Alumni - Microsoft and Google Account Access

Yes. At this time, you can continue to access and use your CU Boulder email account, including your saved emails and folders, by logging in through Outlook on the web.

If you've forgotten your password or can't log in using your old credentials, follow our tutorial to change your IdentiKey password.

Per the terms of the university's contracts with Microsoft and Google, we are only able to offer educational licenses to active faculty, staff and students. Alumni who require access to the platform in order to perform work in a volunteer capacity for CU Boulder may also be eligible.

That depends on a few factors, including the number of files you're downloading and the speed of your internet connection. The process can take a considerable amount of time, so we encourage you to start the process well ahead of your account deactivation date.

Your files will be permanently deleted, which is why it's critical for you to move any files you'd like to keep to an alternate location prior to losing access to your CU Boulder-provided Google and Microsoft accounts.

OIT cannot recover your files after your access is disabled.

You'll no longer have access to your CU Boulder Google account, but you can obtain a free personal account from Google directly. Google offers both free and paid options, depending on your needs:

• You can sign up for a free personal Google account to access web and mobile apps for free and get 15GB of cloud storage.
• You can purchase a Google One plan to access additional features and get additional cloud storage.

If you decide to obtain a personal account, be sure to move any CU Boulder files you want to keep to your new non-CU Boulder Google Drive before you lose access.

No. Once your Google account is deactivated, you'll no longer be able to use "Sign in with Google." Before that happens, log in to your Google account and follow this link to check which apps and services are linked to your account.

Please note: If you are signed in to a personal Google account in your browser, you may need to switch accounts to view the accounts linked to your CU Boulder Google account rather than your personal one.

Google's transfer service allows to you to move Gmail emails, documents you own and, in some circumstances, documents in your "Shared with me" folder to a personal Google account. OIT cannot provide support for this transfer process, so please follow Google's file transfer instructions carefully.

Yes. When your Google Drive files are deleted, any users with whom they were shared will also permanently lose access to them.

To make someone else the owner of a file or folder, follow Google's instructions to transfer ownership.

You'll no longer have access to your CU Boulder Microsoft 365 account, but you can obtain a free personal account from Microsoft directly. Microsoft offers both free and paid options, depending on your needs:

• You can sign up for a free personal Microsoft 365 account to access web and mobile apps for free and get 5GB of cloud storage.
• You can purchase a personal or family plan to access Microsoft 365 desktop applications and get additional cloud storage.

If you decide to obtain a personal account, be sure to move any CU Boulder files you want to keep to your new non-CU Boulder OneDrive before you lose access.

Three to four months after you graduate, you will lose access to OneDrive and your documents will be permanently deleted.

If you have documents in your CU Boulder Microsoft OneDrive that you would like to keep, it is critical that you copy or move these documents to a new location, such as a personal OneDrive account or another cloud service.

Files containing university data that's classified as highly confidential or high impact may not be removed or copied from CU Boulder's Microsoft environment.

Personal information can and should be moved to a non-CU Boulder storage location of your choice. Please consider the security of any platform you move your personal information to, just as you would any platform where you store information you'd want to keep private (e.g., financial information, health information).

OIT cannot recover your files after your access is disabled.

Yes. When your Microsoft OneDrive files are deleted, any users with whom they were shared will also permanently lose access to them. To learn how to transfer ownership of a shared file, please see the next question.

To transfer ownership to someone with whom you've already shared the file or folder:

1. Open a web browser and navigate to your OneDrive file library.
2. Right-click on the file or folder you wish to transfer.
3. Click Manage Access.
4. Find the new owner's name and confirm they have Can edit access. If they don't, click on their name and update their access accordingly.
5. Ask the new editor to find your file/folder under their own OneDrive file library's Shared tab.
6. Ask the new editor to download your file(s), which will create a new copy that they own.
7. To complete the process, they can re-upload your file(s) to a new folder in their own OneDrive account and share with others as needed.

In 2021, Google announced that it would end free storage for universities, which significantly reduced the amount of storage CU Boulder could provide to campus users. The remaining storage was allocated to active students, faculty (including emeritus faculty), staff (including working retirees) and those who need access to these tools to perform volunteer duties for the university.

Yes, all existing CU Boulder alumni were affected. A communications campaign alerted alumni to the changes before their access was removed, and new graduates receive a series of emails with a deadline by which to save important files before they lose access.

All of your existing email and folders were moved to Outlook on the web. Learn about the Gmail migration process.

If you graduated before December 2022, your files were permanently deleted on or after Jan. 1, 2023, following an extensive communications campaign. If you graduated after December 2022, you had three to four months after you graduated before your files were permanently deleted. OIT is no longer able to provide those files to you.

 Yes. CU Boulder has enabled Microsoft 365 multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all CU Boulder users, regardless of affiliation.