Help Centre

To set up your Windows Mail client to work with Virgin Media Mail, just follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Mail. The wizard pops up if it's your first time using it; otherwise, simply click Tools > Accounts.
   
   
   
2. On the next screen click on "Add"
3. On the Account type screen, select "E-mail Account" and click Next.
   
   
   
4. Enter your name, then click Next.
   
   
   
5. Enter your complete Virgin Media Mail address, including @ntlworld.com, @blueyonder.co.uk, @virgin.net or @virginmedia.com, and click Next.
   
   
   
6. Choose IMAP from the list of incoming email server types.
7. Enter imap.ntlworld.com, imap.blueyonder.co.uk, imap.virgin.net or imap.virginmedia.com, matching the last part of your email address, in the Incoming mail server field.
8. Enter smtp.ntlworld.com, smtp.blueyonder.co.uk, smtp.virgin.net or smtp.virginmedia.com, matching the last part of your email address, in the Outgoing email server name, check 'Outgoing server requires authentication' box; click Next.
   
   
   
9. Enter your full Virgin Media Mail address, including @ntlworld.com, @blueyonder.co.uk, @virgin.net or @virginmedia.com, in the E-mail username field.
10. Enter your Virgin Media Mail password in the password field, and click Next.
    
    
    
11. Click Finish on the next screen - downloading your folder list and emails is optional at this time.
    
    
    
12. Select Tools > Accounts, and then click on the imap.ntlworld.com, imap.blueyonder.co.uk, imap.virgin.net or imap.virginmedia.com account, and click on Properties.
    
    
    
13. Click on the Advanced tab, and enter 465 as the Outgoing mail (SMTP) port; enter 993 as the Incoming mail (IMAP) port, and check both boxes with "This server requires a secure connection (SSL)".
    
    
    
14. Click on OK to save your changes,and then click on Close.

Thunderbird 2.0

Note: if you're using an older version of Thunderbird, we highly recommend upgrading to version 2.0.

To set up your Thunderbird client to work with Virgin Media Mail :

1. Enable IMAP in your Virgin Media Mail account.
2. Open Thunderbird, and select Tools > Account Settings.
   
   
   
3. Click Add Account.
4. Select the Email account radio button and click Next. The Identity screen appears.
   
   
   
5. Enter your full name in the Your Name field. Enter your full Virgin Media Mail email address, including @ntlworld.com, @blueyonder.co.uk, @virgin.net or @virginmedia.com, in the Email Address field, and click Next.
   
   
   
6. Select IMAP as the type of incoming server you are using. Enter imap.ntlworld.com, imap.blueyonder.co.uk, imap.virgin.net or imap.virginmedia.com, matching the last part of your email address, in the Incoming Server field.
   
   
   
7. Enter your Virgin Media Mail username, including @ntlworld.com, @blueyonder.co.uk, @virgin.net or @virginmedia.com, in the Incoming User Name field, and click Next.
   
   
   
8. Enter a name for your email account in the Account Name field, and click Next.
   
   
   
9. Verify your account information in the dialog box, and click Finish.
   
   
   
10. Select Server Settings from the folder list below your new account.
11. Update the Port value to 993.
12. In the Security Settings section, select SSL from the Use secure connection options.
13. Select Check for messages at startup.
    
    
    
14. Click Outgoing Server (SMTP) in the folder list
    
    
    
15. Enter smtp.ntlworld.com, smtp.blueyonder.co.uk, smtp.virgin.net or smtp.virginmedia.com, matching the last part of your email address, as the Server Name and set the Port to 465.
16. Tick the box next to "Use name & password" under Security & Authentication, and enter your Virgin Media Mail username, including @ntlworld.com, @blueyonder.co.uk, @virgin.net or @virginmedia.com, in the User Name field.
17. Select SSL from the Use secure connection radio buttons and click OK.
    
