UF is in the process of moving the campus email system to the Microsoft 365/Exchange Online cloud platform. Students have been on the Microsoft 365 platform for two years and several CLAS departments have been moved over the summer. On September 22nd, the remainder of the college will be migrated to Microsoft 365 mail.
What does this mean for faculty and staff?
- The majority of CLAS faculty have their email hosted in the UF Data Center (UF Exchange.) When this migration is complete, all CLAS email will be moved to the GatorMail cloud email service.
- The email software is the same. Everyone will have the same functionality and use the same mail software on their desktop computer and on mobile devices that they are already used to using.
- Better Teams Integration: You will also have the added benefit of better integration with additional GatorCloud services hosted by Microsoft, including Teams, Office Suite, OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint Online.
- Better WebMail experience: You will experience a better and more modern user interface when accessing GatorMail via the web (OWA).
Details of the Migration
During your mail migration, scheduled to start on September 22nd, you will still be able to send and receive email and accept calendar requests. You will also be able to continue to join Zoom meetings scheduled as part of calendared meeting request.
Depending on the size of your current mailbox, completion time of the migration may vary; if you have a lot of email folders and files stored in those folders, your migration will take longer.
Desktop Clients
- If you currently use MS Outlook on Windows: After completion of your mailbox migration, you will receive a notification that a change was made to your mailbox. At that point, you’ll be asked to exit Outlook and log back in.
- If you currently use Outlook on Mac: After completion of your mailbox migration, you will receive a pop-up notification that Outlook was redirected to the server Autodiscover-s.outlook.com to get new settings for your account. Please allow those changes.
- If you currently use something other than Outlook for UF email: You may not be notified when the completion happens. Your email client will fail to connect and a reconfiguration of the settings (pointing to GatorMail) is required. Instructions on configuring various clients, including Thunderbird and Mac Mail, can be found at https://helpdesk.ufl.edu/o365-email-configuration/
Web Client
If you use Outlook Web Access, the web address will change. The new web-page will be https://outlook.com/ufl.edu.
Mobile Clients
If you currently get your UF email on a mobile device (smartphone), you will need to delete your UF mail account and re-add your email account, as if you were setting it up for the first time on a new smartphone. It is recommended that you read the instructions available on https://www.mail.ufl.edu/migration/prior to your migration and prior to re-adding your account.
E-Fax
If you use e-fax, there is a change in the format when you send a message. You no longer send the email to “fax:[######]” instead you now send it to ######@fax.local. Please see https://it.clas.ufl.edu/kb/efax/for more details.
Managing Mailing Lists
Microsoft 365 Mail changes the way department mailing lists are managed. If you manage one of these lists, please review the documentation at https://it.clas.ufl.edu/kb/mailing-list/.
We have also documented many of these changes online at https://it.clas.ufl.edu/kb/migration-to-o365-known-issues/. You may wish to bookmark that page prior to your migration so you can refer to it.
CLAS IT staff will be ready to answer the phone at 352-846-1990 if you encounter problems during the migration. Additionally, the UF Computing Help Desk (352-392-HELP/4357) is also open and able to assist. Questions about this migration? Contact: kens@ufl.edu orneipert@ufl.edu.