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Rodgerdodger's avatar
Rodgerdodger
Joining in
11 months ago
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Windows Live Mail 2011 unable to login to VM imap server

For about the last week I have suddenly been unable to use Windows Live Mail, getting the following response:

The server rejected your login.  Please verify that your username and password are correct.

 AUTHENTICATIONFAILED] Authentication failed.

 Configuration:

   Account: Virginmedia (MY NAME) (1)

   Server: imap.virginmedia.com

   User name: MY EMAIL ADDRESS

   Protocol: IMAP

   Port: 993

   Secure(SSL): 1

   Code: 800cccd1

 

Everything was working fine before then.

My username and password are definitely correct.

In an attempt to fix things I have:

Changed the password, after first having to change my VM login email to a third party address.

Reinstalled WLM 2011 (foolishly forgetting to save my existing email folders beforehand and so they are now unretrievable).

Deleted the email account (several times) and added and configured a new account.

From memory, this problem has occurred a couple of times in the last few years, but has always magically resolved itself after a day or so. This time there is no sign of it repairing itself and I’m at a loss what to do next. It seems that the VM server no longer wishes to let me login.

Any help would be much appreciated.

  • Nathan_B's avatar
    Nathan_B
    10 months ago

    Hi there Rodgerdodger 👋 Welcome to the forum and thanks for your post 😊

    Sorry to see there's been issues with your email. As suggested earlier in the thread, it would be best for us to check the status of the email on your account so I'll pop you a PM to confirm some details.

    Regards

    Nathan

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  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    11 months ago

    Have you set up an app password as per?

    https://www.virginmedia.com/help/broadband/manage-email-account

    If you are re-configuring your setup (as you lost all your WLM material) I would politely suggest it might be a good time to update to a current email client. Aside from the many issues with VM's email service, you are quite likely to encounter other future issues when using an obsolete piece of software.

    Looks as if WLM stores info in

    %systemdrive%\Users\{user}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail. You may have to deselect Hide protected operating system files in order to be able to see this folder and its contents if you want to double check your old data is really gone

    and you could search for any EML files in case your old version was stored elsewhere.

    • Rodgerdodger's avatar
      Rodgerdodger
      Joining in
      11 months ago

      Thanks for the suggestion goslow. Yes, I did set up an app password. That's where a password containing four words is generated isn't it? Tried using that app password on WLM configuration, but still got same response.

    • Rodgerdodger's avatar
      Rodgerdodger
      Joining in
      11 months ago

      I'm not sure what webmail actually is. Is it the email accout that your link landed me on?  If so, what is showing is an email account that my WIFE set up years ago using her ntlworld address. When we transferred the vm account to me, I still had to use her ntlworld email address to sign in to vm, even though the account was now mine! She has never used her ntlworld email since then and I can see thousands of unread mails for her in the inbox. So, yes I think I can access webmail, but the info shown has nothing to do with my email account!

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    11 months ago

    Webmail is just a way to view/send/receive emails using a web browser instead of an email client such as WLM

    If you are trying to set up your own ntlworld email for WLM, you should be able to use webmail to view that email account. That would check that the email account is still accessible.

    • Rodgerdodger's avatar
      Rodgerdodger
      Joining in
      11 months ago

      Thank you.

      I'm not trying to set up an ntlworld email for WLM. I'm trying to get my existing virginmedia email working in WLM.

      The ntlworld account that shows is NOT mine, but one that my wife had years ago when the vm account was in her name only. I had the vm account tranferred into my sole name and have had a virginmedia.com email account for me ever since. After the transfer to me, I had to continue logging in to VM.com with my wife's ntlworld email, even though the account was in my name. The email account that shows on webmail, and is accessible, is my wife's old ntl account, which is strange. There's no sign of my vm email account, and never has been as far as I know.

      • goslow's avatar
        goslow
        Alessandro Volta
        11 months ago

        You should still be able to access a virginmedia.com email address using webmail.

        However, your description of previous account changes raises other questions.

        When you want to log into 'My Virgin Media' to view information about your VM account (such as your monthly bills, contract information etc.) do you do that using your wife's email address?

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    10 months ago

    OK, so if you log into 'My Virgin Media' (which you use to see bills, contract info etc.) you should be able to check if your own virginmedia.com email account (the thing you want to set up with WLM) is still associated with your VM broadband.

