Problems with missing email accounts/unable to add email accounts on webmail

[scream666]

I don’t understand what’s going on here, but once upon a time I used to be able to access all my email accounts via webmail. I remember adding all my email accounts (again many moons ago) and they were all displayed on the one login.

I don’t know when it happened because I’m a big fan of Microsoft Outlook and have little desire to use webmail, save for the odd occasion, but for some reason all those accounts that I previously added aren’t there anymore, and wat’s more, it won’t let me re-add them. Neither the automatic adding process nor the manual method works. In fact, one of the fields is stuck on IMAP. I cannot select POP3. Yes I’m set up POP3 because of the way I want Outlook to work.

Another problem is that only some of my email accounts can be separately logged into via webmail. There seems to be no pattern.

Access via Microsoft Outlook is currently working fine, so I know I am using the correct login credentials. Of course there’s always confusion over the legacy screaming.net account – should I login to webmail using name1@name2.screaming.net or name2@screaming.net? I tried both in webmail and neither one works.

I think it probably all went wrong either (a) when the encryption change was forced upon us (a while back now) or (b) when webmail was updated (I forget when that happened). Either way, the end result is that webmail isn’t working at all well for me. Might anyone have a solution to this please (please treat me carefully, I’m not good at this stuff. I just want it to work and keep on working. I don’t like changes outside my control that end up causing hassle through no fault of my own!).

Thank you in anticipation.

Kind regards.

[scream666]

Hello Ady,

Thank you for your suggestion. I'm very reluctant to mess around with my various passwords as I find that things break. What I can;t understand is if my passwords comply with TalkTalk's requirements and they've been set using their GUIs, why such a setup should fail to work when adding the accounts to TalkTalk's webmail. It implies that the password rules are not consistent across TalkTalk's platforms. That's not good. How is anyone supposed to know what the rules are. Guessing what's permissible isn't really an option.

If it's not a password-related thing, then something else must be wrong with webmail as regards adding accounts.

This problem was not encountered on a previous version of TalkTalk's webmail. I've done noting my end to upset the apple cart.

It's surely time to formally raise the issue? It's been going on far too long now.

Thank you.

[Ady-TalkTalk]

Hi scream666, have to tried resetting the password to the most basic allowed to see what happens?

Ady

[scream666]

Well I've tried, tried and tried again to attach email accounts but nothing works. My blood pressure is now suffering. I've come to the conclusion that TalkTalk webmail just isn't working as it should (and as it did a while back). Please can someone raise this as an issue to be properly investigated? I can't do any more my end.

By the way, does anyone know what the asterisk is supposed to be referring to at the login pop-up (see attachment)? It refers to nothing. Thank you.

[Gondola]

The popup at the top showing "Account settings could not be saved. Please take a look at the annotations in the form" is telling you that you've not filled in one or more of the boxes and the "annotation" on the modal form is showing you in red letters that the field is mandatory - i.e. that you must complete the entry in the box, not just leave it blank.

If you need help filling in all the boxes then screenshot what you need help with. I've given you the Incoming and Outgoing server settings so all you need is those exact settings plus to give the added email account a name just so you can identify it e.g. scream666 and to use the added email address and its password.

[scream666]

I can't I've just tried again and again, multiple times. All I get is 'Account settings could not be saved. Please take a look at the annotations in the form' error message - see attachment. It bombs out on the first pop-up.

Also, and this is just an observation you understand, but a valid one for people who'd like multiple email accounts on webmail I think, the top left of webmail isn't wide enough by default to display the entire email account. It just shows 'talktalk.net' which isn't very helpful.

I welcome your instructions, but I think I need a step-by-step process taking the pop-ups in order and exactly what should be in which field in the order that they appear.

I assume, when adding an account, I'm supposed to use the specific email address in question and its matching password (not some kind of hybrid along the lines of the email account, but the password from the likes of 'My Account' or something bonkers like that?

Something has definitely gone wrong with webmail. It used to work and it had all my email accounts added (no problem). Now, through no fault of my own, it all gone to pot. I am at a loss.

[Gondola]

Just go with the manual setup by following my settings.

[scream666]

Hello Gondola,

Thank you for your continued help with this. I think I at least understand the two ways to log in to the Community Forum now.

As regards the inability to add email accounts, I simply don't understand why it doesn't work. I'm using the correct email address and matching password (the very same combination that I use in Outlook) to add the account, but it fails the automatic process every time. Also, I can log into the individual accounts separately one at a time using TalkTalk's webmail using the very same email addresses and passwords. It just doesn't make sense.

When I can grab more time, I'll try setting one up manually and see what happens. I get the impression (certainly after the game I had with my 27 character pw for my screaming account), that something weird is going on with passwords on the TalkTalk webmail. OK, my other email accounts are not beyond 20 characters, but something is definitely not working as it should. I mean how can I login individually but not add?

[Gondola]

Login to Community.

Community and your customer MyAccount have the exact same login Username / email address.  For the Community login you enter just the email address and then sign in to the email account to pick up the authentication code that you use to complete the Community login.

Or you can sign in to your customer MyAccount using the login Username / email address and MyAccount password and because that sets a Single Sign On (SSO) session cookie you can use the same browser to go to Community and select your user avatar top right that will then pick up the session cookie and show you are also logged in to Community.

Add an email account to TalkTalk Mail:

You can add an email account to any TalkTalk Mail account. Referring to your error messages a) "The provided login data seems to be wrong" is telling you that the email address and password do not match. i.e. the password is not correct. "Auto configuration failed" is telling you that either the mailbox does not exist on the server or there's an issue setting up the account so hit the "Manually configure" button and you'll get a modal to enter the settings.

If the auto-configuration fails and you got a window asking if you wish to ignore warnings about not having a secure connection, and then continue, you get the manual setup

For the manual setup here's an example using any TalkTalk Consumer Mail domain:

• Email address: your full email address

INCOMING SERVER

• Server name: mail.talktalk.net
• Connection security: SSL/TLS
• Server port: 993
• Username: your full email address
• Password: the email password

OUTGOING SERVER

• Server name: smtp.talktalk.net
• Connection security: STARTTLS
• Server port: 587
• Authentication: use separate username and password
• Username: your full email address
• Password: the email password

[scream666]

When going manual with the process, I am up against all the fields shown in the attachment. When you have multiple accounts, and you don;t understand how each section needs to be filled in, then you are somewhat up against it. If all of my accounts are with TalkTalk, why doesn't the automatic process work? Very frustrating indeed - especially since it did work prior to the upgrade.

[scream666]

Thank you Gondola. It's a shame that the limited character input feature is there. There was no warning of password length limitations, and somehow I had managed (previously) to create a valid (and working) 27 character password. I could only have ever done that via a TalkTalk portal. Ah well, at least I know about it now (until next time when I'm bound to forget again!).

I'm also still having problems logging into this Community Forum. It's not clear to me what the logging in credentials should be - those for 'My Account' or something else? That also explains my delays in responding by the way (sorry!).

OK, so I've tried once more to add an email account. I logged into one of my email accounts using webmail and then I tried to add another email account to it. Again it failed.

Do I have to login to a particular, shall we call it 'master' account', to which others will be added, or should I be able to add any of my email accounts to any login?

Shall I try to add manually (although I fear I'm going to mess up with that - I just don't understand what some of the responses should be.

Kind regards 

[Gondola]

Just going back over your earlier posts.

Account name: Your choice of name to identify the email account

Email address / Username: The full email address of the mailbox, so the screaming.net one would using your terminology be the master email address name2@screaming.net.

Reply to: Leave blank unless you want all replies to go to that Reply to email address.

Given that you can now sign in to webmail using the screaming.net address then the master mailbox address must be valid so if it says it's not is that because you're switching the "names" around?  John@Smith.screaming.net and Josie@Smith.screaming.net are aliases and Smith@screaming.net is a master. But Josie@screaming.net is not a valid address.

As for passwords. Email passwords should be ultra strong and unique. If you happen to download malware and that captures a password then you don't want that password to unlock other email accounts.

Waiting on your screenshot(s) so I can see what's going on.

[Gondola]

There is a keying in entry limit on password length for the webmail sign in so by having an ultra long password you locked yourself out effectively. I recommended 12 - 15 characters as giving you an ultra strong password. Good that you've been able to sign in to webmail.

Now, what point do you get to in the adding of email accounts. Show me a screenshot having obscured the first part of any email address.

[scream666]

OK, more update. I decided (rather bravely I thought) to change my password on my screaming account using:-

https://myaccount.talktalk.co.uk/forgotdetails/index/webmailreset?pc=IZgHBTU3w5CBFYQGUKrIig7fWPfFCr5...

I reluctant;y took it down from 27 characters to 20 since that's all the app allowed (a max of 20). I reconfigured Outlook to make sure I still had connectivity (which I did). I then tried the webmail by attempted to log into my screaming account and miraculously it worked!

So this is really weird because I changed my password not so long ago using a TalkTalk facility (can't remember if it was the same or not) and it allowed me my 27 characters back then. Now it doesn't. So it left me with things working to Outlook by not webmail. Not good!! I could have been chasing that one down for days, weeks, never ... just by chance was it the answer.

I still can't attach my email accounts as previously though, so something is still a miss., and I'm still confused about logging into the Community Forum ...

Why is nothing ever easy?!

[scream666]

By the way, I tried using the name2@screaming.net instead of name1@name2.screaming.net when trying to add the address and it tole me that it wasn't a valid email address, so it looks like you have to use name1@name2.screaming.net after all. Not that it helps anyway because it still goes on to fail to add anyway.

[scream666]

Hello Gondola,

Thank you for your additional comments.

Yes I’m not sure why the screaming.net address cannot be successfully reached using webmail. I do recall changing its password a few weeks back to something incredibly long (I was worried about a possible breach of security). It complies with all the rules, but as I said, it’s very long – some 27 characters. Strangely I can no longer remember how I did that, and that might be part of the problem. It does work with my POP3 configured Outlook though, so I must have done something right.

I can’t remember about the reset details that you mention. When you’re not doing these kinds of things regularly, and you have a memory like mine, this stuff can be really frustrating and impossible to sort out. I will go and have a poke around all the same (in webmail?). The thing is, don’t I have to successfully login to the specific email account first to check the reset details (a catch 22 situation), or is it some kind of global setting that I can get to via one of my working email accounts?

As regards adding email accounts to a single account in webmail, does it matter which account I attach them to? Is it supposed to work with any/all? Am I supposed to be able to attach all email accounts to all accounts (if you see what I mean), or just a chosen/the required one? How do I know which is the required one?

You state that passwords must be unique. Are you saying that I cannot use the same password for more than one email account? As it happens, two of my email accounts DO have the same password, and those work fine. The screaming one is certainly unique.

As for the POP3/IMAP debate, well I’ve set my Outlook to go POP3 because I want to keep a local copy of all my emails in the form of a PST file and I don’t want the server to clog up. It’s therefore set to auto-delete after 14 days. I don’t mind that arrangement because my first port of call is always Outlook, not webmail. There are occasions however when I need webmail, but I can cope with only the last 14 day’s worth, for how often I use webmail. Setting to never delete will just fill up the server and it’ll all come to a grinding halt at some point (probably a one way ticket never to work again??!). I don’t like to risk it.

I’ve just followed your instructions to re-add an account, it starts to do things automatically and presents you with a pop-up box that only asks for an email address and password. I can’t get past this because it fails. Then you get a chance at the manual route. It asked the following:-

Account Name: <I have no idea what to put in here>

Your Name: <Well ok, probably my name, but then that depends upon how it was presented originally, so a bit of guesswork here perhaps>

E-mail Address: >presumably the one I’m trying to add?>

Reply To: <What do I put in here?>

Server Type (only IMAP available): <ok, well you said IMPA is ok, so IMAP it is>

So still no further forward.

PS I’m still finding it difficult to log into the Community Forum for some reason!! Do I gain access via 'My Account' (and those login credentials) or can I login directly using different credentials unique to Community Forum? I'm well confused now.

[Gondola]

Good to know you can log in to each of the TalkTalk Mail accounts individually apart from the screaming.net account. 

Do you have Reset details set up for each account so that you can change the password when required? Update your reset details is a menu item on the User avatar icon menu.

The first thing is to ensure each password is unique and complies with the minimum security requirements. At least 8 characters although that is an absolute minimum and I recommend 12 - 15 characters. Multicase letters and at least one number and one symbol. If the password is not compliant then the system can reject it even if webmail allows access.  So before proceeding upgrade the passwords as necessary.

You don't use POP3 with webmail it's IMAP by default.  You can use POP3 for Outlook if you wish but set to never delete from the server if you wish to check mailbox functionality in webmail.

Select here:  Sign in to TalkTalk Mail

Enter your full TalkTalk Mail primary email address, select Continue and enter the password, select Sign in.

• Select the cog icon top right
• From the menu select Add email account

For the manual setup here's an example using any TalkTalk Consumer Mail domain - All use the exact same settings the only difference is the Username and password:

• Email address: your full email address

Incoming server

• Server name: mail.talktalk.net
• Connection security: SSL/TLS
• Server port: 993
• Username: your full email address
• Password: the email password

Outgoing server (SMTP)

• Server name: smtp.talktalk.net
• Connection security: StartTLS
• Server port: 587
• Authentication: use separate username and password
• Username: your full email address
• Password: the email password

Save settings.

[scream666]

Hello Gondola,

Thank you for your guidance. Apologies for not replying until now, but for some reason I managed to get locked out of the Community Forum and also ‘My Account’. I struggled in vein to rest passwords etc, but it just compounded matters. I guess I’m confused about the log in credentials for the Community Forum and how/if said credential are the same as those (or influenced by) the ones I use to log into ‘My Account’. It’s all getting rather crazy. I actually don’t even know if the Community Form will give me access to post this, hey ho …

Right, webmail. Some updates:-

I can (separately) log into all of my email accounts (one at a time) using my known login credentials per email account. I can’t however log into my screaming account. I know that my login credentials are correct for all of my accounts, including my screaming one as they all work perfectly ok with Outlook. If I pick one of my accounts that I can log into using webmail, I cannot add any of the rest of my email accounts. They were there (a while back, granted, and probably before webmail was updated), but they aren’t there now, and of course I can’t get to screaming (even on its own, never mind adding it to others). I’ve tried the main and alias, same story.

All mailboxes must be present and working (presumably) because they are all working with Outlook.

So I am at a loss.

[Gondola]

First the screaming.net email. You can log in to TalkTalk Mail webmail using either a master email address or an alias email address. The master screaming.net address is of the form mailbox@screaming.net whereas the alias is of the form username@mailbox.screaming.net and in the case of issues it would be best to access using the master address because that is the actual mailbox address.

Next, you say you cannot access some mailboxes so we need to determine if those mailboxes have been deleted or suspended or if you just don't have the current password.

Mailboxes are flagged for deletion if the user doesn't sign in at least once every 180 days. The help page  Deleted Email error message explains more.

So first you'd check if the email address is still active. Send the email address a mail message and see if you get an immediate bounceback error message saying 'Undeliverable' that means the mailbox isn't active.

Then  enter the email address at Verifalia, an external website that verifies if an email address exists. Enter the email address, complete the reCAPTCHA and select the Validate button. Does the top line response say 'Deliverable' or something else?

Finally, use the Reset password now button in the Help page  Changing your email password to see if you get a deleted or no domain error message or if you actually do have password recovery options saved.  Let us know the outcome in each case.

The Reset password now button in the help article  Changing your email password will take you to password reset and recovery. 

If the email address is still active on the TalkTalk Mail platform and you have set up password recovery options, in advance, that you recognise from the *****hints, then you can send your alternate email address a link or your mobile a 6-digit code to authorise a password reset.