EmailMigration

UMIACS will be winding down its mailbox Email services by June 30th 2020 to comply with the UMD Institutional Email standard. This includes both our Exchange and IMAP Email service offerings.

FAQ

• What is the time line for these migrations?

We will be notifying users starting May 1st 2020 on this timeline and let them know how to login to the new UMD Gmail interface. Users will need to notify staff by May 15th if they want to migrate their existing email mailboxes to the UMD Gmail system by the Division of IT as part of the email migration. Migrations will happen for users May 26th-29th and June 1st-5th and users will be notified which day that their emails will be migrated.

• During my migration what happens?

The day your migration is scheduled we will be modifying your email forward in UMIACS to your @g.umd.edu address at 9am. This will ensure that there is no mail loop (instead of @umd.edu which still may forward to your @umiacs.umd.edu address) and will immediately divert any new email to the UMD Gmail system. We will then notify the user to their @umiacs.umd.edu which should show up in their @g.umd.edu mailbox that the forward is in place. Users may now start sending and replying to new email in the UMD Gmail system.

If you have chosen to migrate your mailboxes we will immediately make a mail archive of your mailboxes (depending on the size of your mailboxes this could take some time).

Next we will then notify the DivIT that your forward is now in place. DivIT will then update your @umd.edu forward to your @g.umd.edu forward and start the import of your mailboxes if provided. This process of import of your existing email may again take some time and DivIT will notify you when it is complete.

During this process you will still be able to log into your existing UMIACS email system and interact with your existing emails.

• Should I migrate my existing email mailboxes to the UMD Gmail?

Users will be given a choice as part of the migration to have their existing mailboxes migrated to the UMD Gmail platform. There are a few things to consider when making this decision. First UMD Gmail can not hold export controlled data. Since export control regulations have changed several times since emails have been stored on UMIACS servers, we cannot provide a blanket guarantee that moving all emails into Google will be compliant with federal regulations, and we ask that each of you make this determination separately before requesting the transfer of your emails. Second many users have a very hierarchical folder arrangement for their messages. Gmail only supports tags and if you have a deep hierarchical arrangement of folders this may not translate well into Gmail's web interface.

• Can I use my current desktop client to read email with UMD Gmail?

The Division of IT only explicitly supports the web based offering.

• What will happen with emails stored at UMIACS after June 30th 2020?

We will be archiving all user mailboxes into our long term archives for a minimum of 10 years. Users may request a copy of their emails as part of the migration progress and we will provide it in an archive format that users may import into their local mail clients for offline use.

• What if I forward my email to another service? Will I be impacted?

Users with accounts in UMIACS that can be identified as having an appointment at the University of Maryland will be required to have their UMIACS Email forward point to their @umd.edu email address by June 30th 2020. Users without an appointment at the University of Maryland will be allowed to forward their email to an address of their choosing.