    
    
18. Click OK to save your changes and exit the Account Settings dialog.
    

* Did you click 'Save Changes' after enabling IMAP in Virgin Media Mail ? To ensure that Virgin Media Mail can communicate with your mail client, be sure to click Save Changes on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP settings tab.

Configuring other mail clients

You can use the following information to configure IMAP with many mail clients. If you encounter difficulties, we suggest contacting your mail client's customer support department for further instructions - we're unable to provide assistance with configuring mail clients other than Outlook Express, Thunderbird 2 and Windows Mail.

Recommended IMAP client settings

All IMAP clients differ, and you can configure your mail client's settings to best suit your needs. However, to work optimally with Virgin Media Mail, we recommend certain settings. Click on your client below to view our recommended configuration.

Thunderbird 2.0

Outlook Express

As a general rule, we suggest the following.

Sending:

• Do NOT save sent messages on the server. If your client is sending mail through Virgin Media Mail's SMTP server, your sent messages will be automatically copied to the [Virgin Media Mail ]/Sent Mail folder.
• DO save draft messages on the server. If you want your drafts in your mail client to sync correctly with your Virgin Media Mail account's web interface, set your client to save drafts to the [Virgin Media Mail ]/Drafts folder.

Deleting:

• Do NOT save deleted messages on the server. Messages that are deleted from an IMAP folder (except for those in [Virgin Media Mail ]/Spam or [Virgin Media Mail ]/Bin) only have that label removed and still exist in All Mail. Hence, your client doesn't need to store an extra copy of a deleted message.
• Do NOT save deleted messages to your [Virgin Media Mail ]/Bin folder because this will delete a message in all folders.
• Do NOT save deleted messages to your [Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail folder as some clients will try to empty this folder and ultimately fail. This can lead to delayed mail access or unnecessary battery consumption on a mobile device.

Junk mail and spam:

• Do NOT enable your client's junk mail filters. Virgin Media Mail's spam filters also work in your IMAP client, and we recommend turning off any additional anti-spam or junk mail filters within your client. Your client's filter will attempt to download and classify all of your existing messages, which may slow down your client until the process is complete.

Important: Please note that if you're using an iPhone with software update 1.1.3 and you automatically configured IMAP by clicking on the large Virgin Media Mail icon, messages binned from your iPhone will be moved to the [Virgin Media Mail ]/Bin folder rather than the [Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail folder, causing these messages to be permanently deleted after 30 days. For more information, please visit Apple Support.

Access Choices : IMAP : Learn More

How do actions sync in IMAP?

*IMAP translates labels with a forward slash (/) into a folder hierarchy like you see in your computer's file system. If you have a label such as 'Family/Friends,' you may want to reconsider your naming schemes because your IMAP client will display it as a folder named 'Family' with a subfolder named 'Friends.'

**Important: Please note that if you're using an iPhone with software update 1.1.3 and you automatically configured IMAP by clicking on the large Virgin Media Mail icon, messages binned from your iPhone will be moved to the [Virgin Media Mail ]/Bin folder rather than the [Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail folder, causing these messages to be permanently deleted after 30 days. For more information, please visit Apple Support.

Will using IMAP download all my mail?

Not unless your client is set to do so. Most IMAP clients will download only the headers of your Virgin Media Mail messages while you're connected to the Internet. However, a few clients will download all of your mail by default.

Your messages will download completely when you select your client's option to work offline. You'll be able to read, sort, and compose replies to your messages while you're working offline. Once you're connected to the Internet again, you'll be able to sync your client with the Virgin Media Mail interface on the web.

Deleting IMAP messages

If you delete a message from your inbox or one of your custom folders in your IMAP client, it will still appear in [Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail.

Here's why: in most folders, deleting a message simply removes that folder's label from the message, including the label identifying the message as being in your inbox. [Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail shows all of your messages, whether or not they have labels attached to them. If you want to delete a message from all folders, move it to the [Virgin Media Mail ]/Bin folder.

