Forum Discussion

Korrupt's avatar
Korrupt
Tuning in
7 months ago

Email problems

Hello,

Due to a recent security recommendation I decided to change my Virgin Media passwords, including my email. However, I seem to be having trouble since the changeover.

Firstly, due to the new security features, I had to create a new email account with Gmail to use to sign into my Virgin Media account, which I find totally absurd.

Secondly, because I use Thunderbird to check my emails, I have to use the App password tool to generate a password, and today I've been getting prompts that my password is incorrect. I don't understand why can't I pick my own password?

Thirdly, after the changeover I can't send mail from the other email addresses linked to my account through Thunderbird.

So basically, my Virgin Media email isn't working very well at the moment. Before this, it worked fine for the 27 years I've been with Virgin/Telewest.

Please advise.

Thank you.

 

 

  • coenoby's avatar
    coenoby
    7 months ago
    Korrupt wrote:

    The thing is I usually have the same 'Drafts' and 'Sent' folders for both my main and secondary email addresses.

    You can do that by following the instructions in my last post. You can specify that draft and sent emails from one email are stored in the sent or drafts folder of that account or any of the email accounts you have set up on Thunderbird, They don't even have to be stored in a VM email account.

    "I've tried swapping the 'Outgoing Sever (SMTP)' default to the secondary email"

    I am not sure what you mean by that but I'm not surprised you now have problems.

    The Outgoing email server for all VM email accounts is smtp.virginmedia.com. so swapping that to any another server is inevitably going to cause you problems. From the error message you have quoted it suggests you are still using the old Blueyonder servers. VM have not recommended using them for years. They seem to still work but they are less secure than the Virginmedia.com servers.

    In any event, the "Outgoing server" is just the server that sends emails on their way to the intended recipient, not where they get stored in Thunderbird so no way is it going to solve your problem with missing sent and draft folders.

    Coenoby

  • coenoby's avatar
    coenoby
    Very Insightful Person
    7 months ago

    Korrupt 

    "I had to create a new email account with Gmail to use to sign into my Virgin Media account, which I find totally absurd."

    Virgin Media stopped issuing email accounts to new customers in May 2022 and all the security changes that you mention, plus some others, have been introduced since then.  They have also stopped existing customers creating new secondary email accounts.

    "today I've been getting prompts that my password is incorrect."

    Did you update the password in Thunderbird to your new app password?

    You can check the password and if necessary edit the password held in Thunderbird's settings:

    • Click on "Tools" at the top of the main screen in Thinderbird
    • then from the drop down menu click on "Settings"
    • then scroll down that Settings page to the Password section and click on "Saved passwords"
    • from the list of email accounts select click on the "Show passwords" button.
    • select and click on the email address in question and right click. You will see an option to "Edit password"

    "I can't send mail from the other email addresses linked to my account through Thunderbird."

    Assuming they are also VM, Blueyonder, Ntlword accounts then I would suggest as a frist first step you need to create a Mail app password for each of those email accounts.

    Two tips regarding that:

    1. Each VM secondary account has its own My Virgin Media Account (another change you may be unaware of). That means you need to sign into the My Virgin Media account using the same you link you use to sign into your main My Virgin Media account but use the VM email address and password for each of the secondary email accounts rather than your rmain VM account.
    2. Strictly speaking you need to set up separate new non VM email accounts for each of these  secondary email accounts - but since you decided to use Gmail you can use a workaround. Unlike every other email service  Gmail does not take any notice of the  dot "." symbol in its email addresses. So for example if you have set up a Gmail account with the address korrupt@G........ you can use the address k.orrupt, ko.rrupt, kor.rupt etc etc. as the sign in names of yoru other VM email accounts. VM will treat them as separate email accounts but the verification emails for all those variations of your Gmail address will go to you main korrupt@G......... email account.

    Sorry to go on at length.

    Coenoby

    1.  
    • Korrupt's avatar
      Korrupt
      Tuning in
      7 months ago

      Hello,

      Thank you for the reply. I've successfully fixed the issue where I could not send email from my secondary email addresses within Thunderbird.

      However, the emails I've sent are not shown within the 'Sent' folder within Thunderbird, nor does Thunderbird save any drafts using the secondary email address. However, neither of these issues exist when I use webmail. Is there a fix in Thunderbird for this?

      Thanks.

      • coenoby's avatar
        coenoby
        Very Insightful Person
        7 months ago
        Korrupt wrote:

         the emails I've sent are not shown within the 'Sent' folder within Thunderbird, nor does Thunderbird save any drafts using the secondary email address. However, neither of these issues exist when I use webmail. Is there a fix in Thunderbird for this?

        To check and change where  Sent and Draft emails are stored:

        • Click on "Tools"  in the menu at the top of the main Thunderbird screen
        • Then from the drop down menu click on "Account settings"
        • That will give a list of all the email accounts set up in Thunderbird. Scroll down to the one you want to check and click on the "Copies and folders" option listed below that account.
        • That will open a page with the heading "When sending messages automatically........"
        • Immediately below that will be the details of the folder where Sent messages for that account are being placed. You can then amend that to one of the other folders listed.
        • Scroll down a bit further and you will see where Thunderbird is currently saving draft messages and you can amend that to one of the other folders listed.

        I hope that helps.

        Coenoby

  • Adduxi's avatar
    Adduxi
    Very Insightful Person
    7 months ago

    Best advice I can offer is to dump the VM email altogether.  Take the hit and migrate away to a non ISP bound email solution.  It will be an almighty pain, but worth it in the end.  I know, I've been there ....