Yahoo! uses temporary, automatic account locking as a security measure to protect accounts from unauthorized access.

• If you (or someone else) use the wrong password three or more times when attempting to sign in to your account, your account is locked for 24 hours, for your protection.

Reasons you might see the message: "Account locked for security reasons" when attempting to sign in:

• Three or more failed sign in attempts: This triggers our security system to temporarily lock the account for 24 hours.
• Someone with a similar Yahoo! ID accidentally typed your ID while signing in: If you haven't recently tried to sign in to your account, then it could be someone else's harmless mistake. Their Yahoo! ID may be similar to yours and they may have mistakenly typed in your Yahoo! ID instead of their own.
• Automatic security measures: In case an unauthorized person tried to access your account, we lock it for your protection.

How our account lock works:

• It lasts 24 hours, starting on the third unsuccessful sign in attempt.
• It doesn't reset. Attempting to sign in again within the 24 hour period will not help.
• Try again after 24 hours. Once the lockout time has expired, your password should work as usual.

If it has been more than 24 hours and you still cannot access your account, contact our Customer Care team.

• We can't provide the lock time information to you. We can't provide the exact time that your account was locked or when it will be unlocked.

• If you see an "Invalid Password" error message, see our help article about how to recover a lost password or go directly to our password helper.
• If you think someone may have accessed your account, see our help article on compromised accounts.