All employees of the University of Cincinnati (defined as those who receive a paycheck from the university, emeriti and clinical instructors) are eligible for e-mail accounts.

When a new university employee's information enters the HR system, the university's Identity Management System generates a user ID, and the Exchange e-mail system automatically creates an account. Typically, the 6+2 user ID is the first six characters of a user’s last name the user's first and middle initials. However, this is not e-mail policy, and you cannot assume it will always hold true.

Student employees are eligible for free UCMail account.  Use this form to request that account and ensure it is approved by your supervisor.

Affiliates of the university who do not fit the above definition of an employee must be sponsored by a university department to have an e-mail account.  Please connect to the UCit GetIT page and fill out a request for an affiliate account. An affiliate identity must be created prior to submitting a GetIT request for the user. You can create an affiliate identity by going to the Create Affiliate Request Page.

Generic accounts are not covered in our license agreement and must be sponsored by a department. If you wish to sponsor an account, please fill out a GetIT request and select the Email > UCMail Generic Account section, enter the necessary budget information so we can submit the request to billing.  In the comment section enter in the generic account information so we can establish the account and you will be notified once it is completed.  Creating an alias to point to an existing account can be established at no additional charge.

Check out our detailed instruction guide to use recommended clients such as Outlook, Entourage, POP, IMAP, and ActiveSync.

We have the following instruction guides:

Android

iPhone, iTouch, iPad

If you have another type of smartphone/device and need help, please call our Help Desk at 513-556-HELP (4357).

An employee will lose access to their e-mail account when their status in UC Flex shows that they are no longer employed. The e-mail team does not have the ability to reactivate an e-mail account for an employee who has no other role at the university because the user ID will have been disabled.

Affiliate accounts are disabled at the request of the account sponsor.

To disable the account of an employee terminated for cause, the supervisor should contact the Help Desk at 513-556-HELP (4357).

The Exchange account will become disabled when the user goes to an inactive status in the employee database. If you wish to retain the account, you can go to UCit GetIT web page and fill out a request for an affiliate account. In the comments please state that the account is scheduled for removal and that you wish it to be marked as an affiliate for retention. Once we receive the GetIT request, the account will be marked accordingly.

UCit email services cannot change passwords on user accounts. Please visit the Password Self-Service (PSS) web site to initiate a password change at the University of Cincinnati. If you need additional assistance, please contact the HelpDesk at 556-Help (4357).

An Exchange account is limited to 10 gigabytes (GB). As a user’s mailbox approaches 10 GB, the user will receive a system-generated warning message. At 10 GB, a user will be unable to send or receive new messages until the size of the inbox is reduced to less than 10 GB. 

Additional inbox quota space can be purchased in 10GB increments. View costs and request extra space through GetIT.

An individual message from the Exchange server may not exceed 30 MB, including text, headers and attachments. A user will be unable to send a message exceeding 30 MB. This is a system limitation and we cannot grant exceptions.

Currently there is a 30 megabytes size limit on a mail message. The 30 megabyte limit will include recipients, message body as well as any attachments. If you want to send files larger than 30 megabytes, than try zipping the attachments or breaking the information into separate messages for delivery.

Currently there is a restriction of 500 recipients per message.

You, as a user, should first try to retrieve the deleted items.

Using Outlook

1. Open the "deleted items" folder.
2. Select Tools -> Recover Deleted items...
3. Search for and select the item or items you want to recover.
4. Click on the icon of the envelope with the arrow around it (second icon from the left).
5. The items will now be in the "deleted items" folder. You can move them to another folder.

Using Outlook Web Access (OWA)

1. Select "option" from the upper right hand corner.
2. Select "deleted items" form the left-hand column.
3. Highlight any e-mails you want to recover and select "Recover to Deleted Items Folder."
4. The items will now be in the "deleted items" folder. You can move them to another folder.
5. Items stay in the "deleted items" folder for 30 days after the user deletes them.
   
