Virgin Email 403 message

[somerset333]

Hi, I have found this thread and tried almost everything but nothing is working to enable me to access webmail.  I am getting the error 403 message since yesterday.  My phone which is linked to the email account still gets email, but elsewhere I am unable to sign in.  I have tried using the non virgin email solution and changing password, but this does not work.  I spent hours on a chat this morning, but they are sending a technician tomorrow and I am skeptical that that will work given what everyone is saying.  I now can't even set up outlook with my email address because it is not recognising either the old one or the new one .... good grief!  I don't want to try the app generate, because if that doesn't work then I assume I will also lose all access on my phone also... is there anything else?  Thanks !

[Molly_T]

Hi Somerset333 👋 welcome to the community! Thanks for posting!

Sorry to hear about these issues with your email service! We appreciate these kinds of issues can be frustrating. 
Would you be able to confirm us that the issues are exclusively happening when trying to access our webmail service? 👉 https://virg.in/webmail 

In terms of accessing email via Client-mail services (such as Outlook) you will need to use the app password generation service which you can read more about here 👉  https://www.virginmedia.com/help/billing-and-payments/manage-email-account

Unless you are having issues with your broadband service, it is unlikely that an engineers appointment will resolve the issues you are having with your email service. I'm a little concerned as to why this was booked for you on this basis - hopefully there is some information we are missing! I would like to take a few more details from you and offer some support ensuring everything is set up correctly with your email. I will do this for you now - you can find the PM in the top right corner of the page in your Inbox. 📩 We can then return to this public thread with another update when possible. Thank you for your patience in the meantime!

Wishing you all the best. 🌞

[somerset333]

I have sent PM to you.  It is only happening when accessing webmail.  My mail app on the phone is still able to access using the 'old' details despite the fact that I have now changed my userID to non virgin media as instructed, and have changed my password for the main user account.  I am worried if I lose access on the phone, then no access at all.... yes I don't know why a technician was booked and anyway he did not arrive at all. Thanks

[Graham_A]

@somerset333 The third party email address is only needed when accessing the account via My Virgin media or VM webmail.

When using an email client or app on your phone the sign in details will be your VM/Ntlworld/blueyonder or virgin email address together with the app generated password for the email address concerned.

[somerset333]

• Hi Graham yes the problem is with webmail and not 3rd party app.  The error message 403 started for no reason when signing into my webmail account as usual (my main account).  I thought maybe I was locked out so went to change the password but unlike in the past, in order to do this VM required me to change my email to a non virgin email which I did.  I then changed the password but no success getting into the webmail.   My phone via mail app still picks up the account using the old details.  So not sure how to solve this hopefully someone will know

[Graham_A]

The 403 error message is usually associated with a corrupt cookie or browser cache entry.  Generally clearing the browser cache and deleting all cookies relating to virgin media resolves the 403 issue.  You may need to close the browser window after making the deleltions before regaining access to VM webmail via this link: https://mail.virginmedia.com/

Alternatively try a different browser or an incognito/private window in your browser of choice.

[somerset333]

• I also tried to pull the blueyonder account through to gmail, but gmail did not recognise the blueyonder credentials … I did not want to generate the app password to try this, because I was concerned it would reset my phone log in and that I risk losing access altogether 

[somerset333]

I did try all of these and on a completely new computer as well where I had not even accessed VM Mail yet all the same error message  but thank you 

[somerset333]

If anyone has a clue how this can be solved I would be eternally grateful, seems so many persons having this problem but I don't see any precise solutions.  I tried again this morning, new computer, cleared all cookies cache etc.  I have tried on safari, Firefox, chrome to access https://mail.virginmedia.com/ but although I can log into my account, I cannot access emails (blue yonder) and get forbidden 403 message.  Have spent hours on the help/chat but they only want to send a technician (who did not turn up anyway).  Is there any news on how this can be solved other than having tried everything I can see here?  Thanks everyone. 🙂

[coenoby]

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@somerset333 wrote:

Is there any news on how this can be solved other than having tried everything I can see here?  

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I am am posting this simply to make you aware of a solution that apparently solved the 403 Forbidden error for many forum posters earlier this year.

Personally, I suspect the 403 error can arise for a number of reasons so there may not be a silver bullet solution.

This (possible) solution basically involves doing repeated password resets one after the other. If it works for you then I take no credit for it and I can understand if you don't want to attempt it. However, there were many subsequent replies that confirmed this worked for them, All I'm doing here is passing on the information. 😉

Here's the first post that clearly outlined the process to take: https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/Dreaded-403-Forbidden-webmail-error  If you have already seen it then I apologise. Just be aware that the screens in the Virgin Media account may vary slightly from those described  because VM have made several tweaks in the last few weeks and months.

I leave it to you to do as you see fit.

Coenoby