Today I had a window pop up saying that I needed to sign into my Yahoo Mail with a password. That's never happened before since I use the Mac mail with Yahoo in it. I noticed the "lightening bolts" in my Yahoo mail letting me know that I can't connect to Yahoo via my mail program. Anyway, I put in my password, and after I put in my password Yahoo just kept trying to connect to it so it could verify it. Never happened. I tried to delete Yahoo from my mac mail program but the same thing happened. Couldn't connect even to delete it. I changed my email in my profile so I could get your responses without having to go to the Yahoo website.

I can get into Yahoo via the web so it's something is not working between my Mac and Yahoo. Any idea how I can delete it or delete a corrupted file that is causing me this problem? Thx.

This seems similar to a problem that I had (not with Yahoo, however). See this thread for details. A harmless thing to do is to set up a new account in Mail with the same password. In my case, apparently my account had become corrupt. Whatever you do, DO NOT DELETE THE OLD ACCOUNT. You'll see the reason in that thread.

It's also saying it is offline when I check, and that all other mail apps are online. I tried to put it back online but nothing happens. Why would that be? Why does it stay off line when I click to put it online? I'm not contacting Yahoo, that's hopeless, and I don't have AppleCare anymore for this mac. Besides, they aren't very helpful as I see from these recent posts.

Well, guess what? I logged out of my user account and logged into my alternate user account and Yahoo worked! So, I logged out and back into my regular user account, and now it's working! Beats me!

Sometimes the simple things work. When I have a problem, the first thing that I do is to restart (logging out/in might accomplish the same thing). Much of the time, the solution is that simple. At any rate, I'm happy for you.

Thank you. I know to reboot, but I never thought to log out and in again. That will be on my list next time.

Hi, Rita. In order of how "deep" you get into your system, (a) log out/in is the least effective procedure, (b) restarting is second best, and (c) shutting down and restating after 15 seconds has the most potential to be effective.

I've long since given up doing anything other than shutting down, because if (a) and (b) fail you've still got to shut down, and the extended procedure takes longer than I care to sit around twiddling my thumbs, it's not overkill, and with today's machines, you're no longer immediately opting for a lengthy procedure...seconds in many cases.

I didn't know there was a difference in restarting and actually shutting down!!I thought restarting was a short cut to shutting down but did the same thing. Live and learn. Thanks, Artie.

There are registers in the hardware that are not reset with a restart. The shutdown and 15-second pause, permit the charge in those registers to discharge, so they are reset when you start up again. It is a subtle distinction that is sometimes critical.

When Macs come out with Apple Silicon late this year, I will be curious to see if there is a Reboot function. The Apple silicon on the iPhone and iPad requires shutting down and restarting to Reboot.

Thanks, JoeMike. Do we need to wait a few seconds after shutting down or can it be an immediate reboot?

A fifteen-second wait should be adequate.

Give it 15-20 seconds, Rita.

It takes a bit of time for the machine to completely power down.

OK, thanks. I think I will abandon restart altogether.

Thanks. Will do.