All Bristol students forced to Outlook during July email move

By Patrick Sullivan, Co-Editor-in-Chief

The remaining University of Bristol students who have yet to opt-in to the change from GMail will be subject to a compulsory two week migration period starting on the weekend of 12 July.

The University announced back in December that the switch from Google to Microsoft IT services would require students who started studies by the 2017-18 academic year to opt-in to the move before August 2019.

Now, Digital Bristol, the University department managing the transition, have informed the 6000 students yet to migrate that their email accounts will be moved from GMail to Outlook between 12 and 28 July, regardless of the convenience to the individual.

The forced migration has been forewarned in previous emails, and comes after several announcements and prompts about the opt-in process over the past seven months.

During the migration, which can take a few days, students can receive and read emails but have been advised not to attempt sending any. After the migration, GMail and Google Calendar will still be accessible for 21 days after migration and all Google services, including Google Drive storage, are closed on 15 October. Digital Bristol, however, has advised using Outlook after a successful switch to avoid losing email data.

Due to specific timetabled requirements, student medics will all be moved in the first batch between 12 and 14 July. The remaining students from across all faculties will undergo the process sometime between 15 and 28 July, and individuals will be informed of their specific dates shortly before.

The switch means a change in email address format from ‘username@my.bristol.ac.uk’ to ‘username@bristol.ac.uk’ which could affect linked apps and saved passwords. While the email changes occur upon migration in July, the majority of these issues will come as a result of Google accounts closing in October.

There is support available for the migration process and to help prevent any data loss on the University website.

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Are you ready for the move to Outlook?