Yahoo Log-in Problems

April 26, 2009 1:05 PM

Yahoo Mail Log-in Issues: I am having new Yahoo Log-in issues that started suddenly on FireFox . I am not new to Firefox or Yahoo but never experienced this before. I have been forced to switch to IE (version 8) where I initially did not have the problems, but the same problem may now be starting on I.E. as well. I use McAfee and I am on XP

Suddenly, every time I tried to acess my yahoo email from firefox, I would be prompted to enter my password. Very Annoying. Then one day (Not sure if it was something I did trying to fix the aforementioned problem or not) I would put in my password when prompted and be thrown right back to the "enter password "screen. I did not get a message that the pssword was wrong or unrecognized (as happened when I put in a wrong password), it just wouldn't take me anywhere but the enter password screen. I tried changing my password, but had the same problem with the new password. I tried uninstalling Firefox and re-loading it, same problem. The problem did not happen when I used I.E. So, frustrated, I upgraded to I.E. 8 and started using that as my default browser. It was fine for a few days. Now all of the sudden while on I.E., I am again being prompted to log in every time I want to get my email (yes, I have "leave me logged in for 2 weeks" checked). I am worried that I will get locked out of I.E. soon too. Currently, my password works and I can log in, (from I.E. but not Firefox), but I get prompted for a password each time I want to access my mail. I do not have this problem when I access it from my cell phone or from any browser on a different computer, which leads me to believe something is going on with my McAfee? HELP! (but speak slowly, I am mildly technology-challened)

posted by Lylo to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

I'm not very familiar with IE, but in Firefox, go to Edit>Preferences>Security and check the box next to Remember passwords for sites. You could also select Use a master password right below it. Under Privacy, be sure to uncheck the box next to Always clear my private data when I close Firefox, and be sure to set it to keep cookies until they expire.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:28 PM on April 26, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks, Marisa. Everything you mentioned was already done except "keep cookies until they expire" which I selected after reading your answer. I then tried to log on to yahoo from the Log-in screen and again, that just led me to the "enter password" screen over and over no matter how many times I entered the correct password. There is no error message, it just keeps bringing me back to the enter password screen. Any other ideas?
posted by Lylo at 1:52 PM on April 26, 2009

That's very bizarre. The only other thing that springs to mind is signing in to Yahoo messenger, if you have it, and then clicking the e-mails notification link. Beyond that I'm really not sure, but I'll post if I can think of something.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:14 PM on April 26, 2009

The same thing happened to me with Firefox a few months ago (it did eventually let me log in, but was unreliable), and I still haven't figured out why. Eventually I just gave up and choose the "keep me logged in" option. Now the problem seems to have gone away.

So no ideas except patience.
posted by hippugeek at 4:02 PM on April 26, 2009

Actually, something else occured to me - if you're using the newest version of Yahoo mail, have you tried switching back to "classic mail" via the link on the Yahoo mail page?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 10:34 AM on April 27, 2009