How To Separate Yahoo Mail From AT&T Account: Complete Guide

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I used to have an AT&T Yahoo e-mail account that merged my older Yahoo e-mail and the AT&T account that I had made to sign up for one of their services a long time ago.

I wanted to unlink my Yahoo account and delete it because I didn’t use Yahoo anymore, but I wanted to keep the AT&T account.

I vaguely remember that something had happened to the merged accounts a while back, so to find out what happened to AT&T Yahoo and see if I could unlink the two accounts, I dove deep into the internet.

What I found was somewhat pleasantly surprising, and after a few hours of research, I knew what had happened to the merged E-mail service. 

I decided to make this guide with the help of the information that I was able to gather.

The intention is to shine some light on the situation and what it means if you were an AT&T Yahoo E-mail user before.

After the contract between Yahoo and AT&T expired, the merged e-mail accounts will be automatically unmerged, and most of your data will be saved.

Read on to find out the current situation, and see how you can export your e-mails to another e-mail service.

Current Status Of AT&T Yahoo Mail

As of June 2017, AT&T and Yahoo had decided to part ways and shut down their partnered e-mail service.

As a result of the split, AT&T will lose access to Yahoo’s servers, and Yahoo won’t be able to use AT&T’s servers as well.

This means that the merged accounts will be unmerged automatically, while the passwords remain the same.

You won’t be able to log on to your Yahoo account with the following domains:

  • att.net
  • ameritech.net
  • bellsouth.net
  • flash.net
  • nvbell.net
  • pacbell.net
  • prodigy.net
  • sbcglobal.net
  • snet.net
  • swbell.net
  • wans.net

This also includes Tumblr, where you’ll no longer be able to log in with an e-mail address with one of these domains.

Yahoo says you’ll need to update your e-mail to something that works with their system post this update.

Do You Have To Do Anything?

The update means that you’ll need to change your e-mail address into something more suitable.

To do this:

  1. Open your account settings on Yahoo.
  2. Click the pencil icon near your e-mail address.
  3. Type in the new address and enter your password.
  4. Save the new details.

The rest of the unmerging process has already been done by AT&T and Yahoo, and you won’t need to do anything else.

What Will Be Saved?

As a result of the split, some content from your merged accounts will be saved, while some will be deleted.

Thankfully, AT&T has provided information on what stays and what goes

All your e-mails, folders, and contacts for your merged accounts will be saved when you log in with your YahooID.

All Yahoo accounts that you have merged with AT&T would have become standalone Yahoo accounts after the split.

Any subaccounts that you’ve linked to any of these Yahoo accounts will also retain their e-mails, contacts, and other content.

What Will Be Deleted?

What will be deleted, however, would be all e-mails from the AT&T account.

The e-mails, contacts, calendar, and information associated with Yahoo services like Yahoo Sports, Groups, and Tumblr.

The data would be moved to your new Yahoo account, and your AT&T account with be restored to a fresh account.

The AT&T subaccounts will remain AT&T subaccounts, however.

How To Export E-mails Across E-mail Accounts

It’s pretty easy to transfer all your inbox and saved mail to another e-mail service.

I wanted to shift everything on my Yahoo account to a Gmail account that I had made as a replacement.

Moving to Outlook

To move to Microsoft Outlook:

  1. Log in to your Outlook inbox.
  2. Click the gear icon on the top right of the webpage
  3. Select More mail settings > Managing Accounts
  4. Choose Sending / receiving e-mail from other accounts
  5. Select Add an e-mail account.
  6. Enter the e-mail address and password and set a folder for the imported e-mails to be saved.
  7. Save the changes.

Moving to Gmail

Turn on POP access on your old e-mail account.

Then follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to your Gmail account.
  2. Select Settings > See all settings.
  3. Choose Accounts and import.
  4. Under Check mail from other accounts, choose Add a mail account.
  5. Enter the old e-mail address and hit Next.
  6. Enter your old e-mail password.
  7. Check only these boxes
    1. Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail
    2. Label incoming messages
  8. Select Add Account.

Contact Yahoo and AT&T

If you have issues logging in to your unmerged Yahoo e-mail, you’ll need to contact Yahoo.

Contact AT&T if you are having issues trying to log in to the new AT&T account.

Final Thoughts

The split resulted from Yahoo’s old contract with AT&T, which had expired, where they agreed to merge their e-mail services.

With Yahoo changing ownership a lot of times for the past few years, the company has lost a lot of its market share, which it had dominated in the last decade.

With the advent of better-designed e-mail services like Gmail and Outlook, Yahoo couldn’t keep up with industry advances in time.

In 2021, Verizon sold its own shares of Yahoo to a private equity firm, which only signals the once internet giant’s downward spiral.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Yahoo part of AT&T?

Yahoo is no longer part of AT&T and was sold to Verizon.

In 2021, it changed hands again, and it was bought out by a private equity firm called Apollo.

Can I keep my AT&T e-mail address if I cancel AT&T Internet?

AT&T allows you to keep your AT&T e-mail even after you cancel their internet services.

You might lose access to some of their support services, though.

To unlink an e-mail account from Yahoo Mail:

  1. Tap the Profile icon.
  2. Go to Settings > Manage mailboxes.
  3. Select the X beside the linked account that you want to unlink.
  4. Confirm the prompt.