Documentation - Accounts
Preparing for Account Transition or Closure
Note for Students
As of January, 2007, student accounts will be "transitioned" instead of closed. Transitioned accounts will be left open for email forwarding: students will be allowed to forward their @uchicago.edu email to another email address. In addition, transitioned accounts will be able to access cMore for transcripts and use the University wireless network.
This document is intended to help members of the University community deal with 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, read our account closure timeline.
Solutions like email forwarding or auto-reply will only work as long as your account is open, so you'll want to implement them as early as possible. Although it is not necessary to do anything, many people find the following steps helpful. Read below or click on any step for more information.
| Step | Procedure |
| Automatic Reply | Use the vacation feature to automatically respond to your correspondents |
| Email Forwarding | Start forwarding your UChicago mail |
| Saving Old Mail | Instructions for download mail from a variety of clients. |
| Saving Address Books | Information on converting address books |
Beyond your email, you'll want to make sure that you've downloaded any important files you've been storing on NSIT's servers and prepare to replace applications you've been using through a University license. The licensing terms of software such as Microsoft Office (from the Campus Computer Stores) only cover your time at the University.
Creating An Automatic Reply
Rather than trying to email all of your possible correspondents, you can use the auto-reply feature to respond automatically to incoming mail as long as your account is open. Take advantage of is feature, read creating an automatic reply to incoming mail. You'll still get your mail (you can even start forwarding it) but your correspondents will get a reminder message you create.
Please note that automatic replies will last only as long as your email account is open. When your email account is closed, they will stop working, even if, as an alumnus, your email forwarding continues to work.
Forwarding Your Mail
You can set up email forwarding, even if you've already configured an auto-reply message. As long as your account is still active, you can transparently forward mail to a new location.
Note: Students will maintain their @uchicago.edu addresses; NSIT cMail 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, visit the cMail forwarding page: https://cnet.uchicago.edu/forwarding
Saving Old Mail
By using a program like Thunderbird you can download and store messages no matter how you've been checking your mail. If you've been using pine, you'll need to move pine messages to your IMAP store first. If you've been using any other email client configured to use the IMAP protocol, you can follow our directions for storing messages offline.
Saving Address Books
Converting address books can be an arduous process, depending on your current mail client. Our address book conversion page is a starting point for making these changes. Please note that at this time there are very few reliable methods for address book conversion since each client uses its own unique and often proprietary address book format.
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Last updated: 7/17/08