Getting Yahoo! Push email to work on the iPhone
Posted 25 February 2008 @ 3pm in Troubleshooting
As far back as July, 2007, iPhone Atlas readers reported an issue in which Yahoo! email accounts do not push messages to the iPhone.
Yahoo! Mail accounts are the only type of accounts currently accessible by the iPhone that offer push services. This, in theory, means that you will be instantly notified when a new message lands in your Yahoo! account mailbox. The service works by routing email through imap.apple.mail.yahoo.com, a mail server designated specifically for the iPhone by Yahoo!. Other IMAP and POP accounts accessed by the iPhone must rely on time-interval checking (ranging from every 15 minutes to every hour, toggled in the Mail pane of Settings) or manual checking.
Push mail is supposed be offered with free Yahoo! mail accounts.
However, Yahoo! mail was/is not “pushing” for some, only appearing in the inbox when the user manually checks, or during a time-interval checks.
Based on recent reports, however, Yahoo! made some server-end changes that have enabled push capabilities for a number of previoiusly defunct accounts. Some sample reports from this pertinent Apple Discussions thread:
- “I live in Southern California. I heard the familiar chime of a pushed email this morning at the gym. Hope the fix lasts!”
- “My Yahoo!push e-mail is now working too!”
- “I now receive push emails again on my iPhone”
Unfortunately, the server-end fixes aren’t working for all users, and it appears that some accounts may need a jumpstart in order to start pushing again. Here are some escalating steps for starting the flow:
- Navigate to mobile page on a Desktop Log into your Yahoo! email account on a desktop computer. Navigate to “Settings,” then “Mobile” then go back to the main page — you don’t need to change any settings. Mail may start pushing right away.
- Delete then recreate account Go to the Settings application, tap Mail then tap your Yahoo! account and tap Delete Account. Then go back to the Mail pane of Settings and re-establish your Yahoo! account. You may need to reset your iPhone again after doing this.
- Create an all-new account In some cases, the only option is to create an entirely new Yahoo! account at mail.yahoo.com. Some accounts don’t, for whatever reason, appear to be working properly with push services.
- Restore iPhone As a last resort: Connect your iPhone to your computer, then in iTunes, select your iPhone and click the Restore button under the Summary tab. Restoring the phone will erase contacts, calendars, photos and other data stored only on the phone, but will restore automatically backed-up information including text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, sound settings, widget settings, etc.
Feedback? info@iphoneatlas.com.
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2 Comments
Posted by kosmo
26 February 2008 @ 11am
I imagine I’m not the only long-standing Mac user who is reluctant to give up his Blackberry in favour of an iPhone for this reason. I have a POP email account which the Blackberry website pushes effortlessly and reliably to my handheld. It’s hard to get a straight answer on this but I get the impression that this facility isn’t available on the iPhone - and that the only vaguely equivalent option is to set the iPhone Mail application to check your server for incoming mail every 15 minutes. This wouldn’t do it for me and, I suspect, for many Mac-loving business users.
I’d welcome the thoughts of iPhone users.
Posted by glen_scott
26 February 2008 @ 2pm
Sadly, none of these suggestions or even the 1.1.4 update worked for me. My mail has been broken for the last few weeks and I simply see a “Load 25 More Messages…” mail in my Inbox that does nothing when selected. I’m not sure whether the problem lies with Yahoo or Apple, but hopefully there will be a proper fix soon.