Recovering NTLWorld account

[Adam_100]

Hi Community, I had to leave Virgin Media in 2020 as we moved home and they didn't provide services in our new area. I was oblivious to the 90-day rule for keeping my email account running (which happened to be @NTLWorld rather than @VM) and in fact the account kept working for about 10 months until the end of August 2021. When it then disappeared overnight, I a) found out about the 90-day rule on Google and b) was told by someone at Virgin Media when I called that there was absolutely no way to recover any mails that had come through since the switch-off as the company that was hosting the server had apparently gone bust.

Today, something made me wonder whether that had ever been resolved and people had been able to re-access their accounts. On Googling, I've found articles about regaining access to NTLWorld accounts dated from 2022 and 2023, and although none could help me address my particular problem (they were generally about forgotten passwords), I'm wondering if there is now some way I could temporarily access my old account to see all the mails that came through to me since Sep 2021.

So if there's anyone super-helpful at Virgin who knows anything about the history of the NTLWorld accounts / servers and enjoys a challenge, I'd be super-grateful if they could let me know if this particular challenge has piqued their interest.

Thanks so much in advance,

Adam

[Graham_A · Accepted solution]

I would say that it is highly unlikely.  Whoever told you that the company running the Ntlworld domain had gone bust was making it up.  Virgin Media still run the domain, however email addresses only remain open as long as the user has a Virginmedia broadband account.  Even if you were to take up a VM broadband account now it is unlikely that after two years the previous email address exists on their systems to allow a transfer to a new broadband account.

[Robert_P]

Hello Adam_100

Thanks for posting your email query via the forums, we're happy to advise on this and welcome to the community.

We understand this may not be the answer you were hoping for but once an email is deleted it is gone, there is no way for us to retrieve or reactivate the mailbox from that point. Whether this is at the customers request or due to the cancellation of services.

There are lots of accounts across social media who advise to speak to X or Y and they will recover your account, we would always advise against giving personal or private details to anyone over the internet.

Rob

[Adam_100]

Thank you both for your prompt responses. I feared as much, but thought it was worth asking. Kind regards, Adam

[Robert_P]

Happy to help clear up any confusion Adam, sorry we weren't able to give you a more positive outcome.

Rob