Email for Life FAQ

Full Email For Life accounts have been set-up for Western alumni who previously had an @alumni.uwo.ca forwarding address.

To activate your Email For Life account, please follow the How to Connect instructions.

All @uwo.ca email for life addresses are supported by WTS Helpdesk including those belonging to alumni. Please contact them using one of the options provided on their webpage.

For @alumni.uwo.ca email for life addresses, Google has extensive resources for users. You can find more information about how to use the Gmail service in its Help Centre.

You can also complete the Email For Life Assistance Form and a support team member will contact you within 72 hours.

Complete the Email for Life Assistance Form indicating you would like to switch to an MyOffice @uwo.ca email address. Your request will be processed in the first week of the month immediately following your request.

You will be responsible for moving any contacts and/or email addresses you wish to retain from your Google @alumni.uwo.ca email inbox to your MyOffice @uwo.ca inbox.

Any password reset notifications using your Google @alumni.uwo.ca email address will need to be re-directed to another email address.

Once your MyOffice account has been created, an email will be sent providing you with the date your Google @alumni.uwo.ca account will be inactivated.

We hope so but the reality is technology is changing. Who knows what email will look like in 30 years, or whether it will go the way of so many other technologies before it.

That said, we're confident that both Google and Western will be around in some form for a very long time. It is therefore reasonable to assume that your new @alumni.uwo.ca account will be too.

Of course, email usage is subject to Google's terms of use, and to the University's own policies around use of its web properties. As such, we reserve the right to suspend or deactivate email accounts if there is any breach of the user agreements.

Western's primary reason for offering Email For Life is because, during the last couple of years, it is the most frequently requested addition to the existing suite of alumni benefits.

Email also offers Western and The University of Western Ontario Alumni Association a more environmentally friendly and cost-efficient way to communicate with you.

We currently send the following types of email:

• Event Invitations (by geographic region or special interest)
• Western Alumni News monthly newsletter
• Faculty Newsletters
• Alumni Service Offers
• Fundraising Initiatives Surveys

Yes, numerous other educational institutions partner with Google. A few Canadian examples include the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta, Wilfrid Laurier University and Nipissing University, all of whom use Gmail to provide email services to their alumni.

Only Western has the right to give out Google accounts that end in "@alumni.uwo.ca." This demonstration of your affiliation with Western can be useful for résumés and connecting with fellow alumni.

In addition, Western's special education partnership with Google means there are no external ads on @alumni.uwo.ca pages.

More than 47,000 Western alumni have @alumni.uwo.ca email addresses. Every graduate from the Class of 2010 and onwards automatically receives a Western alumni email address.

It's up to you. You determine which types of email you wish to receive. Become engaged.

The University of Western Ontario Alumni Association has carefully selected a handful of trusted affinity partners. These vendors offer reduced rate and value-added features on products such as insurance and credit cards. Western may disclose your contact information, under strict confidentiality agreements, to these partners for the purposes of contacting you to determine your interest in their products.

For more information about how your personal information is collected and used, please see our privacy policy.

Western respects your privacy. Select Western employees are responsible for creating and, by request, disabling accounts but do not access inboxes.

In accordance with Western's special education partnership with Google there are no external ads on the @alumni.uwo.ca pages.

The only personal information provided to Google by Western is your name (for the "From" line of the email), and your email prefix (the part before the @ symbol; also known as User ID).

All @alumni.uwo.ca accounts store their files in Google-owned servers around the world, along with other Gmail accounts.

No. Google will not read your email.

You log in with your Western User ID and Password at mail.alumni.uwo.ca.

Yes. In the top right corner of any Google mail page, click on the "Options" wheel icon, select "Mail Settings" from the drop-down menu, then click on the "Forwarding" tab, and forward the account as you please.

Each Western alumnus or alumna is assigned a User ID that serves as the prefix (the part before the @ symbol) of the alumni.uwo.ca email address associated with his or her account. This Western User ID is permanent and cannot be changed.

You may, however, request an email alias. An email alias is a forwarding email address that simply redirects messages to your actual account. It is important to note that an email alias does not replace your Western User ID. Your User ID will still be used to log in into your email account.

If you would like an email alias, please submit a new alumni email alias request to
efl-support@uwo.ca or call 519-661-4176 or 1-800-420-7519 business days between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Requests will be reviewed to ensure the requested alias does not already exist and created where possible.

Go to the Western Identity Manager. Enter your User ID, which is your email prefix (the part before the @ symbol) and click the "Forgot Password?" link. You will need to correctly answer three of the challenge response questions you created when setting up your Western Identity for the system to reveal your password.

In the event you did not create your challenge response questions you will need to reset your forgotten password. Go to Resetting a Forgotten Password (https://wts.uwo.ca/identity/passwords/password_management_tools/resetpw.html) to follow the instructions in the Student/Applicant section. Bolded text are hyperlinks to other pages to assist you with obtaining your student number and access code. Right mouse click on this text to open the hyperlinked pages in a separate tab to keep the above hyperlink available at all times.

