If I reset my Yahoo mail account in the New Outlook, will I lose my email stored in my file structure

James Tierney 20 Reputation points
2026-10-08T18:57:58.0333333+00:00

My New Outlook has downloaded the mail from my Yahoo account successfully for a year. All of a sudden it stopped. This forum as well Copilot and Google AI tell me to remove my Yahoo Account and re-establish it. Will I lose all of the email in my subfolders if I do that? If so, how can I preserve them and get them back?

Outlook | Windows | New Outlook for Windows | For home
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Brian Tillman 27,495 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2026-10-09T01:13:43.98+00:00

When you configured the account, did you do it manually or did you allow Outlook to do it automatically? If the former, you should have had to explicitly choose the account type so you'd know what it is. If you allowed automatic configuration, it would be IMAP. You can also click Settings>Accounts>Your accounts>Manage. Examine the details.

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  1. Brian Tillman 27,495 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-10-08T20:06:08.9333333+00:00

    Hi. I'm Brian and I'll try to help.

    Typically, accessing a Yahoo mailbox with new Outlook will do so using an IMAP account. IMAP is a two-way synching protocol so anything you do in the mailbox will be reflected in the client and vice versa. All your messages remain in the mailbox online at Yahoo. Removing and re-adding the account should not lose any data and your folder hierarchy should remain the same. Make sure, though, that you're using IMAP. You should be able to see that in your account settings.

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