Office of Information Technology (OIT) > Google Apps > Transitioning to Gmail
Transitioning to Gmail
Advisory Items
If you would like to sign up for a University Google account, there are some things of which you should be aware. Please read the following advisory items.
It also is important that you consult your local/department technology support staff before signing up for Google Apps for the University of Minnesota, as they may be able to help or advise you on certain steps that may be appropriate based on your (unit's) specific computing environment.
What Will Be Transferred
- Your e-mail account may be unavailable for a very short time while the new account is set up and while up to 30 days of your e-mail messages are transferred from your Inbox, Sent, and Trash folders.
- New e-mail received is directed to your new Google account once the opt in process is complete and contents of your Inbox, Sent folder and Trash folder for the most recent 30 days have been transferred.
- Additional e-mail messages in folders other than your Inbox, Sent, and Trash folders, plus any messages left in your Inbox and Sent folders, will be transferred automatically to your Google account. This transfer process may take several hours, days, or even weeks, depending on the size of the account.
- Any forwarding in place before you set up your Google account will be removed, and will be replaced automatically with forwarding to your new Gmail account. In addition, any new e-mail received will be forwarded to your new Gmail account.
- In order for Google to correctly identify e-mail messages as specifically yours, messages sent to your Google account will appear in the "To:" field using the address format <username>@umn.edu (or with the appropriate campus domain such as <username>@crk.umn.edu or <username>@morris.umn.edu), after you sign up for a Google account. If you have subscribed to a mailing list using another form of your e-mail address, you can configure an additional e-mail address in your Gmail account by going to Settings, then Accounts, and selecting "Add another email address you own."
- Address rewriting in the format <username>@umn.edu will be enabled for all inbound e-mail, on applicable accounts in specified domains, after the account opt in.
What Won't Be Transferred
- Messages in your Trash folder that are more than 30 days old will not be migrated to your new Google account.
- You will receive an e-mail listing any mail that Google did not accept (usually due to size limits), and asking you to handle that mail by a certain date. You will have access to your Gophermail account for 30 days after your mail has been transferred to Gmail, giving you the opportunity to handle any remaining messages or files that could not be transferred.
- Any old mail that was unable to be moved to Google eventually will be removed.
- Messages containing questionable or potential virus types of attachments will be discarded silently (without notification).
Size Limits
- A maximum of 24 GB of e-mail may be transferred to Google. If you have a mailbox that exceeds that quota, you will be ineligible to sign up for a Google account until you reduce the amount of mail in your account to less than 24 GB. You also will be ineligible if your account contains a message larger than 25 MB, including attachments. Check your current e-mail storage use now.
Other Considerations
- To read your Gmail with another email client, you will need to use your Google desktop/mobile client password to access your email with that other client. You will be able to set that password in the Google Account Options section at www.umn.edu/myaccount. Information and instructions on configuring these email clients for use with Google is available on the Email site. The use of Google Apps at the University of Minnesota is subject to the University's policy on Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources.
Preparing for the Transition
If you would like to sign up for a University Google account, there are some things of which you should be aware. Please read the following advisory items.
It's important that you consult your local/department technology support staff before signing up for Google Apps for the University of Minnesota, as they may be able to help or advise you on certain steps that may be appropriate based on your (unit's) specific computing environment.
If you've been in the practice of storing large messages or attachments, a large number of messages, executable file types, or storing important information in your Sent or Trash folders, it is recommended that you take this opportunity to go through your mailbox and those folders, and clean them out in order to help ensure a smoother, quicker transition to Gmail, and to avoid losing any messages.
Before you opt in:
- Delete mail that can't be moved:
- messages in your Trash folder that are more than 30 days old;
- messages larger than 25 MB, including attachments;
- mail accounts larger than 24 GB total;
- executable files that could contain damaging executable code, including .exe, and files such as .zip, .tar, .tgz, .taz, .z, and .gz that contain an .exe attachment. Those types of files that do NOT contain .exe attachments are acceptable and should transfer without issue.
- Delete any unnecessary items.
- Move any messages in your Trash folder that you need to keep into your Inbox or other folders;.
- Save larger messages or attachments elsewhere, such as in a file or folder on your computer, or portable storage device.
Note: To ensure your email account is properly prepared for the transition to Google, you should move and/or delete these messages and folders in the Gohpermail web client, rather than your desktop email client such as Thunderbird, Outlook or Apple Mail.
Once you have completed the opt in process, the Google project team will begin to migrate your existing mail to your new Gmail account. The most recent 30 days worth of mail in your Inbox, Sent, and Trash folders will be moved first. The remaining messages in your Inbox and Sent folders, as well as mail in other folders, will follow later.
