WHY IS MY EMAIL LOCKED

[ejl]

I am having trouble accessing my email account. I have logged into Virgin media without any issue but when I select 'Sign Into Your Mail Account' i get the following:-

Your Virgin Media Mail account is currently unavailable

Why is my email locked and how do I unlock it

[RichardF77]

Sirs

I've been blocked from accessing my virgin.net Email account as my existing and previous passwords aren't being recognised. I am even prevented from changing the password, as requested and required, in order to gain access.

I have been using this account for 15 years as a Virgin Broadband customer but your technical team on Help & Support (0345 454 1111) were unable to assist in reconnecting me on Tuesday, and I was disconnected this morning after more than 2 hours attempting to resolve the issue with them.

Although I have been using an ntlworld account as a back-up, all personal, medical and financial matters use the virgin.net account and I understand that there are already vital communications there that I need to access.

Is there any way  that I can be reconnected to virgin.net as a matter of urgency, or can Emails be redirected to the ntlworld.com account? As an 80-year-old with serious health issues you will understand my very real concerns.

I shall be grateful for your any advice you are able to offer.

RichardF

[Kath_P]

Hi ejl, 

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 your email account has been locked. 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 can then update the mail password.

Wait 10 minutes and the Virgin Media email address should unlock. 

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 continue to use your current log in details. 

Please let me know how you get on and apologies for the inconvenience.

Thanks, 

[Kath_P]

Hi RichardF77, 

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're having an issue with your virgin.net email address. It's possible that something else is at play for you as looking at things this end, there is no virgin.net email address connected to your active Virgin Media account. This usually happens if you've had a service with us and moved or if you've left and then come back. 

We'll need to check the status of the email address and if it is still active, look at connecting it to your active broadband account. In order to do that I will need to confirm some information with you to pass security. 

I have sent you a direct message to allow us to do this with you in a private space. If you are using a PC/Laptop then you can just click on the little ✉ at the top right-hand side of the page to access your inbox. If you are on a mobile/tablet device then instead click on the little circle icon in the top right then select 'Messages'. 😊

Thanks, 

[brackensroad]

Hi Kath – I've already posted about this today on another thread, with the only response being from another, equally frustrated/baffled customer. But as you seem quite responsive:

I was locked out last week and went through this frankly ridiculously convoluted process, setting up a non-Virgin Media email etc, to regain access.

But now I've been locked out again today. When I finally got through to someone on the phone, they told me I had to set up a ANOTHER non-Virgin Media email to regain access – and this would keep being the case, every time VM locked me out and I had to call up.

They also said this was a systemwide failure today and that my email access would be restored today – or tomorrow – without my having to change passwords yet again.

So, multiple questions:

– why have I been locked out again, and why does it keep happening to me and, clearly, many other customers?

– why is there no general alert from VM about today's failure?

– do customers really need a new, non-VM email address *every single time VM locks them out*?

– the agent I spoke to on the phone today said VM were working to get rid of that non-VM email requirement – true? 

– the other recurring problem plaguing myself and myriad customers is the wholly unhelpful FORBIDDEN message – what is that and has that been resolved?

– WHEN WILL MY EMAIL ACCESS BE RESTORED?  

Thank you.  

[pj2170]

I am similarly locked out of my Virginmedia.com email account. 
I’ve tried phoning and using the chat but to no avail.

been down for 3 weeks now

[Kain_W]

Hi pj2170,

Thanks for your post and welcome back to the community.

Many apologies for the issues faced with accessing your email, so we can investigate this matter further I've dropped you a PM.

The message will appear within the envelope icon.

Regards,

[aps]

Same here, worked earlier this morning, but now I cannot log into my email.  It must be a server fault.

[Lee_R]

Hi @aps thanks for posting and welcome back to our community.

Sorry to hear that you're currently unable to access your email account.  And sorry for any inconvenience this may be causing.  Firstly can you please confirm if the email address in question is attached to a live Virgin Media broadband account?  Also has the email address in question always been based at the address you currently live at?

Regards

Lee_R

[aps]

The email address is attached to a live VM account (it is an old ntlworld email account).   However, since posting this message, within an hour or so, the problem seemed to have been fixed as I was able to collect my emails on multiple devices again, without any changes on my part.

I have to say I have this problem on and off where I am prompted for my password again, when reading emails using IMAP.  When this happens I see the problem on different devices (PC and phone) on different networks.  It seems your servers either get to busy or there is some intermittent problem with them.