To enhance the security of your Stanford email account, on October 31, University IT (UIT) will disable the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) and Post Office Protocol (POP) for accounts that do not use these methods.
IMAP and POP are protocols used by email applications to let you access your email. They were widely used at Stanford for years, but now only about 10% of the Stanford population use these protocols when accessing their email.
Two-step authentication support
The move to disable IMAP and POP where it is not used is part of an effort to ensure that two-step authentication is used whenever possible for accessing email. IMAP and POP do not support two-step authentication.
The following applications offer two-step authentication and are approved for use at the university:
- Webmail
- Outlook 2016 for Windows and Mac
Change impact
This change will have no impact on your ability to access your email.
- Accounts that access email via webmail only will not experience any change.
- Accounts that use IMAP or POP (or have within the past six months) will continue to have access to these protocols.
IMAP and POP will be disabled for accounts that have not used IMAP or POP in the past six months.
Support
If, at some time in the future, you need access to IMAP or POP, you can request that the appropriate protocol be re-enabled quickly by submitting a Help ticket.
