MAIL'S (not) IN... - Saving Emails as .eml

[ameerat42]

Yahoo Mail does not listen to Mozilla Thunderbird - no matter how long and plaintively it calls!

So my two Yahoo mail accounts have appeared in the Thunderbird list for ages now.
I have declined to log in to them because I only needed Optusnet and Gmail in-boxes.

Today I was ready to log in to the two Yahoo accounts. - No matter HOW I entered the passwords,
I could not get in/download the respective emails. Did a search and found that Yahoo blocks
Thunderbird access, considering it to be "unsecure".

Well, I'm not going to pay for full Outlook, and the free version does not look very comprehensive

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--Nor will Seamonkey

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What I want to do is: save emails and attachments as .eml files,
and Yahoo is the only recalcitrant one so far.

...Still looking...

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Gmail and Optus webmail are OK in Thunderbird; Yahoo requires a 3rd party prog

[John King]

Am, can you get your hands on Outlook 2003?

I use this as my desktop email client, but I've never tried it with a Yahoo account.

Actually Office 2003 Pro does everything I've ever needed or wanted, and I own it ...

[ameerat42]

If it's fr I could look for it. I have no MS Office-ry, just the bare MS-ery.
Everything else is open source (except for the free Photoshop CS2).

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- And another thing:
You must have seen the recent stupidery with Yahoo, where they've joined something
called "Oath" (mis-pronounced OAF!) --- Oh, I won't bovver going
into it again. If you've seen it you know, if not,you're lucky.

[ameerat42]

...for saving Yahoo emails as .eml.

1) Display the email as "raw message", from "More Actions".
2) For convenience, find the Subject field and copy the email title.
3) From browser menus, "Save page as", select "All files *.*"
4) Paste in the title as file name, and add .eml as the extension.

Cumbersome, but until Yahoo come to the accessibility party...
Else, pay for some scrappy program to do it.

You can then open it in any program that reads eml files, such as Thunderbird or Outlook...

Save-eml.jpg

[arthurking83]

LOL! gotta love the Yahoo description of their services:

By default, we block access to Yahoo Mail from outdated apps that could leave your account vulnerable. If we sent you an email indicating that your app is using outdated security protocols or you're unable to log in from an older app, you still have several options available to you.

* Use the Yahoo Mail website: https://mail.yahoo.com.
* Install the Yahoo Mail app on your Android or iOS devices.

I assume by their use of the word 'vulnerable', they take that to mean .. "we can't spy on you from every angle, so we need you to use our app"

https://help.yahoo.com/kb/sln27791.html
Instructions on how to set up Yahoo account to use more secure 'unsecure' thirdparty apps.

Speaking of secure/unsecure programshopefully a short side note)

Couple of years ago, my sis bought a newsagency, which came with PCs(very very old), and their software. They used some flavour of Office, so all emails were dealt with Office.
Sis got a so called 'invoice' in pdf format, went to open it, and BAM! .. not just malware, but ransomware.
Encrypted all her files(of the usual formats) so she was basically locked out of doing business.
The only file type of utmost importance was a saved file for the point of sale devices(all WinPC based too) which were imperative. Some strange file extension that(luckily for her) were not on the list of targeted file types for the ransomware.
The only reason it 'saved her bacon'(so to speak). Basically all her accounting was made through this software, so the ransomware didn't encrypt it.

I tried as much as I could to recover what I could, but from my research it was a lost cause... and I explicitly told her NOT to pay the $200 or so. Better to start fresh with new files, and get what she could from support areas where possible.

Got her two new PCs, all new software and strongly urged her to use T'bird top save this happening again.
She persevered with T'bird, and Open Office for a while, but couldn't handle Open Office compared to Office.
Once she reverted to using Office again, she also went back to using Outlook too.
I told her from here she's on her own again re: malware via emails!

When I got home, I accessed the offending email/pdf ransomware on my PC, using T'bird, and it immediately flagged it as a threat .. so no issue at my end.

Office(mainly Outlook) is a joke that many folks won't find funny at some point in their lives.

I have licensed copies of Office that I don't use any longer(maybe Office 2010), I urge that you don't even contemplate it, but there may be a chance that I could set up an account in my name on your PC so that those licenses could be transferred to you if absolutely needed, but I stress again, I'd recommend you don't!

[John King]

Arthur, I have had that happen to a client as well. Fortunately, the PC was only used for incoming mail, and the ransomware did not encrypt the Outlook .PST file.

