Yahoo imaplib errors

[Linh Lee]

Want to search folder SPAM, for specific_user@a ny domain, and delete found mail.

Code below ...

import imaplib

box = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL('imap.mail.yahoo.com', 993)
box.login("xxxxxxxx@yahoo.com","xxxxxxxxxx")
box.select('SPAM')
typ, data = box.search(None, 'from','name@*')
for num in data[0].split():
   box.store(num, '+FLAGS', '\\Deleted')
box.expunge()
box.close()
box.logout()

... is generating these errors, please assist in debugging:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Desktop\Desktop\Python Spam Buster\test.py", line 6, in <module>
    typ, data = box.search(None, 'from','name@*.*')
  File "C:\Users\Desktop\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\imaplib.py", line 734, in search
    typ, dat = self._simple_command(name, *criteria)
  File "C:\Users\Desktop\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\imaplib.py", line 1230, in _simple_command
    return self._command_complete(name, self._command(name, *args))
  File "C:\Users\Desktop\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\imaplib.py", line 968, in _command
    raise self.error("command %s illegal in state %s, "
imaplib.IMAP4.error: command SEARCH illegal in state AUTH, only allowed in states SELECTED

[Linh Lee]

SOLUTION:

Got off the phone with Yahoo Premium Support Engineer.

Yahoo mail has a unique way of generating the "Spam" folder filtering system, thus, folder scan would not display it!

Due to the above mentioned, 3rd party mailbox managers, can't access it by it's name, SO, an identical box called "Bulk" is generated, giving you access to all the contents of the "Spam" folder via "Bulk".

When I ran a scan for the folders/boxes, I didn't notice that I had an extra folder called "Bulk", that only appears via the scan, and can't be seen via the web browser.

I'm paraphrasing the above info from the engineer's explanation, hope it makes sense for anyone having the same issue.