   

Typically when this occurs, a user has setup another mail client to access their mailbox and it is configured to pop their mail down from the server onto the workstation. Please check any systems you may have accessed and checked your mail and see if the message were downloaded. If you have a handheld device which is data enabled, check your settings on your phone as well. One last item is to check that you do not have a rule setup in Outlook to move or delete messages that come into your inbox.

Here are some points to know when sending an e-mail that needs to be encrypted:

• If you are sending e-mail from Outlook to another person at UC who is also using Outlook, your e-mail is automatically encrypted while in transit. HOWEVER, this email will NOT be encrypted if it is sent from/received by any e-mail client other than Outlook. ALSO, if the e-mail is sent or received using any other client—Blackberry, iPhone, online email services (Yahoo, Google, others), Eudora, Mac Mail, etc.—it will not be encrypted. For this reason, it is not recommended that you send any restricted or controlled data via e-mail. If your business process requires that you do so, please contact UC Information Security at 558-ISec (4732) to discuss.

• Encrypt your attachments prior to e-mailing them, then call the person to provide them the password, do not share the password via e-mail. MS Office 2007 includes strong encryption. Office 2003 encryption is weak and is not recommended, but Office 2007 uses AES, the current government encryption standard. Visit the Information Security website for detailed instructions.
  

• Do not store restricted data of any kind, but especially e-mail, on a USB device or a mobile phone. These devices are too easy to lose or to be stolen.

• In addition, all laptops and most desktops containing restricted data should be encrypted. The strategic solution for full disk encryption at UC is PGP, which is free to all faculty and staff, and is available by contacting UC Information Security at 558-ISec (4732) to discuss your needs.

If your business process requires you to send restricted data to external destinations and the options above will not meet your needs, please contact UC Information Security at 558-ISec (4732) to discuss other alternatives.

Placing an Out of Office message cannot be done without the consent of the owner of the mailbox. Please have a Dean or Director contact our Help Desk at 556-4357(HELP) and initiate the request.

A request to access to an email account of a previous employee is handled by the Office of Information Security. Information to request mailbox access can be found in the Mailbox Access and Retrieval Process.

Aliases are alternate e-mail addresses that deliver e-mail to your account.

Each account is created with 3 standard addresses:

userid@ucmail.uc.edu

userid@uc.edu

first.last@uc.edu

If you have a common name, your first.last could have a number on it (John.Smith4@uc.edu).

Aliases are created at the discretion of the e-mail team, but are typically granted for someone who goes by a nickname or their middle name.

To request a new alias, complete the Internet Alias Request online form.

In order to ensure compliance with the data protection policies of the university, we do not administratively set up an automatic forward of e-mail to an account outside the university (UConnect accounts reside outside the university).

The only exception to this rule are for employees who have accounts with our partner sites Children's Hospital, UCHealth and UCPhysicians. E-mails sent to those systems are automatically encrypted in transit and are regarded as "protected" in accordance with the policy.

If you need a forward set to one of our partner sites, please contact the HelpDesk at 556-Help (4357) and they will assist you.

Visit the SharePoint FAQs page to learn how to add your picture to Lync, Outlook and SharePoint.

Prior to processing any name change requests, users must request their last name be changed with the Registrar’s office and Human Resources. Once the user’s last name has been updated in their databases, we can then submit a request to have your name pulled from the alias system and a new alias generated using your preferred last name.

Upon confirmation, your mail account will be renamed at which point you will be notified. Please contact our helpdesk at 556-HELP (4357) and request a ticket be opened and submitted to have your name changed and processed.

UC Mass Communications Policy

Official Student E-mail Policy

Use of Information Technology Policy

Data Protection Policy

University of Cincinnati Information Technology Policies

Email Retention Policy

To update your directory information and set your preferred last name, first name or change your published email address please go to https://ucdirectory.uc.edu/updates and make the necessary change. 

Once the changes have been entered, the corresponding changes will take effect in the next 24 hours. If you require that your alias be changed please contact our helpdesk at 556-Help (4357) and initiate a name change request.

If you are having a problem, please call our Help Desk at 556-HELP (4357) or HelpDesk@uc.edu.

Or, if you a suggestion or comment regarding our service, e-mail us at technician@uc.edu.