Forum Discussion

swanie71's avatar
swanie71
Tuning in
2 years ago

unable to access ntlworld.com email

Hello there, I am wondering if someone can help (pleeeaaassseeeee!).

My dear old mum has been using her ntlworld.com email account for donkey's years (she no longer has a virgin service).

For the last few days she has been unable to access her emails - via her "thunderbird" software.

We never have known the password! But I found a way to retrieve the password held in thunderbird - hurrah! But if I try the saved IMAP password online direct it says its not correct.  I cannot change the password as she is not a VM customer.  Arrrggghhh!

Is there anything I can try please?

Any thoughts very welcome to cheer up my mum 🙂 

Help
ntlworld
password
  • Adduxi's avatar
    Adduxi
    Very Insightful Person
    2 years ago

    If she is no longer a VM customer I don’t think this can be resolved.  VM have recently made changes to email authentication in that you now need to generate an email password when logged onto your VM account.  As she doesn’t have one I can’t see how this can be resolved?

    • swanie71's avatar
      swanie71
      Tuning in
      2 years ago

      Thanks for taking the time to answer. I’ll see if I can set her up with an alternative. Wish me luck! 🙂

      • Adduxi's avatar
        Adduxi
        Very Insightful Person
        2 years ago

        Be best to move off an ISP email system.  Most have moved to Gmail, Outlook or some other non ISP bound email accounts.  As kindly noted by Molly_T  your Mum's email account can be deleted at any time without notice as she has left VM.  I moved my ntlworld emails off VM servers about a year ago so no longer have to worry if I leave VM.  Good luck with the migration 🙂

  • -D's avatar
    -D
    On our wavelength
    2 years ago

    You and mum are not alone - if that helps. I have posted on here (Email - denial of service) about no longer receiving emails since September 25th and I still have and am still paying for my Virgin Media account. Thousands of similar posts can be found on this Forum website. And more in the press /online, websearching virgin media emails down: e.g. Guardian Money 21st August, Oxford Mail and moneysavingexpert in July.

    -D

    • swanie71's avatar
      swanie71
      Tuning in
      2 years ago

      thank you. Appreciate you taking the time to respond 👍🏻

  • -D's avatar
    -D
    On our wavelength
    2 years ago

    P.S.

    Incidentally, although I also can not access any links on the Virgin Media webpage (although I can on this one) - either by web searching it or linking to it from the last Virgin e-bill I received (the ‘sign-in’ on-screen link ‘buttons‘ just ‘freeze‘) - equally unexplained is that my brother’s computer and mobile phone can sign-in to and access my emails in my Virgin Media account, so I have at least seen the emails which Virgin haven’t been uploading into my Outlook Express Inbox since September.

    -D

    • Adduxi's avatar
      Adduxi
      Very Insightful Person
      2 years ago

      I suspect if your brother was to delete those email accounts, and try to set them up from scratch it wouldn't work anymore.  I think now that the new password generation system is up and running, older ones are still working, but any attempts to setup a new one fail.?

  • Molly_T's avatar
    Molly_T
    Forum Team
    2 years ago

    Hi Swanie71 👋 welcome to the community! Thank you for posting. 

    So sorry to hear about the recent issues with accessing your Mum's email service via a clientmail service (Thunderbird). 

    Sadly, as the community have already advised email addresses need to be linked to an active service account to both stay active, and for us to be able to provide troubleshooting support. (Without an active parent account the email address can become 'orphaned', increasing its likelihood of being deleted in a clear-up from Cyber security - without notice.)

    Primary email accounts should be automatically deleted after 90 days of ceasing services with us. You can read more about this at the bottom of the help page here 👉 How to manage my email account | Virgin Media Help . 

    Sincerest apologies that we would not be able to offer further support with this. If there is any additional information we need to be aware of which changes things please do let us know! 

     Wishing you and your Mum all the best! 🌞 |MT