Yahoo Mail IMAP access via GMail app

[N4Newbie]

I've had this problem in the past and it has suddenly returned; wondering if anyone else is affected.

I have a throwaway email account with Yahoo which my wife and I both use occasionally. It is configured for IMAP access using the GMail app and had been working fine until recently.

Now, every time I open GMail and select that account, I start with an empty mail list and it immediately begins downloading three years worth of mail headers, oldest first. Once that has completed, it begins downloading message contents. After waiting a minute or two, I can finally access the most recent emails.

The next time I open GMail and access the Yahoo account, the exact same process begins all over again.

I have tried deleting the account and rebuilding it, but the results are the same. Last night I realized that my wife's Nexus 5 (I have a Nexus 6) is doing the exact same thing. My actual gmail.com accounts work fine by the way.

Does anyone else have this problem? Is the fault with the GMail app? Or with Yahoo's IMAP server?

 

[SteveMed55]

Not the same problem but I can't access Sky(Yahooo) email at all since Friday and get the dreaded 'Couldn't open connection to server' message. This problem seems to have croppped up in various Android releases but there doesn't seem to be a consistent solution.

Nexus 5