If you delete a message from [Virgin Media Mail ]/Spam or [Virgin Media Mail ]/Bin, it will be deleted permanently.

For client-specific settings that affect deleting and storing messages and drafts, please see our Recommended IMAP client settings.

Important: Please note that if you're using an iPhone with software update 1.1.3 and you automatically configured IMAP by clicking on the large Virgin Media Mail icon, messages binned from your iPhone will be moved to the [Virgin Media Mail ]/Bin folder rather than the [Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail folder, causing these messages to be permanently deleted after 30 days. For more information, please visit Apple Support.

How is spam handled?

Virgin Media Mail's spam filters also work in your IMAP client by automatically diverting messages that are suspected of being unwanted messages into '[Virgin Media Mail ]/Spam' and keeping them out of your inbox.

If you find a message that should be marked as spam, just move it to '[Virgin Media Mail ]/Spam.' This is just like clicking 'Report Spam' in the Virgin Media Mail web interface and helps us to improve our spam filters.

If you find a message wrongly classified as spam, you can move the message out of '[Virgin Media Mail ]/Spam' to the appropriate folder in your client.

Note that your client may have its own junk mail filtering technology, which is separate from Virgin Media Mail's spam filtering. We recommend using only Virgin Media Mail's spam filtering and turning off any additional anti-spam or junk mail filters within your client. If you still decide to enable client side spam filtering, your client will download an extra copy of every message.

Why aren't my messages threaded?

Like POP, IMAP treats messages individually and not as a threaded conversation. If you move a message to an IMAP folder in your mail client, only that message in the conversation will move to that folder. However, in the web interface, the whole conversation will be given the corresponding label. The same rules will apply to labels applied through filters.

Additionally, IMAP clients store a copy of a message for each label in which it appears. For example, if one particular message in your web Virgin Media Mail account has the labels, 'From Best Friends,' 'Classmates,' and 'Football,' then the same message will be stored four times in your mail client; three times for each label and once in the 'All Mail' folder. If the message is starred, it will be downloaded a fifth time in the 'Starred' folder.

What are these new labels in my web Virgin Media Mail ?

After you perform certain actions in your IMAP client for the first time, you'll notice a few new labels when you next log in to Virgin Media Mail's web interface. For example, sending a message in your client creates a 'Sent Messages' label in Virgin Media Mail, indicating which messages you sent through your client and not through Virgin Media Mail's web interface.

Some actions that will result in new Virgin Media Mail labels are: creating drafts, sending and deleting messages, moving messages to a junk mail folder, and creating new folders in your client. Note that the specific names of these new labels will vary depending on which client you're using.

If you create folders within folders in your client, Virgin Media Mail will treat these as separate labels. Virgin Media Mail indicates which folder is a nested folder by adding a '/' before the corresponding label in the web interface.

Please note that some folder names are 'reserved' as special system folders in the Virgin Media Mail web interface. If you attempt to create a folder name that conflicts with a reserved folder name such as 'Chats' or 'Sent,' these folders will display with an '[IMAP]' prefix ('[Imap]/Chats').

Does Virgin Media Mail support all IMAP features?

Virgin Media Mail IMAP is a fairly complete implementation of IMAP, but the following features are currently unsupported:

• \Answered and \Recent flags on messages.
• Folder subscriptions. All folders are always in the 'Subscribed' list.
• Substring search. All searches are assumed to be words.
• Searching arbitrary headers. Only some headers are available for searches: From/CC/BCC/To/Subject.
• There is no SIEVE interface to Virgin Media Mail filters.
• Only plain-text LOGIN over SSL tunneled connections are supported.

Virgin Media Mail folders in your mail client

The [Virgin Media Mail ] subfolders represent the special labels visible in the Virgin Media Mail web interface: All Mail, Drafts, Sent Mail, Spam, Starred and Bin.

[Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail contains all of the messages in your Virgin Media Mail account, including your sent and archived messages. Any messages that you see in your inbox will also appear in the [Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail folder.

If you save any drafts in the web interface, they can be found in the [Virgin Media Mail ]/Drafts folder. We recommend that you set this folder as the drafts folder for your email client, so that any drafts you save in your client will be waiting for you in the web interface as well.

Moving a message to [Virgin Media Mail ]/Bin in your email client will move the message to Bin in the web interface and will mark the message for permanent deletion. Moving a message to [Virgin Media Mail ]/Spam will report the message to Virgin Media Mail as spam and will also mark the message for permanent deletion. We strongly recommend that you do not set either of these folders as the bin folder for your email client.

Please note that you cannot remove the [Virgin Media Mail ] subfolders from your email client.

Setting custom 'From:' addresses in my mail client

First, set up the custom address in your Virgin Media Mail account on the web.

Then just follow the client-specific instructions below:

iPhone

Outlook 2003

Apple Mail (for OS 10.4)

Thunderbird 2.0

Can I upload messages through IMAP?

It's possible to upload old messages from other email accounts to Virgin Media Mail using your IMAP client, by transferring them to your Virgin Media Mail account. If you'd like to upload messages, we have a few recommendations:

• Upload messages in small groups. Uploading is slow and can limit your available bandwidth.
• Messages that exceed Virgin Media Mail's size limits will not upload.
• If you receive the error message 'Unable to append message to folder,' Virgin Media Mail was unable to parse the message's formatting. Skip that message and continue uploading others.

Please note that uploading an excessive number of messages to your Virgin Media Mail account via IMAP may lead to being temporarily locked out of your account. If this happens to you, please be aware that these lockouts are temporary and you should be able to re-access your account shortly.

While our engineers are working diligently to make the upload process faster and easier, we're currently unable to provide support for message uploading. We appreciate your patience while we work to improve Virgin Media Mail.

Can I apply multiple labels to a message using my IMAP client?

Yes. If you want a message to have more than one label, just copy the message to a folder instead of moving it. A message that is copied to one or more folders in your IMAP client will be marked with the corresponding label(s) when viewed in the Virgin Media Mail web interface.

Archiving and deleting on iPhones

Deleting and archiving messages on the iPhone works differently depending on your iPhone's software version, or how you set up your iPhone.

If you're running version 1.1.2 OR you've manually set up IMAP, this is how message deletion and archiving will work:

• Tap the bin button on any message > Archives message so that it will only appear in [Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail and your iPhone Bin folder.

  Note: This is how Virgin Media Mail IMAP works in most mail clients.

If you've updated to version 1.1.3 AND you've automatically configured Virgin Media Mail by tapping the large 'Virgin Media Mail' button, the same actions will differ in the following way:

• Tap the bin button on any message > Moves message to the [Virgin Media Mail ]/Bin folder, where it will be permanently removed in 30 days.

  Important: If a message has any other labels, the message will also be deleted from its corresponding IMAP folders.

If you wish to archive a message in this new implementation, simply move the message to your [Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail folder. This can be done by opening the message on your iPhone, tapping the 'Folder' icon located between the 'Bin' and 'Refresh' icons, and then tapping your [Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail folder to move the message.

For additional information regarding this change, please visit Apple Support.

Access Choices : IMAP : Troubleshooting

Why don't all my views and labels appear?

Not all of your default views in the Virgin Media Mail web interface will appear in your IMAP client at this time. We're working on making Virgin Media Mail for IMAP as much like the web interface as we can, but in the meantime, you won't see views such as Chats in your client. (Note: while you can add additional labels to hidden views to show up in your mail client, this may result in distorted messages or other unforeseen consequences.)