No. To ensure the highest level of security around your information as well as the exclusivity of the @alumni.uwo.ca address, Western is authenticating users through its own system rather than Google.

Full instructions can be found on the Setting Up Email For Life on a Mobile Device or a Desktop Email Client page.

To enable the redirect on mail.alumni.uwo.ca to work properly, please edit the bookmark as follows:

IN FIREFOX

• click on Bookmarks in the Firefox tool bar
• click on Organize Bookmarks in Bookmarks drop-down menu - this will open the Bookmark Library
• in the Bookmark Library, find and click on the mail.alumni.uwo.ca bookmark (NOTE: it may appear with a different name depending on how you saved it as a bookmark; i.e. @alumni.uwo.ca or Information Technology Services)
• change the Location associated with the mail.alumni.uwo.ca bookmark from https://shibidp.uwo.ca/idp/Authn/UserPassword to http://mail.alumni.uwo.ca
• close out the Bookmark Library window and test the bookmark

IN INTERNET EXPLORER

• right click on the mail.alumni.uwo.ca bookmark in the list of bookmarks (REMEMBER: it may appear with a different name)
• click Properties
• change the URL from https://shibidp.uwo.ca/idp/Authn/UserPassword to http://mail.alumni.uwo.ca/
• close out the Bookmark Properties and the test the bookmark

IN SAFARI

• from the Bookmarks menu, select Show All Bookmarks
• click on the mail.alumni.uwo.ca bookmark (NOTE: it may appear with a different name depending on how you saved it; i.e. @alumni.uwo.ca or Information Technology Services)
• change the Address from https://shibidp.uwo.ca/idp/Authn/UserPassword to http://mail.alumni.uwo.ca/
• close the Bookmarks Bar screen and the test the bookmark

You need to modify your browser security settings as follows:

IN FIREFOX

• Go to Tools -- Options -- Security.  Click on the “Exceptions” button, add mail.alumni.uwo.ca and click on Allow – this should then appear in the exceptions list. Then click on Close.
• Go to Tools -- Options -- Security.  Under the Warning Messages, click on the “Settings” button -- make sure there is not a check mark beside the phrase “I am about to view an encrypted page that contains some unencrypted information (if it is checked, uncheck it).  Click on OK.

IN INTERNET EXPLORER

• Go to Tools -- Internet Options -- Privacy. Click on the “Sites” button and add mail.alumni.uwo.ca as a trusted site.
• Go to Tools -- Internet Options -- Security -- Custom Level under the Miscellaneous section. Change “Display mixed content” to Enable.

In the months leading up to your graduation, you will begin to receive emails detailing the process of transitioning to an Alumni account.

This is a general list of Western Services that are maintained after graduation. If you have any questions, please contact your department or the Helpdesk.

• Access to your @uwo.ca email address
• Ability to log in to your Student Center to request transcripts, view past grades, etc.
• Limited Library Account Services (for more specific list of Library Services, please visit Western's Library Alumni page)

• OneDrive (ALL documents stored within OneDrive MUST be transferred to another location)
• Access to online Microsoft Office applications.
• Microsoft Student Advantage (use of Microsoft Office ProPlus on personal devices)
• Skype for Business

As your student email account will now be retained after you complete your studies, Western recommends the retention of your MyOffice email address. Contact efl-support@uwo.ca who will be able to answer your questions concerning your current @alumni.uwo.ca email account.

To use online library resources remotely you must be enrolled as a current student or employed by Western as a faculty or staff member. This limitation is due to licensing restrictions of vendors providing electronic products to Western Libraries. For more information about using library resources after graduation please visit https://www.lib.uwo.ca/offcampus/alumni.html.

Full Email For Life accounts have been set-up for Western alumni who previously had an @alumni.uwo.ca forwarding address.

To activate your Email For Life account, please follow the How to Connect instructions.

Western enforces strict rules around passwords to ensure they are difficult for hackers to crack or decode. To review the rules that passwords must follow, please read the Western Password Policy.

Challenge responses are your personal answers to predetermined questions. They are designed to enhance password security and facilitate easy password management, including accessing a forgotten password.

You need to answer at least three (3) challenge response questions when activating your Western Identity. To review the conditions that challenge responses must adhere to, please read the Western Challenge Response Policy.

Yes, when your @alumni.uwo.ca account was created in Gmail, the forwarding was automatically transferred.

If you want to start accessing your @alumni.uwo.ca account in Gmail, however, you'll need to follow the instructions on the How to Connect to get into your account.

Complete the Email For Life Account Request Your MyOffice email for life account will be created during the first week of the month after your request. Once your account has been created, an email will be sent to you with your MyOffice @uwo.ca email address as well as instructions to create your password.

As a dual role holder, you can request the retention of your staff or faculty email address by contacting efl-support@uwo.ca. Your request will be reviewed by HE, HR and WTS colleagues to ensure the request can be accommodated.

To use online library resources remotely you must be enrolled as a current student or employed by Western as a faculty or staff member. This limitation is due to licensing restrictions of vendors providing electronic products to Western Libraries. For more information about using library resources after graduation please visit https://www.lib.uwo.ca/offcampus/alumni.html.