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Yahoo makes it difficult to leave its service by disabling email forwarding
- MariuszGalus 10y agofirst
- sctb 10y agoNot here, please.
- eeeeeeeeeeeee 10y agoWhat a scummy move.
- Vanit 10y agoThis is why you should use your own email domain so you can just shuffle it around providers as needed.
- eberkund 10y agoFor most providers, using your own domain is a paid feature.
- rhinoceraptor 10y agoI pay $5 a month for Google Apps, which is completely worth it for me since finding good, unclaimed short email addresses on Gmail is not possible.
- Rumudiez 10y agoIf all you want is the email address, you can simply transfer your domain to Google Domains and use their free GMail integration. That'll save you $48/year assuming you don't value any of the other paid features in Google Apps.
- grawlinson 10y agoWhere does it say that Google Domains has free GMail integration? All I'm seeing is G Suite integration for $5/month extra.
- chockablock 10y agoThey call the feature 'email forwarding': https://support.google.com/domains/answer/3251241?hl=en https://support.google.com/domains/answer/3251241?hl=en
- Rumudiez 10y agoYou have to use the Email Forwarding section in Google Domains, then set it up from within GMail. GMail Settings > Accounts and Import > Send Mail As > Add another email address you own. I remember it taking a few tries to get all the Domains info right, but I can send and receive email from any of my Google-managed domains from within GMail. You can try Googling for updated instructions if these don't still work: http://theanywhereoffice.com/digital-lifestyle/how-to-send-mail-from-your-own-domain-using-gmail-and-iphone.htm http://theanywhereoffice.com/digital-lifestyle/how-to-send-m...
- fowl2 10y agoDoes it still include your real email address in the headers?
- angry-hacker 10y agoYes it does.
- rhinoceraptor 10y agoI'm using an obscure country TLD, there's only one provider for the TLD.
- hollander 10y ago
- geoelectric 10y agoIf your domain provider provides forwarding email service, then with Google you can set it up as a relatively invisible alias to a regular GMail account at no charge.
- saurik 10y agoSo?
- dboreham 10y agoAmazing. To get what you want you have to spend money!
- zulln 10y agoI have used Zoho for a while now without spending a cent. Would not mind paying a few bucks for the service though, email is a such essential tool for everyone these days anyways.
- zulln 10y agoI have used Zoho for a while now without spending a cent. Would not mind paying a few bucks for the service though, email is a such essential tool for everyone these days anyways.
- newscracker 10y agoMail forwarding is also a paid feature on Yahoo. Those on the free tier cannot do it. P.S.: On the other hand, Gmail allows free IMAP/POP and free email forwarding.
- fixxer 10y agoI remember moving away from Yahoo! in 2008. It was like ripping off a bandaid, but after 3 months, I was able to stop checking it. I replaced it with a personal domain with email hosting through gmail. Today, protonmail looks like an interesting alternative, and thanks to this setup, would be a painless transition.
- bmuon 10y ago> (Disclosure: TechCrunch parent company Verizon is acquiring Yahoo.) On the side: > Verizon wants $1 billion discount on Yahoo deal | Crunch Report Hmmm...
- ghaff 10y agoJust last week I noticed a charge on my credit cars from Yahoo Ad Free mail. There was an online link to cancel but no apparent way to request a refund. I have no idea how I ended up getting signed up for this. I've long used Yahoo as pretty much a spam bucket when I have to give out an address to someone I don't care to get emails from. (For all I know, I somehow got signed up a while back but I certainly am not aware of doing it and it's not something I would normally have any reason to do.)
- profeta 10y agoit is a scam not associated with yahoo in any way, i heard. the credit card scammers just use the fact that almost everyone in the US has a yahoo email.
- ghaff 10y agoI was apparently signed up on Yahoo though as in I was able to log in to Yahoo and cancel the service. Which I assumed made the charge "legitimate" whether or not a refund was offered. I was thinking of disputing it but was inclined not to bother. Maybe I'll take a further look.
- webwanderings 10y agoGmail lets you export your Yahoo emails to itself. I did that once a long time ago and abandoned Yahoo altogether. You then just enable permanent vacation responder and be done with it.
- vsloo 10y agoWe had a few customers complain to us that they couldn't forward customer support messages from Yahoo to Reamaze. Now we know why. Frankly, a very un-customer move by Yahoo.
- ohnoesmyscv 10y agoYeah I cant believe Yahoo would disable forwarding. People use it for other stuff, not because they want to move to another service. This is going to make people want to move off Yahoo even more
- a3n 10y agoWhich customers are you talking about? Users? Yahoo is selling users to Verizon. If you were selling a herd of cattle, you wouldn't just leave the gate open and let them leave, would you?
- oridecon 10y agoJust be careful about "deleting" your Yahoo account. > Register a previously used ID > A deleted Yahoo account ID may become available for future use, and you’re welcome to try to register it. However, Yahoo can't specify how long until a deleted ID may become available, and we can't guarantee that it will become available. https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN3060.html https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN3060.html And make sure it doesn't get removed for inactivity: > If you rarely use your account, it will go into an inactive state and then be deleted. You can prevent this by signing in to your account using any device at least once every 12 months.
- kstrauser 10y agoI came here to say this. You probably don't have old, forgotten accounts laying around with your Yahoo email address tied to them, but if you do, Yahoo reserves the right to hand over your password reset abilities to the next person who wants your username. DON'T DELETE YOUR YAHOO ACCOUNT. Purge it of all content, sure, but flat-out deleting it is very risky.
- dpc_pw 10y agoI guess setting auto-reply with "I don't use this account anymore, please contact me via (either email or a link)." would do the job quite well.
