jscher2000: Here's the description from my 7/27 post:

Once I open an email, I can not delete it or close it. When I click "ACTIONS" or 'COMPOSE" the pop-up message "LOADING..." never completes, apparently looping.

When I click "COMPOSE", a text msg appears on the bottom of my screen indicating, I think, what the computer is reading:

us-mg205.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.partner=sbc&.rand=cgcse0vj3t121#/minty/page/compose

if I attempt to delete, the same msg appears, minus "minty/page/compose"

When I mouse-over or click the gear wheel (settings) icon it merely spins and does nothing. Same text msg, except instead of "minty/page/compose" it reads "yucs-help_inner".

further on, in my post 8/13:

Opened Safari, opened email, same problem! Ran Malwarebytes scan, "no malicious items found". Shut down, re-boot. Same problem. Called ATT. Found same problem with Chrome and IE. Long and short: upon disabling "filtering" in AdBlocker, the email came back to life. Re-enabling filtering, the email continues to work. However, several unread emails had been moved to "trash", and now several are missing altogether

Current status: the email in FF is working, except that 2 days ago it (as previously) moved all my inbox emails, read and unread, to trash, except for a few that it apparently permanently deleted! That and those very annoying side-banner ads are a nuisance. Obviously, I am not the only user with these problems, which may be a conflict exclusive to the bundled ATT/Yahoo program (?) At this point, I would be glad to try another email program that allows me to utilize my @att.net address for incoming and outgoing. I see that gmail does allow for outgoing--if I select it (I don't see how to make that the default--but only on outgoing, original messages. When I replied to incoming @att.net via gmail, the address that shows is my gmail, not att.

Hi Laugesen, I don't remember reading that anyone's entire Inbox was deleted. Obviously that's a very serious problem and worth tracking down. I'm not sure how to determine the cause, but Yahoo support might be able to indicate when it happened and possibly what browser was involved.

Unlike some other services, Yahoo does not allow POP/IMAP access for free from desktop software (it is available on mobile: Set up Yahoo Mail in Android Mail). To view Yahoo mail in another program, or forward mail to another address automatically, you would have to sign up to the $20/year premium service (Mail Plus). This also removes the "display" ads from the webmail interface. (Some ads may remain.)

Over the years, I have read about workarounds that scrape the Yahoo webmail interface so they can be viewed in a desktop email program, but haven't tried them myself. (And with the changes in the Yahoo interface, they might not work any more.)

Since it's possible you will not keep AT&T service forever, you may want to transition to another address anyway. But that still leaves the issue of forwarding...

jsche2000: I came across this comment today:

The AdChoices ads on the right side of the page are served via flash, making them easy to block if you wish -- either by blacklisting flash for the mail.yahoo.com domain in your browser or by disabling flash, in which case the ads drop back to static images

This was from a comparison review of email programs (a good article, for anyone interested) at: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9236988/Webmail_war_Gmail_vs._Outlook.com_vs._Yahoo_Mail?taxonomyId=169&pageNumber=4

My 2-part question, if you can answer, is a) how to blacklist flash-- from Yahoo mail only, since I may need it for other sites, yes? and b) is this a good idea? ("good" meaning, if I somehow restrict or disable flash, even if possible only within Yahoo, is there some downside?)

Hi Laugesen, when I right-click the ad, I don't get the standard Flash context menu, so at least for me they are regular HTML ads.

You can use a custom style rule to blank that right column, but this leaves the space blank. Expanding the content (the way it expands when you click the vertical button between the inbox and the ad) is trickier. I did see a rule on userstyles.org (the site that provides example style rules for the Stylish extension): http://userstyles.org/styles/58924/yahoo-mail-remove-ads-better.

thanks, jscher2000--that "stylish" add-on that I just now downloaded did delete the side-bar banner ad, finally! Those ads were more than a distraction; they truncated the message window so that until I clicked that vertical button to remove the ad each time, i could not read or compose an entire line. I'll post again if any email problems persist.

Posted this on the ATT forum in reply to your issue. Duplicating here because it doesn't matter what browser you use, mail won't work until you work through the following steps. I swear it works.

I've used AdFender since 3/2012 & suddenly had the same issue in August. Mail didn't work in any browser. ATT home & online techs escalated the issue, I consulted a computer repair tech. No one could figure it out.

AdFender launches at startup & blocks whatever it wants to. Apparently, as of August, this included ATT/Yahoo mail functionality. You can:

A) Keep using AdFender, but force it to allow you to see your email. B) Stop AdFender from launching automatically at startup and instead launch it when you want to use it. C) Uninstall it completely.

Solution A: Keep AdFender, but force it to allow your email features.

After a shutdown or restart:

1. Launch Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) from your desktop. The Applications tab is open. AdFender is shown in the list to be running. Click it and then click End Task. (If it's not listed, check the Processes tab. Locate AdFender in the list. Click it, and then click the End Process button.) AdFender is now not running at all. Go ahead and leave Task Manager open so you can see what goes on. 2. Launch your browser and your email. As if by magic, it works as you expect.

Now. If you want to keep AdFender, but retain email functionality, complete these steps. You can keep your browser & email open, just resize your window to see your desktop.

3. Copy your email url (your http: email address) from the address bar. 4. Launch AdFender. (Because it was just running, you should see it in your Start Menu, but it's also under Programs.) The AdFender application window opens on your desktop. 5. Click Settings. You'll see a list of approved websites AdFender will not block. You want to add your email url to this list. 6. Click Add, and then paste your email url into the field. Click Add, and then click Apply on the Settings tab. 7. Leave the AdFender window open if you want to stop it from launching automatically when you start your computer (solution B).

OK. You've added your email URL to Approved Websites. AdFender is still running. Your browser and email are open. Press F5 to refresh your browser. Your email works.

These steps also work for other websites. For example, AdFender does not block the ads or video content from ABC's website, but it does block video content from CBS. Just copy the url or find the url in AdFender's Statistics tab (That's what I did for CBS because it wasn't just cbs.com, it was vidtech.cbsinteractive.com.), copy the url and follow steps 4-6.

I found I HAD to close AdFender in Task Manager before I could open AdFender's application window. If I didn't stop it from running, I could click the application icon a hundred times and the AdFender window would not open. You also must use Task Manager to stop AdFender from running before you can uninstall it. Otherwise you'll see an error message telling you the uninstall can't continue until you close down AdFender.

Solution B (optional)

Notice on the AdFender Settings tab the Startup Options checkbox is checked by default, causing AdFender to launch automatically. If you don't want this to happen, uncheck the box. You will then need to launch AdFender from your Programs/Start menu whenever you're on a website where you find ads are annoying.

Solution C Uninstall AdFender

1. Launch Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) from your desktop. The Applications tab is open. AdFender is shown in the list to be running. Click it and then click End Task. (If it's not listed, check the Processes tab. Locate AdFender in the list. Click it, and then click the End Process button.) AdFender is now not running at all.

2. Uninstall AdFender. In Windows 7, click Control Panel-->Programs and Features-->AdFender-->UNINSTALL.

Thank you, LaurieGF, for your advice and very thorough instructions. I already uninstalled Adfender some weeks ago (but I don't recall if I closed it out using Task Manager or not). Searching "programs" just now it appears the uninstall was successful. I have been using the "stylish" add-on and that has worked--no more ads show up. My email is working fine now, using Mozilla browser. When I contacted support@adfender.com, they denied any conflict with Yahoo software. If you haven't passed on your comments to them, and you still use Adfender, they might be interested in your comments.