
Yahoo makes it difficult to leave its service by disabling email forwarding - italophil
https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/10/yahoo-makes-it-difficult-to-leave-its-service-by-disabling-email-forwarding/
======
oridecon
Just 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
I 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
I 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.

~~~
newscracker
Almost 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.

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ikeboy
>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
But 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
Since 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.

~~~
tdkl
I'm pretty happy with Servermx [1].

It's hosted in EU, has IMAP/POP/ActiveSync (AS is not mentioned on website
since it's still in beta, but has worked since last year reliably),
Cal&CardDAV (CardDAV offers full HQ contact photos).

The prices are quite reasonable (1.8€ monthly for 10GB mailbox). Webmail
interfaces are SOGo, Squirrelmail, Roundcube. Support tickets are answered
instantly (couple hours).

You can migrate existing mail via an IMAP importer (logs into target IMAP
server with your credentials and pulls email to servermx).

They offer a 30 day trial to check it out (without custom domain part for the
trial), after that you can upgrade it to a full paid account, which supports
custom domains.

[1] [http://servermx.com/](http://servermx.com/)

~~~
Crosseye_Jack
> They offer a 30 day trial to check it out (without custom domain part for
> the trial), after that you can upgrade it to a full paid account, which
> supports custom domains.

From their features page.

> With the trial product You can use your own domain name or use a free sub-
> domain of servermx.com which will be assigned to you at subscription time.

Or did you mean they don't offer "Custom Web mail URL - Your domain name can
be used for your web email client (example
[http://webmail.yourdomainname.tld)"](http://webmail.yourdomainname.tld\)")
during the trial?

Thanks for the heads up, I'll have to look into them as I'm getting bored of
maintaining my own mail server and €24 isn't bad for a year. I'll have to look
into them a bit more before taking the plunge though.

~~~
tdkl
Oh, my mistake then, I thought the trial was only possible with their email
address. Even better :)

------
Vanit
This is why you should use your own email domain so you can just shuffle it
around providers as needed.

~~~
eberkund
For most providers, using your own domain is a paid feature.

~~~
rhinoceraptor
I 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
If 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.

~~~
pasbesoin
I'd be afraid of Google's control over my domain name registration. Even if
they don't do anything malicious, their "wall of silence" with respect to
support leaves me very apprehensive. (Some people say it's different for paid-
product support, but I don't know whether this includes $12/year domain name
registration -- or will so in future.)

~~~
hollander
You can keep registration at your preferred provider, and set DNS for MX to
Google, and there you go.

~~~
SXX
Can you please explain how exactly this going to work without Google Apps? Am
I missing something?

~~~
Vanit
Yeah, you're missing the bit where you use a 3rd party to send/receive the
email as a proxy for your personal gmail account, i.e. using Zoho.

(1) Point your MX records at your Zoho mail

(2) Forward all mail from Zoho to your personal gmail account

(3) Setup a sender alias in your gmail account for your domain

~~~
SXX
This is way I using gmail now, but that is kind a opposite to statement in
message I replied to: "set DNS for MX to Google".

Currently I have to redirect to Google and Google only send from those boxes
using 3rd party SMTP server. So main advantage of having trusted sender is not
there.

------
MisterWalter
I 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
There 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.

~~~
zulln
I 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
The banner only shows for a week after you set it up.

------
seccess
Gmail, 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)

------
bmuon
> (Disclosure: TechCrunch parent company Verizon is acquiring Yahoo.)

On the side:

> Verizon wants $1 billion discount on Yahoo deal | Crunch Report

Hmmm...

------
hannob
Almost 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)

------
ghaff
Just 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
it 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
I 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.

------
vsloo
We 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
Yeah 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

------
fixxer
I 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.

~~~
eridius
I'd recommend FastMail. I've been using them for a while and I'm very happy
with their service.

------
webwanderings
Gmail 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.

------
eeeeeeeeeeeee
What a scummy move.

------
honkhonkpants
No doubt they will try to find some way to further lock in Flickr users as
well.

------
M_Grey
Just another reason to never associate your real information with something
like a Yahoo account, and always use different passwords for different sites.

