Many of us are busy switching from using our UMN email to another email account – or at least contemplating how to go about it. We have overview from the University on creating a new account, and transferring data. Or this info on retiree timelines and moving emails.

This Tips & Tricks article highlights several key steps you may want to take, or need to take, as you make this change. Instructions are also included for making this change to your UMRA account login and UMRA member communications, if needed.

All of the following assumes you have another email account to replace the UMN account. This can be the @alumni.umn.edu account offered by the U, or through any service like Google, or Yahoo, or your Internet provider.

Tips for making the change 

Of course you need to tell friends, co-workers, and everyone who emails you, what your new email address will be. Here are some suggestions:

1. On your @umn.edu email, add a line in the signature of the email saying: “Please use this new email, [email protected], for all future communications.” A signature can be included at the bottom of every email you send, conveniently notifying everyone you email. See How to change a UMN signature. 
    

2. You may want to forward messages coming into your @umn.edu address to your replacement email. This allows you to receive (and store) email from both accounts in one place – the replacement account. Emails sent to the @umn.edu address will appear in the replacement email account (as well as the UMN account), so you never miss an email. See How to forward a UMN email to another gmail address.

   Note: If your @umn.edu email is tied to a University healthcare account, you probably won’t be able to forward your messages from your UMN account. If you’d like the convenience of having all your messages in one place, you may forward your messages from the replacement account to your umn.edu account. Messages sent to both your umn.edu account as well as your replacement account can all be viewed in the UMN account. The forwarding will end once your UMN account is closed, but the messages you forwarded from your replacement account will remain in the replacement account.

3. Send an email from your @umn.edu account to key people and organizations in your life letting them know of your email change. If you want to send the same message to several people at once, best practice is to put all contacts in the bcc of the email. Otherwise, everyone can see each other’s email address. 
    
4. If you have used your umn.edu email for any online accounts, you will need to update those accounts using your other email address before the @umn.edu account is deactivated. You may need to update both the login (if you used the umn.edu account as the userid) and your contact information.
   1. Userid: Did you use your UMN email address as the userid (often called the login) for this account? In this case you will need to determine how to change this login/userid within the account. It is key that you change this BEFORE the UMN account goes away, because the process of changing email logins (userids) will require you to receive an email at the UMN address to confirm the change. The way you change this userid or login is different for each account. 
   2. In addition to changing the userid or login email, there will also be a way you indicate how to communicate with you by email. You will want to 1) add the new email address; 2) make it the preferred email; 3) remove the UMN address that will be going away; 4) it is a good idea to have a 2nd email address that can be used as a backup, just in case…. 

Changing your email with UMRA 

We have provided a streamlined way to change the email that you use for UMRA communications. It will change BOTH your login/userid and your primary email address, but won’t change your password.

1. go to https://retirees.umn.edu 
2. Click on the red Change Login Email Address button 
3. You will be asked to log in with your CURRENT userid/password, so log in (if you logged in recently, the website may not ask you to log in at this point) 
4. Fill in the New Login Email Address field with your new email address 
5. Press the red Update Login Email Address button

From now on, you will log in with your newly set email address, and your unchanged password.

The UMN email address will still be listed as an alternate email in your profile. You may want to go in to your profile, and remove the UMN email address.  Add a valid alternate email if you have one.

~ Cathy Lee Gierke [email protected] 

Watch this video workshop on changes to Email and Google Workspaces.  You will be asked to login to the UMRA member website first.  If you’d like to see a demonstration of how to use Vaultme, fast forward to 34:28 of the recording.

Resources from UMN

The University has gathered the information, guidance, and instructions to help support you through this transition. 

• Use Vaultme

• UMN Example Update Contacts Checklist

• Learn why the University is making this change 

• Get answers to frequently asked questions

• Access helpful guidance and how-to instructions 

• Stay connected with the University; update your contact information

If you have other questions or need assistance, please complete the request form. Please note, our response time may take as long as three weeks as our team responds to a large number of requests.

~ Cathy Lee Gierke  [email protected]