Guide

How to download your Yahoo mail

Every folder, onto your own computer, before you switch addresses or before a move you didn't choose. You set it up once, and the download runs on its own.

Updated October 2026

Yahoo Mail2009InboxFamilyTaxesA copy on your own computer

Short answer

Add your Yahoo account to a mail app like Apple Mail or Thunderbird using Yahoo's download server, export.imap.mail.yahoo.com, with an app password. The app copies every folder to your computer and leaves the mail on Yahoo. For a full archive file instead, ask Yahoo through Download My Data, which can take up to 30 days.

How do I download my Yahoo emails?

The quickest complete copy comes from a mail app on your computer. Five steps, done once.

  1. 1

    Create an app password

    Sign in to the Yahoo Account Security page. Under "External connections", choose Create app password and follow the prompts. Mail apps use this code instead of your normal password.

  2. 2

    Add the account to a mail app

    In Apple Mail or Thunderbird, add the Yahoo address by hand. Incoming server export.imap.mail.yahoo.com, port 993, SSL on. Username is your full email address, password is the app password.

  3. 3

    Keep the mail on Yahoo

    If the app asks whether to "keep mail on the server", say yes, or the messages are removed from Yahoo as they download. Also make sure it downloads whole messages, not just previews.

  4. 4

    Let it finish

    A big mailbox can take several days. Yahoo says folders with around 100,000 messages or more may not download completely, so split those into smaller folders in Yahoo Mail first.

  5. 5

    Check the count, then move it

    Compare the number of messages in each folder with what Yahoo shows. To bring the mail into a new mailbox, add that mailbox to the same app and drag the folders across.

The settings come from Yahoo's own pages: Download your email from Yahoo Mail with IMAP and Generate and manage app passwords.

The other way: ask Yahoo for a copy

Yahoo will also put together a download of your account for you. Go to your Yahoo privacy controls, find "Download and view your data" under "Manage Your Information", click Download My Data, pick what to include and request it.

It's slower. Yahoo says the download can take up to 30 days to be ready, you get an email when it is, and it stays available for 30 days after that. Use it as a second copy, or when setting up a mail app isn't an option.

comcast.net and cox.net addresses

If your comcast.net or cox.net mail now runs on Yahoo, you sign in to Yahoo with that address, and the steps above work the same way. Moving from Comcast? Xfinity's move leaves some things behind, like attachments over 25 MB and your filters. What changes in the Comcast move, and how to transfer Comcast email to Gmail or a new address.

Save the family archive before you switch

A Yahoo account that's been around since the early 2000s is often the family's only copy of a lot of things: baby photos sent to grandparents, school letters, the paperwork for the house. Download it before anyone changes address, and keep the copy somewhere you back up.

If the family is moving to its own domain, the downloaded folders can go straight into the new mailboxes, and the old Yahoo address stays open while people catch up. Each of our mailboxes holds 5 GB, so with a very large archive, bring the recent years and keep the downloaded copy for the rest. An AOL address in the family too? AOL Mail isn't going away, and saving a copy works the same way with AOL's settings.

Bring the archive somewhere it stays

Your family's own domain and six mailboxes, for $19 a month. We set everything up.

Find your family's domain