There's a 'hidden' password security feature that means that you will have a different password for emails accessed via apps on your devices than that of your account. VirginMedia should be far far clearer on this, as it's counterintuitive. I had to fork out for their 'Gadget Repair' facility (before I found this chat), which I'm not happy with at all, and even then I only noticed it accidentally (but who studies all these web-pages?)
To fix it you need to log in to your account, click on "account settings", then "VirginMedia mail settings', then click on the big red "generate new app password". this generates a separate 20 character secure password for you to copy/paste into your preferred mail app. You may need to do this a few times to get it to work. There's some explanatory text on this page:
Manage your Virgin Media Mail App Password
App passwords let you sign into your Virgin Media Mailbox from 3rd party apps on devices such as "Outlook" and "Mail" that don't support Multi Factor Authentication.
When setting up these applications the password generated on this page should be used.
Your password for Virgin Media services and webmail will remain unchanged
I can only assume this is a newish feature as I have the same email password as my account but I set that up years ago. This password will not sync into your password keychain or similar 'password storage' software, if you're using that, so maybe worth writing it down somewhere in case you forget it or need to set up your mail on a new device. you can always 'reset' password to generate a new one if you lose that.
Good Luck!
