Microsoft 365 Apps - FAQ

If you are unable to download Microsoft 365 apps and believe you should have access, please fill out the New Office 365 Apps License form on the OIT Messaging and Collaboration Request Portal.

You can install Microsoft 365 apps on up to five different computers, as well as five separate mobile devices.

Devices are managed on the Microsoft 365 Software page.

No. Microsoft 365 apps are activated per device during the setup process for software downloaded from the Microsoft 365 Software page using your IdentiKeyUsername@colorado.edu and IdentiKey password credentials.

No. As you made a consumer purchase through Microsoft, CU Boulder has no way to reimburse the purchase.

Software can be downloaded from the Microsoft 365 Software page on desktop computers, and mobile apps can be downloaded from the Play Store or App Store depending on your device. For additional instructions refer to the following tutorials:

• Android - Install and Setup Microsoft 365 Applications
• iOS - Install and Setup Microsoft 365 Applications

Depending on how your device is managed, you should use a different version of the software. Follow the recommendations below for clarification on which software you should use.

University-Owned Machines

• Managed by DDS: Do not download the Microsoft 365 apps. You are covered through the campus license and your DDS technician will install all needed software.
• Managed by departmental IT Professional: Consult your IT Professional for their recommendation and assistance with the setup process.
• Not Managed by DDS or a departmental IT Professional:
  • If you have a computer with software from the existing Microsoft Campus Agreement, you should continue to these applications.
  • If you have not installed Microsoft 365 apps on your computer before, use the software available through the Microsoft 365 Software page.

Personally Owned Machines

For your computers and devices that are not owned by CU Boulder, you should use web-based software available through the Microsoft 365 Software page.

No. It is recommended for users to have applications installed from either the Microsoft 365 apps software page or via the Microsoft Software campus license. This ensures that the installed applications have no compatibility issues.

If you are changing from one license to another, it is best practice to fully uninstall all versions of Office products prior to installing new applications.

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 (see the next question for details).

Alumni who require access to Microsoft 365 desktop and online apps in order to perform work for CU Boulder in a volunteer capacity may be eligible to receive a license.

If you are in this situation, contact your sponsoring department. You will need to be entered into the university's human resource management system as a Person of Interest (POI) of the appropriate type in order for OIT to provision you with a license.

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.