Starting Wednesday, March 9, if you are not using an email program that uses modern authentication, you might encounter an error message when trying to log in to your CU Boulder email account. If you are unable to login to your email, in addition to other campus services that require an IdentiKey for access, you likely need to update your IdentiKey password. Please read on if you are only having trouble with CU Boulder email access.
Accessing your email account
Although email programs that use legacy authentication will no longer work with your CU Boulder email account, your email account will continue to receive messages and you can access your account with one of the following email programs. For the best experience we suggest using Outlook on the web since it never needs upgrading and it uses modern authentication. Learn more about Outlook on the web.
These versions of Outlook also use modern authentication:
Please visit our Exchange Online page for more information about setting up these and other email programs. While OIT does not provide support for Mac Mail, the Mac Mail in campus-supported macOS versions (10.15, 11 & 12) uses modern authentication and will allow you to connect to your CU Boulder email account.
Setting up multi-factor authentication
Since November our campus has required multi-factor authentication (MFA) to login to Microsoft applications. So when you set up a new email program to access your CU Boulder account, you could also be prompted to register in Microsoft Multi-Factor Authentication. We have provided MFA login instructions on the Microsoft Office 365 page.
Microsoft MFA gives you two options for proving who you are. You can register to get a text message with a code you’ll type in when you log in or you can download and install the mobile app on your phone. The mobile app only requires you to tap a button to log in but can take more time to set up. If using the mobile app sounds more convenient, we suggest adding the texting feature first, followed by adding the mobile app. If you use a lot of devices to log in to your work accounts on a daily basis, when you are registered in MFA, you could be initially prompted to enroll on all those devices. Once enrolled, you will only be periodically prompted to use MFA.
If you have questions about accessing your CU Boulder email account, please contact the IT Service Center at oithelp@colorado.edu or 303-735-4357.
