No new emails after switch to a different broadband supplier

[XEyedBear]

The title might suggest the obvious cause of the problem, but I would appreciate some advice on how to get new emails. Here's the scenario:

I'm running the desktop email client Thunderbird under Linux Mint, supporting 3 email addresses in the old ntlworld domain. I have been using this setup for more than 20 years. I'm now in the process of migrating to a different broad band supplier; both Virginmedia and the new service are active. With my PC connected to the new supplier's router all broadband services appear to work except that no new emails appear in any of the 3 accounts in Thunderbird. If I connect my PC to the VM Hub3 (?) router, Thunderbird immediately downloads and displays new emails from the past couple of days. Why can't Thunderbird download newly arrived emails from the VM email server when I'm using the other supplier's router?

When I look at the settings of these three Thunderbird accounts I don't see which details of the VM server that would be obviously not reachable from another router - but what do I know? Any advice?

[Graham_A · Accepted solution]

@XEyedBear  My immediate thoughts are that your Thunderbird setup may still be using the Ntlworld sever settings that use your IP address to authenticate the connection to the servers. When you switch to the new broadband supplier this will be a non VM IP address so the authentication fails, although I would have thought that you would get an error message.

Make sure that Thunderbird is set to use the Virginmedia IMAP and SMTP servers with the email address as the username and the app generated password for the email address concerned.

Also remember that you will only have 90 days after you close the VM broadband account before the Ntlworld email address is deleted.

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

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

[XEyedBear]

This is very useful - thanks. I'm not sure I understand it all but I'll investigate further. I remember trying to implement IMAP about 15 years ago: the **bleep**-up was so huge it took me weeks to recover all the emails which got screwed up. But nothing to lose now: it I don;t make the changes I#ll lose all my email anyway. Especially thanks for the info about the 90 days access to the ntlworld accounts after I cancel my VM subscription - that's more than I expected.