Email account Ntlworld - failure to reinstate on Ipad - Is it me?

[Sacers]

In our Ntlworld email account two days ago on a newish iPad and it went haywire. All we could access were emails back in 2017. A restart of the iPad didn't cure it, so we removed the account with the intention of a reinstal - not, as it transpires, the best of decisions.

Adding the account back in proved impossible. After entering the a/c password, we got the message "No password provided for "Ntlworld". Please go to Mail Account Settings and enter a password." We then went round in a loop for several failed attempts.

Desperate situations require desperate measures - and that's what contacting the Virgin help desk feels like to us!

A lengthy conversation followed with an agent, when it was not clear that he entirely understood the problem, or knew the solution. The outcome was a change of password by Virgin when we declined the offer of a new email address. This failed to cure the problem and we were told to expect a call from the security team within 5 days. It was suggested that suspicious activity had been detected on our account. In the meantime Virgin asked for an alternative email address for them to communicate with us, so just as well we have a Hotmail a/c as fall-back.

Later that day we received an email to the Hotmail a/c from the Virgin Media team asking us to reset the password. We were hopeful that meant the security team had OK'd our account, but we couldn't face any more stress that day. The next morning, I clicked on the link to change the password, but it had expired! It would have been helpful had Virgin indicated the link was time-limited.

So......another call to the help desk asking them to re-send the email to reset the password, followed by another lengthy conversation, which failed to get to the bottom of the problem. We asked if the security team had looked at the issue - and were told there was no record of recent suspicious activity on our account!

For reasons which aren't clear to us, our old Virgin Media password still gets us in to our email account on the Virgin web site, but neither that, nor the new password given us by Virgin allows us to add the account to our iPad.

The other wonder is that notwithstanding the password change we are still able to access our 'Virgin' email on an old iPad and a Samsung mobile (where we have not changed the email account password). Which got me wondering whether the problem might be with the newer iPad?

Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Kath_P]

Hi Sacers, 

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 you've had some issues with adding your email to your new iPad. It sounds as though you are being prompted to complete some new security steps that have been put in place. 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, you will need to enter the new mail password that you've noted down in the settings. This will allow your emails to load again. On your other devices, you'll get an error about the password and this will also need to be updated. 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, 

[Sacers]

Thanks Kath_F. Before I do this, can you confirm what account this password is for. The reason I ask is that Virgin are our providers for email, TV, telephone and broadband. Over the years we seem to have gathered different passwords for different subjects, which has become a bit confusing. Will changing this password affect our access to our other services, or will this new password provide a single password for all?

[Akua_A]

The password will allow you to access your mailbox in a 3rd party web app. You can find all you need to know here under the section "Your email address has been locked" https://www.virginmedia.com/help/billing-and-payments/login-problems Please let us know how you get on.

[Sacers]

Sorry, but I am finding it difficult to understand why I should need mailbox access in a ‘3rd party web app’ (whatever that is?) when what I want is to reinstall the Ntl (Virgin) email account on my iPad.

[Graham_A]

The email application on the iPad is a 3rd party email app and therefore requires the generated app password to authenticate your Ntlworld email credentials.

[Sacers]

Graham - thanks. Now I know!

Next problem, having followed the instructions I am now told I have already designated a third party email address (which I did days ago at Virgin’s request). Two unhelpful and conflicting messages from Virgin:

Under ‘Sign in details’: “You’ve recently requested to change the email address you use to sign in to My Virgin Media. Please check your emails and verify this change before making further account changes.”

Revisited an earlier Virgin email and clicked on the link to verify and get: “Oops! Sorry, we can’t confirm your contact email address. You may have already confirmed this contact or chosen to use a different one...”

Why is nothing simple? I think I would prefer sticking a stamp on an envelope and posting it in a letter box, if Royal Mail could be trusted to deliver it!

[Sacers]

Having followed the instructions I am now told I have already designated a third party email address (which I did days ago at Virgin’s request). Two unhelpful and conflicting messages from Virgin:

Under ‘Sign in details’: “You’ve recently requested to change the email address you use to sign in to My Virgin Media. Please check your emails and verify this change before making further account changes.”

Revisited an earlier Virgin email and clicked on the link to verify and get: “Oops! Sorry, we can’t confirm your contact email address. You may have already confirmed this contact or chosen to use a different one...”

Where do I go now please?

[用心棒]

To workaround this issue submit an alternative email address and then immediately resubmit the original email address. For example if I previously tried john.smith@gmail.com  then I may submit john.smith@example.com  and immediately resubmit john.smith@gmail.com — keep the browser page open until the verification process is completed.

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[Sacers]

Thanks. This won’t work if Virgin respond to a ‘pretend’ address requiring me to click on a link to verify the new address.