Forum Discussion

the_eyleys's avatar
the_eyleys
On our wavelength
8 days ago

E-mail password no longer working & can't update/reset

Hi there,

We have 5 e-mail accounts (3 legacy ntlworld.com and 2 virginmedia.com) and use MS Outlook as our e-mail client.

For the last 3 days, one of our ntlworld.com e-mail addresses is failing to send or receive (email server rejected your login).  I know nothing has changed our end as the credentials are stored in Outlook and I've checked them to be ok, I believe the password has somehow become corrupted on the VM server which no longer recognises what is still the correct password.

I've tried multiple ways to log in using Chrome/Firefox to try and manage the account using a variety of accounts but all fail for various reasons.

Passwords on our email accounts do seem to corrupt on a fairly regular basis and, when they do, VM usually insist we switch the log-in e-mail to something non-VM and reset the password which has caused a whole host of problems previously.

Most notably, the main e-mail address associated to our VM account uses my old work e-mail address as a log-in which I no longer have access to.  Whenever I try to log in to do anything meaningful (like change a password on an email account) it says it's sending a link to the very login e-mail I no longer have access to with no option to update it.

So, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place it seems.  This whole system is such a confusing mess, made worse by the fact that e-mail passwords appear to just stop working for no apparent reason.

I need help here please and someone with some time and patience to unpick all this, I used to have 5 email addresses, 5 passwords, with one of those email addresses/password being the log into my VM account to manage it online.  Now I have 5 email accounts, all 5 of which need a 3rd party e-mail address associated with them to login (at least one of which is no longer accessible), passwords which may or may not work and no idea how to log into my VM account online even if I wanted to, it's a complete mess.

13 Replies

  • Itshim's avatar
    Itshim
    Dialled in
    8 days ago

    Good luck with this ,had these  problems for the last couple of weeks. Waste hours and hours on line to sort.fixed for a day then comes back . Awaiting a callback, asked if  I could speak to them . Said yes 4 hours later still no call. Thinking of getting carrier pigeons would better than this joke of a company 

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    8 days ago

    When you are putting the password into Outlook, are you using an app password, generated from within My Virgin Media for that mailbox?

    • the_eyleys's avatar
      the_eyleys
      On our wavelength
      7 days ago

      Thanks Itshim, not holding my breath tbh, been here before and it's painful, in fact I'm pretty sure the solution to the last problem of this nature has caused at least some of the complications I'm having now.  If only these companies were as obsessed with providing stable services as they are raw download speed (which is much 'sexier').

      @goslow,

      I believe so, it's 4 words connected with hyphens which is not my usual format, have a distant memory that it was a VM generated password last time the account password needed changing for this very reason (email suddenly not authenticating).  Sadly, since then, and with the need for a link to 3rd party e-mail accounts plus the need to link to 02, what was already a shoddy & complicated process is now even worse.

      As you know, when you install Outlook and set up email accounts manually, you enter the login/password credentials and Outlook stores them indefinitely.  This was done years ago so am in no doubt whatsoever that any change or problem is VM's end.

      We are now into day 4 of no emails on this particular e-mail account, the main reason we keep renewing with VM is to retain the legacy email accounts but, every problem we encounter like this out-of-the-blue, makes us more likely to switch providers.  Is providing reliable e-mail in 2025 really that difficult?

      • goslow's avatar
        goslow
        Alessandro Volta
        7 days ago

        Try generating a new app password for the faulty mailbox and using that for that one mailbox's settings in Outlook.

         

        the_eyleys wrote:

        Is providing reliable e-mail in 2025 really that difficult?

        It appears that the answer to this question is that it is very difficult (for VM at least) to provide a reliable email service in 2025!

        As has been mentioned many times on here before, VM stopped issuing email addresses to new customers in 2022 and existing customers cannot create new ones. VM is rapidly closing down mailboxes which are not linked to a broadband service. As customers leave VM, their mailboxes are deleted.

        The obvious, and inevitable, conclusion to this is that VM mail will cease to be at some point, just a question of when.

        Moving all of your email requirements to a provider that is capable of running an email service fit for 2025 would be a good investment of time and you will be doing the job on your timescale rather than one VM imposes on you at some point in the future when VM does finally decide to pull the plug on VM mail.

  • Osiris100's avatar
    Osiris100
    Tuning in
    6 days ago

    Just to confirm, you are not alone. One of my ntlworld emails just stopped working, all others work fine on the same machine. The one not working IS linked to a VM broadband account. Tried logging in via the web page and get "Your Virgin Media Mail account is currently unavailable
    This is either because your Virgin Media Mail account is locked, or because you don’t have an active account with us anymore."  This started 10 days ago. I have been using Chat, telephone and emails to connect with VM support and have a Ticket number. They say it is a problem with others as well. They said "be fixed in 2 days" , then "be fixed in 5 days", it has been 7 days and still not fixed and no feedback!!!. Utterly useless support team. I will be advising all of my friends to avoid VM  going forward. Been with them a long time and now beginning to regret have renewed my contract. "My wife is tearing MY hair out!!!"

  • the_eyleys's avatar
    the_eyleys
    On our wavelength
    5 days ago

    Agreed, look at official VM tech support rushing into this thread to help its supposedly valued but frustrated customers...

    <tumbleweed blows through the scene...>

    • Graham_A's avatar
      Graham_A
      Very Insightful Person
      5 days ago

      A tad harsh given that you haven't responded to the questions asked by the VM Forum Team member who replied to your post yesterday.

  • the_eyleys's avatar
    the_eyleys
    On our wavelength
    4 days ago

    Which post please Graham_A, have re-read the thread and don't see an unanswered question unless I've missed it!?

    If there's an official attempt to help which requires my response, please flag it, after all, we all make mistakes, if there has been an official response from VM then I apologise, but I've not seen any responses identified as coming from VM itself, maybe that's not how it works here, I genuinely don't know.

    • newapollo's avatar
      newapollo
      Very Insightful Person
      4 days ago

      Hi the_eyleys​

      REF:- Which post please Graham_A, have re-read the thread and don't see an unanswered question unless I've missed it!?

      The Staff post asking for more information is <this one>  from Matthew_ML Forum Team  to the_eyleys 3 days ago

      "Hey the_eyleys, thank you for reaching out and we are so sorry to hear about your email issue.

      Just to confirm this is currently the only address not working the rest are okay?

      What are the settings on this email?

      What does the server and IMP settings say?"

  • the_eyleys's avatar
    the_eyleys
    On our wavelength
    3 days ago

    Apologies Matthew_ML, there was a "Show More" link I did not see, you did indeed reach out, thanks for that.  After linking the e-mail to yet another different account, a phone number and  jumping through some more hoops, I did finally manage to generate a new app password, though Chrome would not work had to use Firefox.  This appears to be sorted, for now, thanks for all the replies.  Until the next time!

    • Kath_P's avatar
      Kath_P
      Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
      2 days ago

      Hi the_eyleys, 

      Thanks for coming back and updating things this end. We're happy to hear things are resolved for you now. 

      If you have any further issues, don't hesitate to pop back to us here in the Community.

      Many thanks,