Why are Yahoo Mail notifications not working? Has it ever worked?

[amitt]

I'm a new user of Aquamail Pro and very pleased with the app.  My question is has the mail notification ever worked with Yahoo Mail?  I've searched the internet along with Aquamail's FAQ and forum to find the answer without any clear answer.
I have the Samsung Galaxy S4 which is running Android Lollipop version 5.0.1.  I'm thinking that maybe the Aquamail notification (in screen status area) was working with the earlier version Android KitKat 4.4.2 and that's why I haven't seen any discussion regarding a problem?
I've tried both Yahoo server settings Pop & Imap without any luck.

FYI -  My Wavecable email account works correctly with mail notifications, only Yahoo has the problem.

I would appreciate any suggestions or if anyone has had success running Lollipop version 5.0.1 with a Yahoo mail account.

Thanks - Alan

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Are you able to see any messages in your @yahoo account at all, in Aqua?

There is a serious problem with Yahoo mail since two days or so, they managed to break Outlook and Thunderbird too.

https://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index?sid=396546162&link=list

It's my understanding (based on affected users' follow-ups) that it's mostly fixed, but maybe not in everyone's accounts yet?

[amitt]

Yes, there isn't any problem viewing messages even ones that have images which was my main gripe with most email apps I've tried.
The only thing that has had me pulling my hair out (not much more to pull) is finding a app that does both - photos & notifications.

Thanks - Alan

[mikeone]

Alan,
You couldn't find any app which can provide Push for Yahoo and send notifications immediatly about new messages, since Yahoo Mail doesn't support the necessary IMAP IDLE Push protocol.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

You should not have any trouble at all with scheduled mail sync for Yahoo accounts in Aqua.

Now as for push -- they chose to implement it their own way, undocumented (worked out something with Apple) -- and not in the industry standard way, IMAP IDLE, supported by almost every other mail service / server. Sigh.

[amitt]

Hi Kostya,

Do you mean by saying "I should not have any trouble at all with scheduled mail sync for Yahoo accounts in Aqua", utilizing "Push" for notification or just receiving my new messages?
It looks like Yahoo wants to do their own thing rather than having across the board compatibility for other mail programs.... sounds similar to Apple's way of having their nose up in the air concerning competitive apps.
I did finally find another Android mail app that does work with Yahoo mail, it does notifications and display images with multiple mail accounts.  I read they designed their own Push from scratch and is integrated within their app.  How they do that is a mystery.

I still would like to stay with using AquaMail as my go to email app for my Android phone if the notification issue is resolved with Yahoo Mail.  I've established a long history using Yahoo Mail and don't want to change for my general email usage.

Thanks Again - Alan

[mikeone]

AquaMail is using a scheduled sync in the background with adjustable time periods to sync (5-10-15-...minutes). That may give the impression to the user for a kind of push notifications. But indeed it isn't. 

What's interesting on Yahoo's push implementation is that it uses the Oracle PUSH spec (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/testcontent/pushmail-technical-vision-128308.pdf) which the IEEE board refused and did not include in the Lemonade spec (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemonade_Profile).

The Oracle version requires you to set up a separate server to receive the push notifications and then send that notification down to the client. That means your credentials aren't necessarily guaranteed to be safe in the app on your device. It's a really goofy implementation of push that Yahoo chose to go with. Imap IDLE is the approved standard for push on imap. That means the developer of AquaMail has to set up a separate server just to implement push for yahoo which isn't very popular among Android users. I'm sure that will never become a reality. Running a server with the costs associated to run that server and bandwidth just for yahoo push doesn't sound appealing. Hopefully Yahoo gets their act together and implements the IDLE command like every other imap push server.

[amitt]

Thanks for the very interesting reply about Yahoo using the Oracle PUSH protocol for their mail server's.  I wonder what the reasoning was to do that?

[Kostya Vasilyev]

>> It looks like Yahoo wants to do their own thing rather than having across the board compatibility for other mail programs.... sounds similar to Apple's

It's my understanding that Yahoo worked with Apple on push mail for iPhone -- and Steve Jobs hated IMAP IDLE.

Oh, and Apple's iCloud mail uses Oracle's mail servers -- and does support IMAP IDLE.

Interesting connections...

And yet, I know it doesn't help -- so Yahoo has to implement *the* standard (when they're not too busy making it their mail system not work at all).

[amitt]

I have a solution which can either be used as a temporary or permanent solution to deal with the Yahoo mail notification
issue until they conform to the 'imap IDLE' standard for push on imap .

That is, I'm using the Yahoo mail app for notification and AquaMail to read email, send or reply.

It works for me at this time.

BTW - Steve Jobs hated Flash, but it is still here and there are on-going improvements being made.

[mikeone]

...
BTW - Steve Jobs hated Flash, but it is still here and there are on-going improvements being made.

Apple's Thoughts on Flash

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.
... more...
https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
...
Conclusions:
Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

[mungos]

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[mungos]

Hi Kostya,

Do you mean by saying "I should not have any trouble at all with scheduled mail sync for Yahoo accounts in Aqua", utilizing "Push" for notification or just receiving my new messages?
It looks like Yahoo wants to do their own thing rather than having across the board compatibility for other mail programs.... sounds similar to Apple's way of having their nose up in the air concerning competitive apps.
I did finally find another Android mail app that does work with Yahoo mail, it does notifications and display images with multiple mail accounts.  I read they designed their own Push from scratch and is integrated within their app.  How they do that is a mystery.

I still would like to stay with using AquaMail as my go to email app for my Android phone if the notification issue is resolved with Yahoo Mail.  I've established a long history using Yahoo Mail and don't want to change for my general email usage.

Thanks Again - Alan

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[Kostya Vasilyev]

The discussion above is specifically about Yahoo's push mail which is different from every other mail service's.

There should be no trouble with the app's default "check mail every 15 minutes" and there is nothing special about Yahoo and notifications.

Now, there is this issue with Yahoo forcing OAUTH2 and blocking access to what they call "less secure apps", but that's something else entirely.

http://www.aqua-mail.com/?p=2986

For any given account, it'll keep working until Yahoo turns off the "allow access to less secure apps" switch in that account, and then there is a way to revert this, and again allow access from AquaMail (and pretty much all other mail apps).

[patrickdrd]

yahoo mail's android app utilizes push in mail receiving, doesn't it?

how does it do it and why can't aqua implement the same?