Plain-English email rules for Yahoo Mail
Sort Yahoo Mail with plain-English rules. Connect over IMAP with a Yahoo app password and file newsletters, receipts and alerts in seconds.
For an address you have had for years
Old Yahoo addresses collect years of sign-ups. MailRules sorts new mail as it arrives, and its cleanup check shows where your rules would put older mail before anything moves.
One sentence instead of a filter per sender
“Shop newsletters go to Offers” covers senders you haven’t met yet. Senders it has already settled are handled without a model, so the cost stays low.
Getting the app password
Yahoo is stricter than most about who can make an app password. Do it from a browser you use for Yahoo every day. Once it exists, it survives password changes until you delete it.
Create an app password
- Use a browser you have signed in to Yahoo with for several days, not a private window. Yahoo may refuse otherwise.
- Sign in to your Yahoo Account Security page.
- Under External connections, click Create app password.
- Enter MailRules as the app name and click Generate password.
- Copy the password into MailRules, then click Done.
Connect it in MailRules
- In MailRules, open the connect wizard and choose Yahoo Mail. The server, port and encryption are filled in for you.
- Enter your email address and paste the app password.
- MailRules tests the connection and finds your Junk, Trash and Archive folders.
- Pick starter rules or write your own in plain English, check the preview, then go live.
- New installs start in dry-run: MailRules shows what it would do and changes nothing until you switch it live.
Good to know about Yahoo Mail
- Your username is your full Yahoo email address.
- Yahoo app passwords keep working when you change your main password. To cut access, delete the app password.
- Yahoo decides who can create an app password. If it won't let you, Yahoo says customer care can't override this.
Sources
Checked on 8 October 2026.
Questions
Yahoo won't let me create an app password. What now?
Yahoo suggests using a browser you have signed in with for several days in a row, outside Incognito mode. It also says customer care can't override this check.
If I change my Yahoo password, does MailRules stop?
No. Yahoo app passwords stay active until you delete them.
Will the Yahoo Mail app show the sorting?
Yes. MailRules moves mail on Yahoo's server, so every app and the web show the same folders.