetting your PW. Try from a different computer, or be sure you’re going “clean” on your own (different browsers, incognito, cleared cookies, etc.) Or try via a mobile browser. It could be an incompatibility issue caused by an update to your software.
If that doesn’t help, it could be on Yahoo’s end, but unlikely or you’d hear widespread reports. You could try resetting the PW, again using a “clean” interface (different computer, again, might help). If no luck, it could be the result of the age of your account. Yahoo has recently revamped a lot that deals with old accounts and it could have broken something on the ancient ones. If that’s the case, contact them by phone. Try http://www.lucyphone.com or http://www.gethuman.com to save time. Hope it works out for ya, Gary!
Password did not stop working on my phone, though, so it clearly wasn’t changed.
@Gary — Any resolution yet? I would love to know what Yahoo contact method works for you, because I am apparently going to have to contact them for help, too. As with you, I am receiving email to my phone, but cannot access my email on a desktop. Very strange.
If you’re sure it is still authenticated on your phone (i.e., it is still downloading new emails… if not, it’s probably not actually working… the app just doesn’t realize it’s invalid because it’s not trying to re-authenticate), then you probably haven’t been hacked and the old PW should still be valid and you just need to try another “clean” computer or setup with it. Else, contact them. The links I gave above are free and should save you time on the phone if you call.
@Gary — My Yahoo! email just starting working correctly again. Hope yours has too!
Guys – Adblock Plus seems to be the culprit here 🙂
This worked flawlessly in Firefox for me. Go to Help and select restart with addons disabled. Go to Yahoo and select whatever password you want. Worked fine. When I could not login previously I sent a help request to Yahoo. Now that I have finally successfully logged in a week later, I find they sent the help suggestions to my Yahoo mail. Morons. Worse yet their solution was to choose a long password with numbers and caps. Complete Morons. Without my Firefox addons enabled it accepted a simpler password-(my Yahoo account has no need for great security as its for throwaways anyway).
Hi, after reading here and on another blog I tried resetting my password (that I never changed!) in Safari instead of Firefox which eventually worked. I’ve had this problem since two weeks! Good luck.