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Lexicon251's avatar
Lexicon251
Joining in
2 days ago

VM app passwords don't work

Hi All, I have a problem with the Virgin Media-generated app passwords.
My account stopped working yesterday, I changed my password and generated a new app password, which, however, did not work in my Outlook and iPhone Mail app. I repeated the procedure several times, and none of the subsequent app passwords generated through my VM account worked.
I have access to my webmail, but can't use Outlook or iPhone Mail.
I contacted the help desk via webchat this morning, I was told that all is well on their side, and I should contact Gadget Rescue for help (for a charge).
I would be grateful for any suggestions on how to resolve this problem.
Thank you for reading this.

App password

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  • coenoby's avatar
    coenoby
    Very Insightful Person
    2 days ago

    Lexicon251​ 

    Two ideas for you:

    1) For quite a while VM's advice on resetting a VM account password suggested waiting for 30 minutes before trying the new password. The assumption was that it allowed time for the new password to be propagated through the VM system.

    I must admit I was always a bit dubious about the need to do that and it seems that VM stopped including it in their advice quite some time ago.

    However, having said that, It might be worth generating yet another mail app password. Then leave it for at least 30 minutes before updating your email apps and testing the new app password.

    2) As far as the Mail app on your iPhone is concerned. 

    People sometimes report that updating the settings, especially the password, in the IOS Mail app can be a problem. If you are using the IMAP settings rather than POP3 in your apps, it might be worth you deleting the VM account from the Mail app and then adding it back in as a new email account. 

    I gave up using Outlook a long time ago but I seem to remember that I had issues updating my Outlook settings at one point. (That was for a non VM email account by the way.) I resorted to the "delete and set up as new" workaround and that did work.

    Just a couple of ideas that might be worth trying.

    Coenoby

  • Lexicon251's avatar
    Lexicon251
    Joining in
    2 days ago

    Thank you so much, coenoby, for reading my post and taking the time to write such detailed suggestions. I will save them for future reference, if I have similar problems again (which is very likely, as my email account gets blocked by VM every 4-5 months for unkown reasons, but previously I was able to sort it out by changin my password).

    I found out that my IP address had been blacklisted by VM, probably because both Outlook and my iPhone Mail app kept trying to connect to the server too often and raised a security flag. 

    I then came across one of your posts from 5 months ago (https://community.virginmedia.com/discussions/email/imap-says-ip-is-blacklisted/5601622?topicRepliesSort=postTimeDesc) where you described the steps to take to report the problem via VM's netreport. That's what I did, and the problem is solved: my IP address has been taken off the blacklist and I can access my email in Outlook and on my iPhone Mail app.

    Thank you again, your help is really appreciated! 

    • coenoby's avatar
      coenoby
      Very Insightful Person
      2 days ago

      Lexicon251​ 

      Glad to hear you are up and running again with your Outlook and the Mail apps.

      If you keep getting problems with your VM email account you would do well to consider using your non VM email account rather than your VM email account. 

      I assume you have a non VM email account because in most cases the VM email security system forces you to specify a non VM email account as the username for your VM account before you can generate a VM mail app password. If you have somehow managed to avoid that up to now it will eventually force your hand.

      VM stopped issuing new email accounts 3 years ago and they are now actively closing  down VM emails accounts that are no longer linked to a paid for VM service.

      The future of the VM email service is unclear and, as you seem to be finding, relying on VM email can proved frustrating. 

      Moving away from a reliance on VM email would be a wise choice. 

      Coenoby

      • Lexicon251's avatar
        Lexicon251
        Joining in
        2 days ago

        Thank you, Coenoby, that's very sound advice. I have a paid VM account, but I'm still on ntlworld.com from ages ago, and haven't been able to change it to a virgin.com account.

        I am tired of VM, so yes, I will consider moving over to my non-VM account! 

        Thanks again!