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Migrate Your Student Email to Your Alumni Account

IMAP is a protocol that allows you to use a desktop email client such as Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook to migrate your mail with folders and labels intact. You can use this to move your student Google Apps mail to your alumni Google Apps account.

Note:  GSB alumni have slightly different instructions than Stanford alumni but the process is the same.

Forward your @stanford.edu mail

About four months after you graduate, Stanford automatically forwards your @stanford.edu mail to your alumni email address. The university keeps this forwarding in place for two years. Stanford also forwards mail for GSB alumni to their GSB alumni email addresses for two years.

Before you start migrating your mail, forward your @stanford.edu mail to your alumni email address so you only have to migrate your mail once.

  1. Go to Stanford Accounts.
  2. Click Manage, click the Email tab, then click Forward email.
  3. Follow the onscreen instructions.
    We recommend that you select  DO NOT keep a copy stored in your @stanford.edu mailbox.

Migrate your @stanford.edu mail

Step 1. Create a Google Apps password.

To use IMAP with an email client, you need to use a Google Apps password instead of your SUNet ID password. If you have not yet done so, create a Google Apps password for each account. Use the following links to log in to both your Stanford and your alumni accounts to set your passwords:

Notes:

  • Your Google Apps password must be different from your SUNet ID password.
  • If you have set up mail on your mobile device, you may already have created a Google Apps password.
  • If you change your Google Apps password during this process, be sure to change it on any mobile device previously set up to use the previous password. 

Step 2. Enable IMAP on both your Stanford and your alumni accounts.

Use the following links to login to both accounts, then enable IMAP on each account using instructions provided by Google.

Step 3. Configure your desktop email client.

Configure your desktop email client for IMAP connections to both your Stanford account and your alumni account. Use the following email addresses to configure these connections:

  • Stanford account email address: SUNetID@stanford.edu
  • Alumni account email address:
    • Stanford Alumni Association: AlumniUsername@alumni.stanford.edu
    • Stanford GSB Alumni Association: AlumniUsername@alumni.gsb.stanford.edu

To migrate your mail, you need to make two concurrent connections, one to each account. Use your Stanford account for the first connection and your alumni account for the second connection:

You should now have two IMAP connections from your mail client, one to each account.

Step 4. Migrate your mail.

Once you have set up your connections to both of your two email accounts, you can drag and drop mail from your Stanford account to your alumni account. If you use a different mail client than the ones referenced here, you may need to re-create your folders or labels manually.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to allow sufficient time for your mail migration to complete.

  • If you are using Apple Mail, click Window, then click Activity to ensure that all messages have migrated.
  • If you are using Microsoft Outlook, click Send/Receive, then click Show Progress to ensure that all messages have migrated.

Step 5. Exit your email client.

After you have completed the migration of your email from your Stanford account to your alumni account, close both connections and exit the mail client.

More information

Last modified July 15, 2014