    I don't have access to VM any more so I am lifting the following from another topic but ...

    Sign into the 'My Virgin Media' account and go to: account settings>account details> bottom of page under my other VM accounts.

    Do you see your own virginmedia.com account listed there (which would indicate it is still associated with your VM broadband account)?

    • Rodgerdodger's avatar
      Rodgerdodger
      Joining in
      10 months ago

      Thanks for your continued help goslow, much appreciated.

      Yes, I've found the link for "Manage my other Virgin Media Accounts" and when I click on it, it shows I have one additional account : myname@virginmedia.com, which is exactly the same as the email address I have been using for ages. Along side is an option to delete account.

      • goslow's avatar
        goslow
        Alessandro Volta
        10 months ago

        OK, that's a good thing. It confirms the yourname<at>virginmedia.com email is still linked to your VM broadband account.

        Next thing to try is to see if you can access yourname<at>virginmedia.com through the webmail interface.

        https://mail.virginmedia.com/

        You have said this brings up an email account for your wife (because I imagine you have saved her password on your device). If that happens, use the log out to log out of that email account.

        Then use the webmail link above and try logging in to webmail using

        yourname<at>virginmedia.com and the normal sign-in password for that email address (which different to the app password).

        If you can access yourname<at>virginmedia.com via webmail OK, it means you have a setup issue with WLM. If you can't access webmail for that email address you have a different problem.

        It seems yesterday a lot of people were complaining about sign-in issues to webmail so we might be trying to test this alongside the usual day-to-day problems of VM's broken email service.

  • Rodgerdodger's avatar
    Rodgerdodger
    Joining in
    10 months ago

    Hi Graham,

    Before I started this thread, I had already changed the password for My VM Account, which entailed changing the username, from my email address, to a 3rd party email address. At the same time I also generated an app password in the format of four random words. I then configured my WLM with my existing email address = myname@virginmedia.com, and the newly generated app password. This didn't help.

    Following yours and goslow's suggestion to generate an app password, rather than repeating this process using my 3rd party email username to sign in, I instead used myname@virginmedia.com to sign in and proceeded with the "forgot your password" route. (You will remember that I am able to sign into VM Account Using myname@virginmedia.com with password = my wife's password from years ago before the account was transferred from her to me). The result of this is that the password change has changed the password for signing in with my 3rd party email. An app password was also generated, but this doesn't help me connect to the imap server.

    This is all getting a bit confusing, lol!

     

     

    • Rodgerdodger's avatar
      Rodgerdodger
      Joining in
      10 months ago

      Graham, you said, " As you have changed the username for your VM email address to a third party email it is this third party email address that you need to use to sign into VM webmail and the My VM account for the secondary account."

      But when I use the 3rd party username (myname@gmail.com) to sign in to MyVM, this doesn't sign me in to the secondary account, just my primary one with bills etc showing.

      I cannot find a way to sign in to my secondary account at all, to be able to unlock it?

      • Rodgerdodger's avatar
        Rodgerdodger
        Joining in
        10 months ago

        Tried this too;"

        How to manage additional Virgin Media email accounts

        To manage a secondary or additional email account, you need to sign in to My Virgin Media using the email address and password of the secondary account (instead of signing in to the primary account to manage things). Each additional account should have its own unique email and password. If you’ve forgotten the password for the secondary email account, just tap Forgot my password on the My Virgin Media sign in page to reset the password. You’ll be asked to enter the security information, which should be the same as information used on the primary account – unless you’ve changed those in the My Virgin Media account of the secondary email."

        Using the "forgot my password option" only ends up changing the password for my primary account and not the secondary one. So, I still can't access my secondary account.

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    10 months ago

    Unfortunately you just have to wait (although you have waited quite a while and longer than usual).

    There seems to have been a rush of email-related issues recently which may be why things are taking longer.

    A passing VIP may kindly flag for VM attention or offer help themselves.

      • goslow's avatar
        goslow
        Alessandro Volta
        10 months ago

        You may wish to uncheck the helpful answer as that may (possibly) delay a VM forum team reply

  • Nathan_B's avatar
    Nathan_B
    Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
    10 months ago

    Hi there Rodgerdodger 👋 Welcome to the forum and thanks for your post 😊

    Sorry to see there's been issues with your email. As suggested earlier in the thread, it would be best for us to check the status of the email on your account so I'll pop you a PM to confirm some details.

    Regards

    Nathan