Skip to main content

How to Migrate Your Student Microsoft 365 Email to Your Alumni Account

These instructions are for moving student Microsoft 365 email. If you are unsure as to whether your @stanford.edu mail account is hosted in Microsoft or Google, open a browser and visit webmail.stanford.edu. Your email will display in either Microsoft Outlook or Stanford Google Mail.

To migrate your email you'll need to use a desktop email client such as Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook.  See the Microsoft 365 Configuration Instructions for information about setting up your email client.

You'll need to configure your alumni email account for IMAP. This allows you  to migrate your mail with folders and labels intact.

Forward your @stanford.edu mail

About four months after you graduate, Stanford automatically forwards your @stanford.edu mail to your alumni email address. The university keeps this forwarding in place for two years.

Before you start migrating your mail, forward your @stanford.edu mail to your alumni email address so you only have to migrate your mail once.

  1. Go to Stanford Accounts.
  2. Click Manage, click the Email tab, then click Forward email.
  3. Follow the onscreen instructions.
    We recommend that you select  DO NOT keep a copy stored in your @stanford.edu mailbox.

Migrate your @stanford.edu mail

Step 1. Create a Google account password for your alumni account.

To use IMAP with an email client, you need to use a Google account password instead of your SUNet ID password. If you have not yet done so, create a Google account password for your alumni account. Use the following link  to log in to your alumni account to set your password:

Notes:

  • Your Google account password must be different from your SUNet ID password.
  • If you change your Google account password during this process, be sure to change it on any mobile device previously set up to use the previous password. 

Step 2. Enable IMAP on your alumni account.

Use the following link to log in to your alumni, then enable IMAP  using instructions provided by Google.

Step 3. Configure your desktop email client.

Alumni account: Configure your desktop email client for an IMAP connection to your alumni account. Use the following email address to configure the connection:

  • Alumni account email address: AlumniUsername@alumni.stanford.edu
  • If you see a "Password incorrect" error when trying to sign in with your Google account password, you may need to change your account access settings.  Go to www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps and change Access for less secure apps to Turn on.

Student account: Configure your desktop email client for an Microsoft 365 connection to your Stanford account.

  • Student account email address: SUNetID@stanford.edu

Use the following instructions to configure the connection:

Step 4. Migrate your mail.

To migrate your mail, you need to make two concurrent connections, one to each account. Use your @stanford.edu account for the first connection and your alumni account for the second connection.

Note: Using drag and drop to migrate your mail is not recommended. You could lose your mail if an interruption occurs.

Once you have set up your connections to both of your two email accounts, use your email client's Copy function to copy mail from your Stanford account to your alumni account. If you use a different mail client than the ones referenced here, you may need to re-create your folders or labels manually.

Tip: If you have a lot of mail to migrate, try copying it in blocks of a few months or a year at a time. Do a test block of a few months . Then, increase or decrease the size of the next blocks depending on how long the test block took to copy.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to allow sufficient time for your mail migration to complete.

  • If you are using Apple Mail, click Window, then click Activity to ensure that all messages have migrated.
  • If you are using Microsoft Outlook, click Send/Receive, then click Show Progress to ensure that all messages have migrated.

Step 5. Exit your email client.

After you have completed the migration of your email from your Stanford account to your alumni account, close both connections and exit the mail client.

More information

Last modified