Locked Yahoo Account- What Does It Mean And How To Get It Fixed?

| Updated on March 1, 2024
Locked Yahoo Account

No one would deliberately want to get locked out of their Yahoo account. Yahoo doesn’t like either to lock your email account, but still, it gets somehow. Do you know why? Probably No, that is why you are here, reading this.

If you have been locked out of your yahoo mail account lately, there can be several reasons for that. In this guide, I am going to talk about all the causes that result in a locked account plus how to get it fixed. Moreover, I will pen down some of the important tips that will help you avoid such a situation in the future.

Why A Locked Yahoo Account?

Most of the email services including Yahoo has preset instructions and guidelines to ensure the legitimate use of their products and services.  Moreover, it is to ‘secure (https://safety.yahoo.com/Security/SECURITY_RESOURCES.html) the users’ account that has all the sensitive details. I have listed the most common reasons due to which Yahoo accounts get locked:

  • Sending large numbers of emails exceeding the specified limit.
  • Using your Yahoo account from multiple locations within a short period.
  • Multiple attempts to illegally access the account.
  • The receiver of the email has marked it as spam.
  • Suspicious events taking place on your account.
  • Incorrect POP and IMAP settings
  • Entering incorrect password multiple times.
  • Unlicensed access to third-party apps or software

Not only these but anything that interrupts the privacy or breaks Yahoo’s policies, they will put a lock on your account.

Once your account gets locked, you will not be able to regain access or send emails to it till Yahoo approves your entry. 

How to Unlock Yahoo Account?

Now, if you are facing a locked Yahoo account, no need to feel blue. There is a way out. It is quite easy to unlock yahoo account but the success chances depend on the situation you are in. 

Here are some of the common scenarios faced by Yahoo users with the methods to get out of it. 

Case-1 Automatic Recovery of account

If too many unsuccessful sign-in attempts have locked down your Yahoo account, the good news is, this can be temporary. In most of the cases, it usually gets automatically unlocked after 12 hours. Yes, this is not a major problem, so Yahoo is not strict at all. Once your accounts get locked, you should avoid making any further sign-in attempts and wait for the 12 hours period to get over.

Some other reasons for which Yahoo temporarily locks your account:

  • There is a risk to your password.
  • Login attempts have been made from different locations at a time.
  • The IP address is frequently changing or is hidden.

Case-2 Manually Unlocking Your Account

Method- 1 Using other Servers

Yahoo has many servers around the world, so you can try logging in using a different server. The new server will offer you fresh cookies, allowing you to sign in to your Yahoo account

Here are the servers that you can use:

  1. https://login.yahoo.com/config/mail?.intl=in – India
  2. http://uk.mail.yahoo.com/ – UK
  3. https://login.yahoo.com/config/login – USA
  4. https://login.yahoo.com/config/login – Canada

Method-2 Using the Yahoo Sign-in Helper

  1. Go to the Yahoo Sign-in Helper page.
  2. Enter the information you have out of the available options such as Yahoo mail address, phone number, or recovery email address.
  3. Whatever information you have entered, you will receive a code on that.
  4. Enter the code and follow the on-screen instructions to regain access to your locked Yahoo account.

Some Additional Tips to Unlock Yahoo Account

All the above methods can be applied to 

  1. Remove POP and IMAP settings entirely from the email service.
  2. Try using a different browser to access Yahoo mail.
  3. Withdraw access from all the third-party apps or software.
  4. Clear the entire history and cache of the browser and then try to access the Yahoo account again.


Kanika Singh

Webmail and Internet Expert


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