Forum Discussion

SDM123's avatar
SDM123
Settling in
17 days ago

Lost access to Virgin.net email account

I have been (and currently still am) a customer of Virgin broadband for >25 years and have two @virgin.net email accounts (one for myself and one for my wife). My email appears unaffected, however, my wife is unable to log into her account - Outlook prompts for an IMAP password but the connection fails. The password is correct as I am able to log into the webmail (mail.virginmedia.com) but when the password is accepted, I am informed that the account is inaccessible/locked.

I have spoken with a Virgin agent on the phone who was unable to assist. I urgently require access to this account so that I can hopefully migrate away (assuming that virgin.net accounts will continue to be disabled without any warning) from the address that has been my wife’s only source of communication for the last few decades.

I am also concerned that my address will face a similar fate. I require urgent assistance with this that will be gratefully received.

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

    SDM123. Have you followed the on screen instructions provided on the 'locked' page to unlock the email account concerned?

    This will entail logging into the My Virgin Media account for the email address with the email address and current password.  You will then need to go through the process to generate an app password for the account .  This should then unlock the email account.

  • Kath_P's avatar
    Kath_P
    Forum Team
    16 days ago

    Hi SDM123, 

    Thanks for taking the time to contact us via the Community. It's lovely having you on board with us in the Forums. ⭐

    We're sorry to hear your email account has been locked. There are some steps you'll need to follow in order to resolve this. 

    Please log in to My Virgin Media here > Click on Account settings > Virgin Media Mail settings > scroll down to the App password section and click the Generate new App password button.

    You should get a pop up message asking you to verify your email address and you'll need to use a 3rd party email address to continue. You'll be sent a one time passcode to enter on the next page to verify it's you. Once verified you'll then be given an app password which will look something similar to: mail-horse-yellow-panda and you should note this down.

    To get things working on an email client or app again, you will need to enter the new mail password in the settings. This will allow your emails to load again. In some cases, you may need to remove the email account from the mail client or app completely and re-set it up as fresh. If this is the case for you, please ensure you use your VM email address as the username and the newly generated app password.

    These changes have been put in place as Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is now required. Just as a side note, when logging in to My VM, you will need to use the third party email address as the username and your original My VM password.

    Please let me know how you get on and apologies for the inconvenience.

    Thanks,