- kstrauser 10y agoThat seems reasonable. I also went through my contacts, calendar, etc. to make sure they were wiped clean.
- newscracker 10y agoAlmost all commercial mails, including newsletters, past orders, discount offers based on purchases, etc., use an "unmonitored mailbox" or an invalid address to send information. Any reply, manual or automatic, will never get seen by anyone on the other side to take any sort of action. The only way out is to trawl through one's account, hoping that at least one mail from each contact is available, and then changing the email address with each of those. For personal contacts, this would involve emailing them and hoping they see it. For commercial contacts, it would involve going to the respective site and figuring out how to change the address and confirm the new address. Overall, this would be a cumbersome process for many people.
- honkhonkpants 10y agoNo doubt they will try to find some way to further lock in Flickr users as well.
- hannob 10y agoAlmost all mail providers offer some sort of mail collection feature via POP3 which can be used as an alternative to mail forwarding. The disadvantage is that you'll have some time delay (depending on how often your provider allows you to fetch mail). The advantage is that you aren't relying on any feature of the old mail provider. As long as it still provides POP3 you're all good - and I find it unlikely that yahoo will disable POP3. (not saying this to justify Yahoo's rogue move here, but to give advice to people who have this problem)
- MisterWalter 10y agoI worked at a school helpdesk for a while, and I saw that whenever school email accounts were hacked, the attackers would set up forwarding to some other account. People wouldn't notice the forwarding for weeks or longer, and would only come in to us by chance. In the meantime, a lot of information could be siphoned off. There could be some legitimate security concerns there, especially since most yahoo accounts don't have a convenient and free help desk to stop by, right? (Disclaimer: I am only a novice when it comes to security, I could be totally off base)
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoThere is a very easy solution to this, which I believe Gmail employs: Place a very noticeable banner on the inbox when all your email is being forwarded to another address.
- 1945 10y agoThat's assuming everyone composes e-mails through the web UI. Maybe they don't want to make that assumption.
- zulln 10y agoI forward everything that _does not_ match a specific string using the filter feature in Gmail, and I get no such banner. It is a company owned email, with a custom domain and such, but should not differ in this case.
- ikeboy 10y agoThe banner only shows for a week after you set it up.
- Waterluvian 10y agoShould just auto reset forwarding when a password reset is done.
- Waterluvian 10y agoShould just auto reset forwarding when a password reset is done.
- M_Grey 10y agoJust another reason to never associate your real information with something like a Yahoo account, and always use different passwords for different sites.
- seccess 10y agoGmail, on the other hand, has takeout which allows you to export all your mail in bulk if you want to leave and take it with you: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout
- asdffderty 10y agoI've a really weird issue where I want to delete my old yahoo account but the recovery email address has type in it, i.e. it is _____@gmail.clm l instead of o. So, I cannot reset my yahoo password. Is there any way to contact yahoo to fix that typo?
- ikeboy 10y ago>Update, 10/10/16, 5:30 PM ET – Yahoo shared the following statement with TechCrunch: “We’re working to get auto-forward back up and running as soon as possible because we know how useful it can be to our users. The feature was temporary disabled as part of previously planned maintenance to improve its functionality between a user’s various accounts. Users can expect an update to the auto-forward functionality soon. In the meantime, we continue to support multiple account management. ” The headline heavily implies it's permanent and intentional as an obstacle, which are not supported by available evidence.
- jnsaff2 10y agoBut Yahoo only needs to stop people from moving away as long as they remember what Yahoo did, that memory is measured in days? weeks?
- newscracker 10y agoSince this is related to moving out of Yahoo, in a previous thread about the security breach at Yahoo, I had asked for suggestions on other email providers who're better focused on privacy, security (and related to that, freedom). I came across a few suggestions that support custom domains, but found all of them wanting in some ways: 1. Fastmail - becomes very expensive if multiple people (say, in a team or family) want individual accounts even if their actual usage volumes are less. Pricing by user account is the barrier here, instead of pricing by usage (consider that it provides 600 aliases per user, which 99% of users wouldn't use to the full extent, but charges based on user accounts). Provides support for IMAP/POP, importing existing mails from other accounts and exporting mails out. A few hundred dollars a year for email is quite expensive for me. 2. Protonmail - no way to import mails from existing mail accounts or to export mails from the system. The lack of support for IMAP/POP means one does not have the freedom to move out. Suggestions on these have been waiting for two years with nothing to show for. Pricing is somewhat similar to Fastmail, but offers more flexibility. This too could get very expensive even with lower actual usage per user. 3. Tutanota - much better on flexible pricing based on different parameters, but it's similar to Protonmail in that it does not support importing existing mail or exporting mails out. It too lacks support for IMAP/POP and states that it's never going to support them for privacy reasons. 4. Startmail - quite similar to Fastmail on the pricing issue, but has IMAP support. Are there any other providers who do better on all these fronts? I'd like to use custom domains, have multiple user accounts (with separate credentials), preferably manage storage across users, be able to import and export mails, and have IMAP/POP support in order to use different systems (phones, tablets, computers with different operating systems). I don't believe that web mail and custom apps ought to be the only way to use email.
- kijin 10y agoLuxSci is top notch. It's expensive if you only use it for one or two accounts, but can be cheaper than FastMail if you have several accounts sharing your disk quota. Runbox is probably as privacy-respecting as you can get without delving into the kind of zero-knowledge encryption schemes that make Protonmail and similar services incompatible with IMAP/POP. Their webmail is meh, but that won't matter if you usually access your mail via IMAP/POP.
- 10y ago