What They Are
Email forwarding and redirection are automated ways of passing incoming messages directly from one email account to another.
- Email forwarding is used to send a copy of incoming messages to a different email address. The original recipient becomes the email sender and the subject line typically begins with "FW:" or "Fwd:".
- Email redirection is used to reroute incoming messages to a different email address. The email sender and subject line don't change and there's no visible indication that the message had been routed through a different account.
By default, CU Boulder's faculty, staff and student email accounts retain a copy of emails that are automatically forwarded or redirected to another account, effective Sept. 29, 2026.
How They Work (and Don't) at CU Boulder
Forwarding and redirecting messages between colorado.edu email accounts is typically reliable; however, that's no longer true when sending to external domains (e.g., gmail.com) or even other CU-affiliated domains (e.g., lasp.colorado.edu, cu.edu).
In recent years, email service providers have been implementing stricter security standards to protect users from increasingly sophisticated spoofing and phishing attacks. Learn more about email authentication standards (login required).
While CU Boulder still permits the use of email forwarding and redirection, we can't guarantee that those emails will be delivered to the forwarding address. Even if we could guarantee that the authentication chain would remain intact, CU can't control whether the security standards used by the sending domain will meet those of the receiving domain.
What to Do Instead of Forwarding Your Email
To ensure that you receive important university communications, we strongly recommend checking your colorado.edu email account directly rather than using an email forwarding or redirect rule. To do so, log in to Outlook on the web or use our instructions to install Outlook on your computer or mobile device.
If you're receiving personal communications at your CU Boulder email address that you'd prefer to receive at your personal address:
- Share your personal email address with your contacts.
- Transfer any personal accounts for streaming services, online shopping, banking or medical providers from your campus email address to a personal one.
How to Remove Email Forwarding
- If you're using a mailbox rule to redirect your messages to a different email address, log in to your campus Outlook account and delete or disable the rule.
- If you set up email forwarding through the IdentiKey Manager self-service portal or by submitting a request to OIT Security or the IT Service Center, you'll need to contact OIT for assistance. Please email oithelp@colorado.edu with the subject "Remove Email Forwarding."