Most users should see all of the labels in their web interface replicated as folders in their IMAP client. If you're using an English version of Outlook 2002, Outlook 2003, or Outlook Express, but your web interface is set to a language that uses non-Latin characters, your folder names will not display properly. In addition, some subject and sender names may show as garbled text. This is an issue with these versions of Microsoft Outlook. For more details, please contact Microsoft's customer service department.

Known IMAP issues

My non-English labels are not displaying in Outlook 2003 or Outlook Express.

Most users should see all of the labels in their web interface replicated as folders in their IMAP client. However, if you are using an English version of Outlook 2002, Outlook 2003 or Outlook Express, but your web interface is set to a language that uses non-Latin characters, your folder names will not display properly. In addition, some subject and sender names may show as garbled text.

This is an issue with these versions of Microsoft Outlook. For more details, please contact Microsoft's customer service department.

I have thousands of messages and my email client is crashing.

Most desktop clients will perform poorly with large numbers of messages in a folder, or may even crash. The number varies from client to client and also depends on your machine's performance and memory. This limit can range from 20,000 messages to 100,000 messages. Considering Virgin Media Mail's high quota for mail that can store well over 100,000 text messages, it's possible that your mail client will experience this problem, particularly in processing your '[Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail' folder.

If you have this many messages in your labels, we recommend doing some housework to clean up your labels in the Web interface. Remember, the web interface shows counts of threads, not messages.

On the other hand, most mobile IMAP clients are designed for low bandwidth, and low memory/performance systems, and don't attempt to download all messages. If you only use IMAP from mobile clients, you probably don't have to change your current Virgin Media Mail label habits.

My client is taking forever to download my messages.

I'm having trouble logging in with my username and password

We suggest making some adjustments in your mail client's settings so you aren't always prompted to enter your username and password. Please check the following settings in your mail client:

• Make sure that you entered your full Virgin Media Mail address, including @ntlworld.com, @blueyonder.co.uk, @virgin.net or @virginmedia.com.
• Re-enter your password to ensure that it's correct. Keep in mind that passwords are case-sensitive.
• Make sure your mail client isn't set to check for new mail too often. If your mail client checks for new messages more than once every 10 minutes, your client might repeatedly request your username and password.

I'm having problems sending mail

There are a few common reasons why Virgin Media Mail users may have trouble sending mail with Virgin Media Mail's IMAP feature. If you can't send mail, here's a troubleshooting checklist:

• Are you able to log in to the Virgin Media Mail web interface?

  Visit www.virginmedia.com to log in to your Virgin Media Mail account. If you see a CAPTCHA (a security image with distorted letters), you'll need to log in before you can enable IMAP access. If you're locked out of your account, please wait one hour and log in to Virgin Media Mail again.

• Have you enabled IMAP in your Virgin Media Mail account?

  Open the 'Forwarding and POP/IMAP' tab on your 'Settings' page, and configure IMAP. After enabling IMAP in Virgin Media Mail, make sure you click 'Save Changes' so Virgin Media Mail can communicate with your mail client.

• Did you enable SSL for the SMTP server?

  Make sure SSL is active for SMTP in your mail client. For more information, please review the configuration instructions for your specific client.

• Did you set 'allow authentication' for the SMTP server?

  Check that 'allow authentication' is active for the SMTP server in your mail client. For more information, please review the configuration instructions for your specific client.

• Did you enter the correct username and password?

  Verify that your username is spelled correctly, and that you've entered your full Virgin Media Mail address, including @ntlworld.com, @blueyonder.co.uk, @virgin.net or @virginmedia.com. Also, you should re-enter your password just to be sure it's correct.

• Are you trying to send attachments?

  As a security measure to prevent potential viruses, Virgin Media Mail does not allow you to send or receive executable files that could contain damaging executable code. Also note that with Virgin Media Mail, you can send and receive messages up to 20 megabytes (MB) in size.

• Still can't send mail?

  If you tried configuring your SMTP server on port 465 (with SSL) and port 587 (with TLS), but are still having trouble sending mail, try configuring your SMTP to use port 25 (with SSL).

• Seeing duplicate Sent messages?

  To understand settings that affect deleting and storing messages and drafts, please visit our recommended client settings.

Why aren't my Drafts showing up in my web Virgin Media Mail account?

In order for Drafts you've composed in your mail client to show in your web Virgin Media Mail, you may need to set your client's Draft folder as the '[Virgin Media Mail ]/Drafts' folder.

As these settings differ for each mail client, we suggest contacting the developer of your mail client for further instructions.

I'm having problems downloading mail

A few common reasons can cause trouble downloading mail with Virgin Media Mail's IMAP feature. If you can't download mail, please follow this troubleshooting checklist:

• Are you getting an "unknown error"?

  If you see an "unknown error", it may be because your account has a 'weak' password.

  

  Try visiting our unlock screen and entering your username and password, along with the CAPTCHA characters (the distorted letters in the picture), and then allow an hour before you try to download your messages again. If this works, it may be advisable to visit My Virgin Media and change your password to one that's more secure in order to avoid this happening again in future. If you do change your password, you will also need to change it in any email programs you use, such as Outlook Express.

• Have you enabled IMAP in your Virgin Media Mail account?

  Open the 'Forwarding and POP/IMAP' tab on your 'Settings' page, and configure IMAP. After enabling IMAP in Virgin Media Mail, make sure you click 'Save Changes' so Virgin Media Mail can communicate with your mail client.

• Did you enable SSL for the IMAP server?

  Make sure SSL is active for IMAP in your mail client. For more information, please review the configuration instructions for your specific client.

• Did you enter the correct username and password?

  Verify that your username is spelled correctly, and that you've entered your full Virgin Media Mail address, including @ntlworld.com, @blueyonder.co.uk, @virgin.net or @virginmedia.com. Also, we suggest you re-enter your password just to be sure it's correct.

• Is your download taking a long time?

  Many desktop email clients will attempt to download a limited set of information about every message in a folder (headers or index). Others will attempt to download all of the messages in a folder. Some will even attempt to download all of the messages in all of the folders. If you have a lot of messages, this can take a long time, and your IMAP client might not be usable until after it has finished this initial sync with the server. Future syncs should be faster.

• Why is my mail client crashing when I download messages?

  Most desktop clients will perform poorly with large numbers of messages in a folder, or may even crash. The number varies from client to client and also depends on your machine's performance and memory. This limit can range from 20,000 messages to 100,000 messages. Considering Virgin Media Mail's high quota for mail that can store well over 100,000 text messages, it's possible that your mail client will experience this problem, particularly in processing your '[Virgin Media Mail ]/All Mail' folder. If you have this many messages in your labels, we recommend doing some housework to clean up your labels in the Web interface. Remember, the web interface shows counts of threads, not messages.

Incorrect dates on uploaded messages

Messages uploaded or copied into Virgin Media Mail using IMAP may display the wrong date in your inbox or other labels. The correct dates should appear in conversation view.

This is a known issue, and we appreciate your patience as we work to resolve it.

Header download for the [Virgin Media Mail ] folder did not complete

While this error message may appear in certain Windows mail clients, it should not affect your ability to download and sync messages via Virgin Media Mail IMAP. For more information on avoiding or preventing this error, we suggest following up with the Microsoft support team.

CN security certificate error

Please ensure that you have set up your mail client for IMAP access rather than POP access. In addition, please verify that you have entered entered imap.ntlworld.com, imap.blueyonder.co.uk, imap.virgin.net or imap.virginmedia.com, matching the last part of your email address, as your Incoming Server setting.

Unable to append message

It's possible to upload local (non-Virgin Media Mail ) messages to your Virgin Media Mail account by moving messages from their local location in your email client to one of Virgin Media Mail's folders. However, some messages can't currently be uploaded due to formatting incompatibilities. At the moment, we're unable to provide support for uploading messages.