Blueyonder email using Thunderbird - cant get new emails - connection to imap.virginmedia.com times out

[Kim6121]

Since the upgrade that was carried out on 30th June, neither my primary nor the secondary accounts can be accessed via Thunderbird or Outlook. A message stating that the connection to imap.virginmedia.com has timed out. How can this be fixed? I am the primary account and my husband has a secondary account (and is completely lacking in any technical ability so I will have to fix his problem once I have sorted my account out). He has medical appointments that are issued via his email as he has just been diagnosed with cancer so we cant afford to not have access to that account. Help please.

[Graham_A]

It's very difficult to know what to suggest whilst the major VM Mail issues continue.

Probably the best advice is to use VM webmail https://mail.virginmedia.com/ for the immediate future, however inconvenient, until the IMAP/SMTP server issues are resolved.

However, if you want to try an alternative then generate specific app passwords for each email address to use in Thunderbird

VM have recently changed the log in requirements for accessing VM Mail via third party apps.

If you change the password for the account in My Virgin Media > Account settings > Account details you will not be able to use the new password to access the account via an email client. Email client access now requires an app specific password which can be generated in the MyVM > Account Settings > Account details > Mailbox App password management

[Kim6121]

Thanks - I am able to access my own account but I seem to have lost the ability to update my husband's account details. (Thats the one he really needs access to!)
I will keep looking to see how to get to his

[Graham_A]

VM changed the way that secondary account details are updated last year.

Each email address now has its own My VM account

Secondary accounts changes now have to be made via the My Virgin Media account for the secondary email.

Sign into the account here: https://www.virginmedia.com/my-virgin-media using the email address concerned and the current password. Once logged in click on Account Settings then Account details. You should now see the options to change password etc.

If that isn't available try https://www.virginmedia.com/my-virgin-media/forgotten-details/password

If no security answers have been set for the email address concerned then you will need to call in for support and select technical issues> email

Can you still access the secondary account via VM webmail?  Make sure that you sign out of your primary account first before trying this.