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Yahoo Explains Why It Recently Disable Automatic Forwarding On Yahoo Mail; Reinstates the Feature (businessinsider.com)

Posted by msmash on from the fixing-things dept.

Earlier this month, Yahoo disabled the auto-forwarding feature from its Yahoo Mail email service, leaving people with little choice but to use Yahoo Mail client to check the emails their received on their Yahoo account. The company has now acknowledged the issue, explaining why it all happened, and most importantly, switched email forwarding feature on again. From a BusinessInsider report: "Why the pause? Over the past year, Yahoo Mail has been upgrading its platform. This has allowed us to bring a better search experience to Yahoo Mail, add multiple account support, and improve performance as we quickly scale this new system globally. The feature was temporarily disabled as part of this process," Michael Albers, VP of Yahoo Mail product management, wrote in a blog post. To turn on mail forwarding, go to Settings -- Account in Yahoo Mail and enter your forwarding address. After confirming that you, in fact, control that other address, automatic forwarding should be turned on.

22 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. This answer is total BS by gweilo8888 · · Score: 5, Informative

    If it was simply turned off as part of the upgrade process, it would have been turned back on again silently, without the user having to take action. The fact we're told we have to reenable it shows quite clearly that Yahoo disabled it to prevent folks jumping ship, and has only begrudgingly turned it back on to try and squash the bad publicity that its move generated. It's clearly hoping that most users who would otherwise have used the feature won't realize it has been turned back on.

    1. Re:This answer is total BS by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Informative

      IIRC, they did not disable the feature for people who were already using it - so there was nothing to switch back on.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:This answer is total BS by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      You're absolutely right. This has soured me to Yahoo even more than I was before. Not only do they make terrible decisions, they lie to the consumer and act like they think we're fools.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    3. Re:This answer is total BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This is a very important point. They temporarily disabled setting a new mail forward while they put in a new system.
      The new one checks to make sure you control the new address before spamming your poor victim.
      Yahoo sucks, but they got this one right.

    4. Re:This answer is total BS by ottott · · Score: 2

      That statement is NOT true! If you had mail forwarding enabled, you will have to manually go and re-enable it yourself. I just confirmed this with my own account.

    5. Re:This answer is total BS by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      I think the reason is as stated, "This has allowed us to bring a better search experience to Yahoo Mail".
      They simply needed to be sure they could search your forwarded email as well as your inbox.

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    6. Re:This answer is total BS by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Except this wasn't the case yesterday when people reported it. It looks like the "fix" has caused you the problem.

    7. Re:This answer is total BS by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      If it was simply turned off as part of the upgrade process, it would have been turned back on again silently, without the user having to take action

      The fact that users had to take action at all and had a feature temporarily and without notice disabled in a production environment speaks volumes too.

      Yahoo can pick one or two of the following:
      1. Wilfully and nefariously forcing users to stay on their system.
      2. Grossly incompetent at system upgrades on production servers.

    8. Re:This answer is total BS by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The new one checks to make sure you control the new address before spamming your poor victim.
      Yahoo sucks, but they got this one right.

      While that sort of a check might be reasonable, it absolutely was not "right" to roll out a new system without having e-mail forwarding in place. To get it "right", they should have had their new system ready to go before rolling it out.

      --

      How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    9. Re:This answer is total BS by Arnold+Reinhold · · Score: 1

      Given their massive data breach, requiring users to re-establish any forwarding addresses is not a bad security move.

    10. Re:This answer is total BS by DavidRawling · · Score: 1

      Why not both?

    11. Re:This answer is total BS by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Why not both?

      Because someone doesn't know what "one or two" means ;-)

    12. Re: This answer is total BS by nachtelfjeiu · · Score: 1

      Should have and could have. No reason was provided why the feature had to be disabled during the upgrade process. So for the lack of transparency and suspicious conditions I'm calling BS on this argument until Yahoo explains otherwise.

  2. Run from Yahoo ASAP by ITRambo · · Score: 2

    Anyone still using Yahoo needs to jump ship as Yahoo will never be a great company, especially if Verizon purchases it.

    1. Re:Run from Yahoo ASAP by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      The thing with those old accounts, is you don't so much jump ship as you simply cast that ship adrift and start using one of your others. If it comes back, it comes back, if it doesn't you just continue to let it drift out in cyberspace, with that ginormous fleet of other cast adrift use account ships, that accountants continue to claim in their sales figures, ghost ships (especially taking into account deceased users)

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  3. Real answer by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We wanted to make sure it was as hard as possible for people to leave until our deal with Verizon went through, as more users equals more money for the deal. It was especially important once people became aware of our massive data breach. But now we need the good PR because Verizon is having second thoughts about the proposed deal and wants to renegotiate terms.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  4. Yahoo's eternal upgrade by epine · · Score: 1

    Now Yahoo just needs to explain what system or software or mental competence they're in the middle of upgrading that causes them not to tell people what's about to happen before it happens.

    Sure hope Competence 11.0 is finally the one that ignites self-perception.

  5. Corrected Yahoo's to reflect Real Reason by Striikerr · · Score: 1

    "Why the pause? Over the past year, Yahoo Mail has been upgrading its platform. This has allowed us to bring a better search experience for the NSA to Yahoo Mail, add multiple account support, and improve performance as we quickly scale this new system globally. .."
    The NSA needed some improvements for their special search tools. :P

  6. I call bullshit by ilsaloving · · Score: 2

    If this was a required move as part of whatever upgrade they were doing, they would have notified people beforehand to expect it.

    The most charitable explanation is that their management is incompetent in failing to provide that heads up.

    The most likely explanation was that they quietly tried to close the door on people trying to jump ship, and now they're backpedalling because of the uproar.

    I haven't touched Yahoo for many years now, and it seems like they've made it their mission to justify my departure as much as possible.

    1. Re:I call bullshit by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity," which anyone who has been watching Yahoo flounder the past few years will tell you that when it comes to such a poorly run company? Hanlon's razor definitely applies.

      I just wonder if Verizon is gonna do the smart thing and bail out of the deal, apparently there is wording in the contract that if material issues come to light that Yahoo didn't disclose (like a half a billion emails hacked or handing everything over to the NSA) Verizon has the right to bail without penalty. If anybody at Verizon has any sense at all? They will go "whew dodged a bullet" and say bye bye to Yahoo which after the latest stink probably isn't even worth a half a billion and that would strictly be for patents and datamining, the rest of the company including their email I wouldn't give a plug nickel for.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  7. Re:Refund by sims+2 · · Score: 1

    At&t sends all of my bills and notifications to the premium yahoo mail account that comes with the dsl service so I have all mail from there forwarded to a yahoo address that actually gets checked occasionally.

    But it almost always puts the forwarded bills in the spam folder and I don't know why.

    --
    Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
  8. Spam honeypot by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    I've had a yahoo email account for a very long time. I wanted to try it out soon after they introduced the service. After setting up my account, I immediately began receiving spam, and that was without ever sending an email from that account, or telling anyone about the address. Once every year or two, I go back and check on it, just to see if Yahoo has gotten better at getting rid of spam. They haven't. My inbox there is still overflowing with brand new spam messages, despite never having used the service.

    By contrast, my GMail inbox is nearly always spam-free. I receive dozens per day, but GMail accurately filters out all of them, rarely making a mistake either way.

    I have no desire to forward my Yahoo email to any other place.