Troubleshooting problems with remaining signed in to Yahoo!
Description
This article addresses problems that users may encounter with signing in or remaining signed in to their Yahoo! ID, and with saving Yahoo! Finance-specific settings.
Cause
An Internet browser is not accepting cookies correctly.
Resolution
If you get a cookie error or you're being sent back to the sign-in screen with no error message, your user cookie is probably not being set properly.
A "cookie" is a small piece of information stored by your browser to help identify who you are. Yahoo! Finance uses cookies to keep you signed in to your account as you move from page to page. If your cookie isn't being accepted properly, you'll be signed out of your account when you move to a different page. This is probably why you're having trouble signing in and remaining signed in.
There are a number of reasons why your cookie may not be set properly. In order from the easiest to the hardest:
- The date on your computer might be set incorrectly. Since cookies rely on dates, a computer with an incorrect date may confuse your browser into forgetting about your cookie. To fix this, simply set the correct time and date on your computer.
- You might have installed an application that monitors/blocks cookies from being sent such as virus protection software. If so, disable it before you sign in.
- You might be behind a firewall that doesn't allow you to receive cookies. This is sometimes the case for users connecting from a business intranet with high security. To see if this is why you're having problems, contact your Systems Administrator.
- Your browser may not be set to accept cookies. Most browsers have the option of either accepting all cookies, showing an alert before accepting a cookie, or not accepting cookies at all. In order to use Yahoo! Finance Beta Charts, your browser must be set to accept all cookies without alerts. If your browser gives you the option to accept all cookies, you should choose it. If your browser gives you the option to show an alert before accepting a cookie, you should not select it. Please see the help article about setting your browser to accept cookies.
It is also possible that your browser's cookie files might be corrupted. Corrupted cookie files sometimes stop supporting Yahoo! Finance. Try shutting all of your browser's windows and then deleting the cookie files in your browser's directories.
Note: You should delete the cookie files themselves, but you do not need to delete the folders where they are stored.
If you're using another operating system:
Some Web browsers have their own existing steps for deleting cookies. For instance, with Internet Explorer versions 4 and higher on Macintosh, you can delete the cookies files via the "Cookies" panel in Internet Preferences. For browsers that don't have that ability, these general instructions may help:
Find the cookie files. To find them:
- Use your operating system's "Find" or "Search" feature to search for the word cookies. This should bring up a list of the folders and files with the word "cookies" in their file names.
- Identify the Internet cookie files. It is important to differentiate Internet cookie files from other files with the word "cookies" in their file names. Internet cookie files are usually located within your browser's directory on your hard drive.
- Delete the Internet cookie files. DO NOT delete any file that you believe you may have created yourself or that you suspect might not be an Internet cookie file.
If none of the above suggestions have solved your problem, your browser itself might be corrupted. The easiest solution may be to try another browser, if you have one installed on your computer. You may want to reinstall your current browser as well, by finding the original installation file and repeating the install process. As a last resort, you can always download a new browser or an updated version of your present browser from the Internet. This may take awhile depending on your modem's speed.
Select to download your preferred browser: