Stories & practical guidesVirgin Media is handing every ntlworld.com, blueyonder.co.uk, virgin.net and virginmedia.com mailbox to a paid provider, Junara. Do nothing and the mailbox is suspended, then deleted. Some of our clients’ email has already stopped. Here’s what to do today.
If you or someone you know still uses an email address ending in @ntlworld.com, @blueyonder.co.uk, @virgin.net or @virginmedia.com, read this today. Virgin Media is getting out of email. You can keep the address, but only by moving it to a new company that will charge for it. Do nothing and the mailbox is suspended, then deleted.
None of our clients with these addresses has had a letter about it. Some have already found their email has simply stopped working, with no warning email or letter they can find. Nobody they spoke to could tell them whether the service was closing, moving to a new company and carrying on, or about to start costing money.
That is a frightening place to be with twenty years of family emails, photos, receipts and logins in one inbox. So here is what is actually happening, and what to do about it.
On 9 September 2026 Virgin Media O2 announced it is handing its email service to Junara, an email company owned by Atmail. It affects every ntlworld.com, blueyonder.co.uk, virgin.net and virginmedia.com address. You have three choices:
So the answer to “is it closing, moving or going to cost me?” is all three, depending on what you do.
Here is the catch. Virgin’s help page says your sign-up date is in the emails it sends you. The warning goes to the very inbox that is closing, and Virgin itself tells people to check their spam or junk folder because its emails may land there. If you mostly read email on a phone, or the message went to junk, it is easy to miss.
There is a second reason some addresses go quiet. Virgin has always closed email accounts for people who left its broadband, TV or landline, usually within 90 days. It says it missed some, and it is now closing those too. If someone left Virgin broadband years ago and kept using the email, that may be why it stopped.
Virgin hasn’t published what Junara charges after the free period. It says monthly and annual prices are shown when you start signing up. For a sense of scale, when Manx Telecom moved its users to Junara, ISPreview reported £6.50 a month or £65 a year per mailbox. Virgin users may be charged differently.
Keep it with Junara if the address is tied into everything (your bank, your GP, the council, family and friends) and paying a yearly fee is easier than changing it everywhere. Move if you would rather stop paying for an old internet provider’s address, or you have already left Virgin.
Either is fine. The only bad choice is doing nothing.
You don’t have to wait for a letter. You can start the move now, and keep a copy of everything in your old mailbox while you do it.
Now everything new arrives in your new inbox as well. As it does, you can see who still writes to the old address and give them the new one. Virgin says forwarding keeps working while a mailbox is suspended, and only stops when the mailbox is deleted.
Two limits. Forwarding only sends new emails as they arrive in your inbox: it doesn’t copy the years of email already there, and it skips anything Virgin files as spam. And while you are in the Auto forward page, if there is an address you don’t recognise, delete it. Virgin’s own advice is that a forward you didn’t set up can be someone copying your email.
If you move to Junara, your old email moves with you. If you don’t, you need to copy it out before the mailbox goes. Virgin suggests forwarding the emails you need one at a time, or saving them and their attachments to your computer. That works for a handful. For twenty years of email it doesn’t.
The usual route for a big mailbox is to set the old account up in an email app such as Outlook or Apple Mail next to the new one, and copy the folders across. Email apps need a Virgin Media Mail app password rather than your normal one, which you make in My Virgin Media under Account settings. With tens of thousands of emails it is slow, and it is easy to miss a folder. That is the part we do for people.
A change that affects millions of people is a gift to scammers, so expect fake “your email is closing” messages. Virgin says its emails about this contain no sign-up link and never ask for personal or payment details. The only safe ways to sign up are junara.com, typed in yourself, or the links on Virgin Media’s own help page. Never pay over the phone or through a link in an email.
If you move away from Junara, work through everywhere the old address is used before the mailbox closes: online banking, your GP and pharmacy, energy, water and council accounts, Amazon, eBay and PayPal, Apple, Google and Microsoft accounts, streaming services, alarms and anything that sends password resets. Miss one and the next password reset goes nowhere.
If your address ends in @ntlworld.com, @blueyonder.co.uk, @virgin.net or @virginmedia.com, yes. Virgin is contacting people in phases, by email, so check your junk folder. You don’t have to wait: Virgin says you can sign up with Junara before you are contacted.
Virgin says the transfer usually takes a few minutes. Outlook and Apple Mail should carry on with the same settings. Webmail moves to Junara’s website and looks different.
No. It only passes on new emails from the day you switch it on. Your existing email needs saving separately, or moving with Junara.
Virgin is closing accounts for people who are no longer customers. To keep the address you need a paid Junara plan. Otherwise, save your email and move now.
No. Each address is billed separately. It is worth deciding which ones you actually need.
If you or someone you know has years of email in one of these accounts and would rather not do this alone, we can move it for you. We set up the new address, bring your old email and contacts across, set up forwarding, get your phone and computer working with it, and help you update the accounts that matter. Book a short call with Pete, call 01462 434082, or email enquiries@corsolutions.co.uk.
Virgin Media Help: What’s changing with Virgin Media’s email service?
Virgin Media Help: Why is my email account being closed?
ISPreview: Virgin Media UK closes email service and shifts users to Junara, 9 September 2026
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