Overview
This page summarizes what happens to your email and other online services after you leave Stanford. You may have found your way here because you received notification that your SUNet ID account will soon close. This page helps you determine what "your account is closing" means to you, and what you need to do.
Depending upon when and why you leave Stanford, your SUNet ID account services will change or end. You are given a "grace period" to help you during this transition. Access ends or changes when the grace period expires (see table, below).
Account expiration and grace period
| Graduates: class of 2012 and forward |
120 days after you graduate, your account will change to a base level account. This base level account is good for five years, giving you access to your transcripts and other online information, but not to @stanford.edu email. Email access ends when the grace period ends, and any email left on the university mail servers will be deleted. However, you are eligible for a permanent Stanford Alumni email account.* This free email account is available only to Stanford alumni in degree-granting programs. If you create an alumni account, new email sent to your @stanford.edu address after it closes is sent automatically to your @alumni.stanford.edu address for two years. Set up autoreply for your @stanford.edu email address at any point during those two years to notify others of your new @alumni.stanford.edu address. *GSB graduates only: visit GSB Stay Connected for details about GSB alumni email options and information on managing your existing email, contacts, calendar, and docs before your account closes. If you create an account prior to the end of the 120 day grace period, new email sent to your @stanford.edu address, after it closes, will automatically forward to @alumni.gsb.stanford.edu for two years. |
|---|---|
| Graduates: classes of 2009, 2010, & 2011 |
The manner in which the university handles email for graduates is changing. Because accounts for graduates are in transition, the grace period for access to full-service SUNet ID accounts and @stanford.edu email was extended for the classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011 through May 31, 2012. After May 31, 2012, your account will change to a base level account. This base level account is good for five years, giving you access to your transcripts and other online information, but not to @stanford.edu email. Email access ends when the grace period ends, and any email left on the university mail servers will be deleted. However, you are eligible for a permanent Stanford Alumni email account. This free email account is available only to Stanford alumni in degree-granting programs. If you create an alumni account prior to May 31, 2012, new email sent to your @stanford.edu address will automatically forward to your @alumni.stanford.edu address for an additional year following the grace period. Email forwarding will end on May 31, 2013. We recommend that you use your alumni email address with friends because this address is permanent. |
| Graduates: classes of 2008 and prior |
When you graduated, your account entered a 120-day grace period. At the conclusion of the 120 days, your account changed to a base level account good for five years, giving you access to your transcripts and other online information, your listing in the Stanford directory (StanfordWho), and access to protected websites to which your SUNet ID has been given specific permission. Stanford email service ended when the grace period ended, but you are eligible for a permanent Alumni email account. |
| Other students |
When you transfer or leave the university for other reasons, your account enters a 120-day grace period. If at the end of this grace period your affiliation has not been reactivated, your SUNet ID account services, including email, will end. However, the Stanford Alumni Association provides free, permanent Alumni email accounts* to students who have spent three quarters or more in a degree-granting program. *GSB graduates only: if you are leaving the Stanford GSB after three or more quarters, please contact sbsaa@gsb.stanford.edu. |
What you need to do
Transfer or forward your email
- Forward your @stanford.edu email to another permanent email address, e.g.,Yahoo!, or gmail. Note that you do not need to set up forwarding for alumni email; it is forwarded automatically.
- Log into StanfordYou, and select Change settings for account....
- Select the Email tab and then click Forward email.
- Follow the instructions to enter and save the email address(es) to which you want your @stanford.edu mail forwarded.
- Set an autoreply message to inform senders of your new email address.
- Log into StanfordYou, and select Change settings for account....
- Select the Email tab and then click Manage autoreply.
- Follow the steps to turn autoreply on, and write a message that includes your new email address. You do not need to set an expiration date, as the autoreply will end when forwarding ends (see the table, above).
- Save your stored email
- If you use POP, your email is already saved on your computer; no further action is required.
- If you use IMAP, be sure that your email and attachments are cached on your machine. To check this, set your email client to work offline and then make sure you can still get to all your email and attachments. If you can't see your messages and attachments offline, refer to your email program's documentation for how to change the caching setting.
- If you use POP to your AFS space (mutt or Alpine), your email is stored in the /Mail folder there. Use Stanford Desktop Tools to mount your home folder, then either use a desktop email client (e.g., mail.app or Outlook) to import the email from the /Mail folder, or just copy the files to your local computer's hard drive.
- If you use Webmail, you will have to install a desktop client (e.g., mail.app or Outlook) and use POP to download all your email to your local computer's hard drive.
Move your files from your AFS space
Use Stanford Desktop Tools to mount your home folder, and copy the files from your home folder to your hard drive. If you don't have Stanford Desktop Tools installed, use SFTP to transfer the files.
Close your website
If you've put a personal website at your www.stanford.edu/~sunetid address, you may want to use the grace period to redirect people to another web site. You can do this just by placing a link to your new site on your Stanford site's home page, or by using this <head> tag:
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5;URL=www.mynewsite.com">
This will cause most browsers to automatically display the specified URL after a delay of 5 seconds (or any number of seconds you specify).
Your website files are stored in the /WWW folder of your AFS home folder. Use Stanford Desktop Tools to Mount Home Folder, and copy the files from your home folder to your hard drive. If you don't have Stanford Desktop Tools installed, use SFTP to transfer the files.
If you have questions, please Submit a HelpSU help request.
