Email Forwarding Overview for Alumni and Retirees

Email has evolved significantly since Ohio State first introduced these services over 25 years ago. To ensure smooth operations and to keep pace with technological advancements, we have periodically updated our services. As the landscape of digital communication continues to shift, we are making changes to our email services to maintain the quality and security you expect.

Automatic email account forwarding to outside email services will be discontinued on Dec. 31, 2024. Users of lifetime email forwarding must update their settings to continue to receive emails.

Why Automatic Email Account Forwarding is Ending

In the past The Ohio State University has provided lifetime email forwarding for alumni and retirees. As third-party service providers - including but not limited to Gmail, Spectrum, Yahoo!, Apple, and others - have tightened email security controls, more and more of these forwarded email messages are not being delivered to recipients.  It’s also affecting Ohio State’s ability to directly send emails as more of the forwarded emails are looked at as spam by third party providers.  Because of these external issues causing major deliverability issues, lifetime email forwarding service will be discontinued on Dec. 31, 2024.

This change means that emails sent to a lastname.#@osu.edu email accounts will no longer be automatically forwarded to outside third-party accounts after Dec. 31, 2024.

What You Should Do

To ensure you continue to receive your emails, please take the following actions:

  1. Reach out to personal contacts and provide a non-Ohio State email address.  Update your email with any accounts to use your personal non-Ohio State email before Dec. 31, 2024.  This includes updating your address with the Ohio State Athletic Ticket Office if you currently use your OSU email address. Your lastname.#osu.edu email will no longer work after this year unless you are a current faculty, staff, student or emeritus retiree.

    If you receive emails from The Ohio State University to your osu.edu email address, you can update your contact information via My Account or by contacting the Engagement Center at 614-292-2281 or engagementcenter@osu.edu.  

    For tips on finding which senders need to be contacted, see "How do I know which senders to contact? in the FAQs below.

  2. If you need additional assistance, our IT Service Desk provides 24-hour support, seven days a week:

    Phone: 614-688-4357 (HELP) 
    Email: ServiceDesk@osu.edu


Note: If you are a current or emeriti Ohio State faculty or staff member, please see the Storage and Email Transformation project page for information about how changes will affect you as an employee.

Frequently Asked Questions 

As we communicate with alumni and receive questions, we will update this section so you can access the information as you need it.

My Ohio State account is my only email account, what should I do? 

Many providers offer free email services. Below are links that can instruct you on setting up an account with any of the top 10 providers. This list is for information purposes only; The Ohio State University does not recommend or endorse any specific email service. 

I will lose access to my Ohio State email account. What should I do? 

We recommend taking these steps: 

  • Update Contacts: Provide your contacts with an new, non-OSU email 
  • Transfer Subscriptions: Update email addresses for subscriptions 
  • Notify Services: Update accounts tied to your Ohio State email 
  • Update Profiles: If you use your Ohio State address for social media and online profiles, update them 
  • Check Payments: Update email for subscriptions that use your Ohio State address. 

 

How do I know which senders to contact?

Wondering who to contact? Simply check the address information in the emails received at your forwarded account. If you see an @osu.edu address in the To:/Recipient line, those are the emails that were forwarded. Find the original sender of the email and that's the sender you should contact

I have all of my accounts and services tied to my @osu.edu address!  Can I keep it? 

No, our contract and licensing will not enable alumni to keep name.#@osu.edu accounts. Please use the next several months - June to December -  to update your contact address with all contacts and services. 

Can I use BuckeyeMail instead?

While we understand the convenience of BuckeyeMail, we'd recommend NOT switching to your BuckeyeMail account. BuckeyeMail for Life will be sunsetting on April 1, 2025. Beginning in May 2024, graduates will retain BuckeyeMail for two years after graduation. BuckeyeMail account holders will retain email until April 1, 2025 or until two years after graduation, whichever is longer.

I am an emeritus faculty member. How am I affected?

Like most faculty and staff, former faculty with emeritus status will have storage limits of 100GB for Outlook, 100GB for email archives, and 500GB for OneDrive beginning in June 2025. If an emeritus faculty member is forwarding an email account to an outside service, that forwarding will end on Dec. 31, 2024. 

Not all retired faculty have emeritus status -- to be considered emeritus, you must have requested and been approved for emeritus status before leaving the university. This special status is available to full-time tenure-track, teaching, or associated faculty who retired or resigned at the age of sixty or older with ten or more years of service or at any age with twenty-five or more years of service.