Can no longer log in to Talk21.com

[Ytinifni]

Since this weekend I can no longer log in to my talk21.com e mail via any web browser or the Outlook 365 client that has worked perfectly for years.  This applies to every computer and mobile phone that I have tried.  Clearing cookies makes no difference either.

If I try to login from bt.com/mail, after a few seconds I get bounced back to the login page and told to try again.  If I try to login using the Outlook client the same thing happens; after a few seconds 'connecting' I get bounced back to a username and password screen.

Thinking my account had been compromised, I successfully changed the password but I still cannot login.  The same problem happens.

What is happening, please, and how can I resolve?  

Thank you.

[Ytinifni · Accepted solution]

Problem solved.

I post the solution here for anyone else with the same issue.

Prompted by this post https://community.bt.com/t5/Email/Talk21/td-p/2311444, I went to bt.com/mail and tried logging in with user.name.t21@btinternet.com instead of user.name@talk21.com.  Log in again failed, but this time I was directed to logging in from the bt.com homepage.  When I did, I was asked to set up two factor authentication.  This is now done, and I once again have access to my email account.

It's a shame I wasn't served a helpful message in the first place but at least I can now login again - and my Microsoft 365 Outlook client works, too.

[Ytinifni]

Just for completeness:  Having now got access to my account again, I find a BT email from Saturday telling me that the account had been locked due to suspicious activity - but in the absence of any backup email address or phone number this had been sent to the very account that had been locked.  It was therefore as helpful as a chocolate teapot.

The moral of this story is make sure you have a recovery email address (in my case now done along with recovery mobile phone number as part of setting up two factor authentication), and ideally set up two factor authentication too to reduce the likelihood of an account being locked.

[gg30340]

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@Ytinifni wrote:

Problem solved.

 It's a shame I wasn't served a helpful message in the first place but at least I can now login again - and my Microsoft 365 Outlook client works, too.

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Had you carried out a search of the forum prior to posting you would have found this post which mentions using the correct format for your email address.

Solved: Re: Talk21 - BT Community

as well as a few others similar posts.