Cox Email Settings on Yahoo: IMAP, POP & SMTP

Since Cox moved cox.net email to Yahoo, email programs such as Outlook or Mail on Mac need two changes: a Yahoo app password, and Yahoo’s server settings. If you read mail at mail.yahoo.com or in the Yahoo Mail app, you don’t need any of this.

Step 1: Generate an app password (required)

Yahoo says email programs need a single password to access your cox.net account, and it must be an app password — not your regular password.

1. Sign in to your Yahoo Account Security page.
2. In the App Passwords section, click Generate app password (or Generate and manage app passwords).
3. Click Get started.
4. Enter your app’s name, then click Generate password.
5. Copy the password and use it as the account password in your email program.

App passwords stay active even if you change your main cox.net password. To stop one working, you have to delete it.

Step 2: Enter the server settings

• User name: your cox.net email address.
• Password: the app password from step 1.
• Outgoing authentication: required.

Do it on every device

Cox notes that if you use cox.net on several devices, each one needs the new settings. Built-in phone apps can often add the account as Yahoo instead — Cox links to Yahoo’s guides for iPhone, Android and other devices.

IMAP or POP?

Choose IMAP if you read cox.net mail in more than one place — it keeps everything in sync with Yahoo Mail on the web. POP downloads messages to one device.

Still not connecting?

• Make sure you used the app password, not your Yahoo/cox.net password.
• Delete the old app password and generate a new one, then enter it again.
• Check you can sign in at mail.yahoo.com — see Cox email login.

More on Yahoo’s settings: Yahoo Mail settings. Or let the Email Settings Finder fill them in for your cox.net address.