Switch to Mailotte
Switching from Yahoo Mail
Yahoo makes this straightforward — one app password and the import runs unattended.
Before you start
Yahoo requires an App Password for mail apps:
- Open your Yahoo Account Security page.
- Choose Generate app password and name it "Mailotte".
- Copy the generated password — Yahoo shows it once.
Use that, not your Yahoo password. Revoke it from the same page when the import is done.
The order that works
Switching email is not hard. It is unforgiving about order — do these in the wrong sequence and you lose mail you never find out about.
- Create the Mailotte account first, and leave the old one running. You are adding a mailbox, not replacing one. Nothing is switched off until you decide to switch it off — and you should probably never switch it off.
- Get your Yahoo app password. See the box above. This is the step people get stuck on, and it is the only fiddly part.
- Start the import. In Mailotte, open Settings → Import email, pick Yahoo, and paste the address and app password. Mailotte tests the connection before it starts, so a wrong password fails in seconds rather than halfway through.
- Choose folders, then leave it alone. Pick the folders worth keeping. A large mailbox takes hours; you can close the tab. An interrupted import resumes from per-folder checkpoints rather than starting over.
- Turn on forwarding from Yahoo. This is the safety net for every account you forget. Anything still pointing at the old address keeps arriving where you now read.
- Change your address where it matters, slowly. Account-recovery routes first, then anything financial, then the ordinary ones as they surface in your forwarded mail. Forwarding turns this from one long afternoon into a background task.
How much can you bring?
The import is capped per plan, because pulling an unbounded mailbox is expensive:
| Plan | Messages per import |
|---|---|
| Free | 10,000 |
| Zen | 50,000 |
| Haven | 250,000 |
Check your message count in Yahoo first. Every new account starts with a 14-day trial of Haven, so the largest cap is available while you migrate even if you settle on a smaller plan afterwards.
Yahoo-specific things worth knowing
- Yahoo's folder names are plain: Inbox, Sent, Draft, Trash, Bulk Mail. Bulk Mail is spam — usually not worth importing.
- Long-dormant accounts can be large: Yahoo accounts often carry a decade of newsletters. Check the message count against the plan limits below before starting.
What does not come across
Contacts and calendars. The import moves mail over IMAP, and IMAP carries mail only — so your address book and calendar stay where they are. Export them from Yahoo before you stop using it. Filters and rules do not transfer either, and that is usually a gift: most people are maintaining filters for a life they no longer live.
Your old mail app keeps working
Mailotte speaks native IMAP, SMTP and POP3 with an app password — no bridge, no desktop helper. Apple Mail, Thunderbird and your phone's mail app connect directly, so switching provider does not have to mean switching software on the same day.
Questions
Where do I find Yahoo app passwords?
Yahoo Account Security → Generate app password. Yahoo has moved this page more than once, so if the layout differs, look for "app password" under account security rather than under mail settings.
Should I import Bulk Mail?
Almost never — it is Yahoo's spam folder. Everything else (Inbox, Sent, Draft, Trash and any folders you made) is worth considering.
My Yahoo account is very old. Is there a size limit?
There is a per-import message cap by plan, shown above. A very large mailbox is not refused: a separate daily ceiling means it continues the next day rather than failing.
Will I lose my old email?
No. An import copies your mail to Mailotte and leaves the original mailbox untouched. Keep the old account open until you have confirmed everything you care about arrived.
How long does it take?
About twenty minutes of setup, a few hours of unattended import for a large mailbox, and roughly a month of low-effort tail as forwarded mail reveals the accounts you forgot to update. Anyone promising a clean switch in ten minutes is not counting the tail, which is where the risk lives.
Do I have to stop using Yahoo?
No, and we would not recommend closing the account. A dormant mailbox with forwarding on costs nothing and catches the annual renewal, the once-a-year statement and the friend who never updated your contact card.
What about my custom domain?
That is the one genuinely technical part. Your domain's MX records point at the old host, and SPF, DKIM and DMARC authorise it to send — all of them move together, and DNS takes time to propagate. Change MX last, after the new setup is complete and its DKIM key is published, and expect a window where both hosts receive mail. Custom domains are on the Haven plan.
Switching from something else?
- Switching from Gmail
- Switching from Outlook
- Switching from iCloud Mail
- The provider-agnostic checklist — if your old host isn't listed.
- How Mailotte compares — if you haven't decided yet.