This document is intended to help you manage an impending account closure. While you will be notified several weeks prior to account closure, you can start preparing for this transition much earlier. For a general guideline to when your account will be closed, see Account Closure Overview.
Solutions like email forwarding or auto-reply will only work as long as your account is open, so you will want to implement them as early as possible. Although it is not necessary to do anything, many people find the following steps helpful.
| Step | Procedure |
| Create an Automatic Reply |
Use the Out of Office feature to have an automated response delivered to your correspondents in which you may guide them to your new email address. NOTE: You may have either an automatic reply or you may forward your email. You are not able to do both. |
| Forward Your Email |
Start forwarding your UChicago email to another account (such as a Gmail or Yahoo account) that you own. NOTE: you may have either an automatic reply or you may forward your email. You are not able to do both. |
| Save Your Old Email | Archive your email or migrate your email to another account. |
| Save Your Address Books | Make sure you look at your address book and write down any important entries before your account closes. |
| Save Your Files | Export your documents to a personal computer or account, or transfer file ownership. Applies to Box, Google, and OneDrive files. |
Beyond your email, you'll want to make sure that you've downloaded any important files you've been storing on our servers or storage solutions and prepare to replace applications you've been using through a University license. The licensing terms of software such as Microsoft Office only cover your time at the University. Once your account is closed, these files will be permanently deleted and are not recoverable.
Rather than trying to email all of your possible correspondents to notify them about your new email address, you can use the auto-reply feature to respond automatically to incoming mail as long as your account is open. To take advantage of this feature, read Send Automatic Replies in Outlook. You will still get your mail, but your correspondents will receive a message noting the change.
While your University email account is still active, you may forward your email from your University account to another address of your choosing. Your email forwarding will close, except for alumni as noted below, when your University email account closes. Please note that if you choose to forward your email to another address, you will not be able to set up an automatic reply. To begin, go to myaccount.uchicago.edu. Once you have logged in, choose Email Forwarding under Manage Your Email at the bottom of the page. The page will tell you where your email is currently being routed and will give you instructions on how to reroute your email forwarding.
Note: Alumni will maintain their @uchicago.edu addresses; email accounts will be closed two quarters after graduation, but the @uchicago.edu email address will continue to work if it is forwarded to an off-campus email provider. To forward your @uchicago.edu email address if you use Google Workspace, see Forward Your UChicago Email for instructions.
Please note, if you begin forwarding your mail, your correspondents will no longer receive automatic replies. Automatic replies will last only as long as your email account is open and not forwarding your email. When your email account is closed, automatic replies will stop working.
When the closure process is complete, all emails stored on University servers will be irreversibly deleted. To avoid any foreseeable inconvenience, we urge you to download or move any important messages before your account closes. Often, the easiest solution is to migrate your mail by setting up a new email account. Many formerly-affiliated academic appointees, students, and staff have set up Gmail accounts because Google offers easy configuration instructions in the article Check Gmail through other email platforms.
As an example, if you use Outlook for your University email account, and you set up a Gmail account to transition to, you may set up your Gmail in Outlook using the Google instructions. Once you configure Outlook so that you can see both your University email and your Gmail accounts, you may copy the messages you wish to keep from your University email folders into the folder for your Gmail account.
When you have moved all the mail you wish to keep to your Gmail account, you may continue to use your Gmail account in the email application (such as Outlook) that you have been using, or you may move to Gmail's web-based version. If you continue to read your Gmail in Outlook, it is important to remove your University account configuration after the account closes to avoid error messages and problems with Outlook.
Converting address books can be a difficult process, depending on your current email application. Please note that at this time there are very few reliable methods for address book conversion since each email application uses its own unique and often proprietary address book format. You may try the export command in the email application that you choose, but we recommend that you also write down, or cut and paste and email to yourself, any important address information before your account closes.
If you have created personal files in Box, Google Drive, or OneDrive that you wish to keep, please transfer these files to a local computer or a personal cloud storage account before your account closes. If you have created any files within your personal account in Box, Google Drive, or OneDrive that properly belong to your department or division, please transfer ownership of these files to another active member of your department before your account closes. Do not transfer ownership by sharing the file with another; instead, please have the new owner put the file into a departmental file share (Tank) or cloud storage system (group Box, Google Team Drive, Microsoft Teams) before your account closes. For assistance, please contact IT Services.