The default setup for Windows (just like Macs ... ) is to hide file extensions. What clown thought that one up ... .

What your sister thought was a .PDF file probably had a hidden .ZIP or .EXE extension. The problem with most ransomware s/w is that it uses valid Windows processes, usually via the Alternate Data Stream (ADS) programming that MS included to make many Apple things Windows compatible. This is also a problem with UNIX, as the child process inherits the security credentials of the parent (e.g. a program that uses COPY in Unix inherits the security credentials of COPY, usually/often ROOT USER ... ).

The failure (as with my client) was operator error/vigilance, not the email client in use. MalWareBytes now has real-time protection against ransomware signatures and behaviours in their paid version for Windows 7 and later.

Highlights the need for a proper backup strategy, and proper security.

[ameerat42]

AK, you should point out to her that Outlook is just an anagram for Look out!

-- And, I-4-1 cannot see what's so hard about Open Office compared to MS Office

[arthurking83]

....

-- And, I-4-1 cannot see what's so hard about Open Office compared to MS Office

There are minute differences, my main usage spreadsheets(Calc).
I can reload Office 2010, if desperately needed, but don't.

How'djago with Yahoo and Tbird?
if no go, I'd seriously think about a new free email service, and start the process of migrating the Yahoo contacts to this new email addy.

[ameerat42]

I'm still "getting advice". - A whole lot of settings to feed Yahoo before then trying T'bird again.
A couple of other similar progs also balked at Yahoo.

[John King]

Am, I have been trying to access my Yahoo email using Outlook 2003. I can send mail directly from the Yahoo web mail account to my Outlook desktop client, but cannot access the Yahoo account from my desktop client. Bloody useless cartel-like behaviour that tries to carve out a proprietary niche from an open standard.

POP and SMTP are open standards. Any client that can access them, and has the correct security protocols (SSL or TLS), should be able to access all servers that support these standard protocols. The programmers for many of these programs (not just email) seem to think that it's up to them to change how the Internet functions in favour of only their client s/w.

[ameerat42]

They are the 8th plague of Egypt - except too late!

At least you'd think they would provide a means in the program itself to bulk save as .eml!

Yes, you can save individual ones as such, which I described above, but really

I will give them a serve - ie, politely write to the support people and suggest they implement a bulk save.

Look! If Aldi mobile* can suddenly give you 2GB (from 1.5) per $15 value pack AND make it unlimited rollover (instead of 30GB),
then that Uncouth-yell! crowd should be able to come to the party.


* Nothing to do with anything but it's news I got today.

[ameerat42]

There was a way, pointed out to me by another Yahoo user elsewhere. You have to go to this particular site
and follow the directions. I haven't tested what they mean by "temporary access" to 3rd party apps, but all my
Inbox mail is now accessible offline. - At least it looks to be offline, as I did not provide a password the second
time I ran T'bird.

Anyway, a Happy-Snap of Yahoo mail in T'bird...
Yahoo-Tbird.jpg

[John King]

Good to hear, Am.

That still doesn't work with Outlook 2003. MS must use the wrong 'flavour' of Secure Sockets Layer technology ...

Funny how it works with Hotmail, Gmail, Bigpond, Optus and my own web site email server ... Couldn't possibly be something wrong with Yahoo's implementation, now could it .

[ameerat42]

JK. Did you go to the site and "allow"?

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--Just finished backing up the Inbox. Now have to do the other folders

[John King]

Yes, mate. It allows test access, but will not send emails.

[ameerat42]

Then it's clearly a case of , or

[John King]

Yeah. They need some 'secret sauce' in the SSL stack that only their special spyware, umm, email client, possesses.

[ricktas]

Not sure if it works with yahoo. but I use EMClient. I find thunderbird to be annoying and not friendly with other email clients.

EMClient is free: https://www.emclient.com/

I just did a google ("does emclient with with yahoo mail") and looking at the answers, it appears yahoo works with it.

I have been using EMclient for about 3 years now and they update it regularly and I have had zero issues with it.

[ameerat42]

Ta Rick. I found two other T'bird equivalents and tried them, but both had the same issue.
However, T'bird is a bit rough in flight, so I will give this one a look.

I must say, though, that T'bird even downloaded other made-up folders from Yahoo Mail, even though
it could not do this for Optus Webmail.

But at least I've got a backup of some more important, older emails as .eml fils on the HDD.