General

Who is responsible for the content of my Microsoft 365 account?

You are the primary individual responsible for the contents of your account, including your email and files.  Maintaining the privacy of your account's content is important to the University, and all users are responsible for complying with the Information Resources Use and Security Policy (IRUSP).

If you are an employee of the University, you are responsible for maintaining records in accordance with applicable University policy and state law, including the UT Records Retention Schedule (UTRRS).

Content related to your role may be requested by your employing department or subject to open records requests.  If you leave the University, your department may request that your mailbox be archived to preserve business knowledge and processes.

What's the difference between Microsoft 365 and UTmail?

Microsoft 365 and UTmail (Google Workspace for Education) are similar - and sometimes complementary - messaging and collaboration platforms.  Each environment has its own set of applications you may use during your time at The University of Texas at Austin:

Outlook (Email)

What is my Microsoft 365 email address?

Students

By default, your email address is yourEID@my.utexas.edu.

Faculty and Staff

By default, your email address is firstname.lastname@austin.utexas.edu. If this address was taken or if it was changed by your department, you may find your correct address by doing the following:

1. Log into the Office 365 Management web application using your UT EID and password.

2. Your email address in the Primary mail address field.

Are there limits to the size or number of messages I can send?

Size

In general, the size limit for a single message sent from a Microsoft 365 email account is 100 MB. This size limit includes all attachments.

Number

A single message sent from Microsoft 365 can have a maximum of 500 recipients.

Additionally, senders are limited to a maximum of 1500 unique recipients per day for outbound messages at a rate of no more than 700 recipients per hour.

For more information, please view Best Practices - Mass Mailings.

How do I email a compressed file?

Creating a compressed .zip file is a great way to more efficiently email multiple or large files.  However, if you're sharing files within the University, using OneDrive may be a better choice.

On Windows

On macOS

What do I do if I'm missing an email I'm expecting?

If you're expecting an email and don't see it in your inbox:

1. Check your Junk Email folder.

2. Use the search feature to make sure a mailbox rule didn't move the message into another folder.

If you find legitimate email in your Junk Email folder, we recommend doing the following:

1. Move the message(s) back to your inbox.

2. Log into Outlook on the web and add the email address(es) in question to the Safe senders list to help prevent them from being marked as spam in the future.

Why am I receiving emails from @microsoft.com addresses?

Microsoft occasionally uses email to inform users about service features and license information. While it's important to exercise caution with email claiming to be from a trusted source, it's also important to empower yourself with the knowledge and common sense required to determine if a message is legitimate or illegitimate.

The Microsoft 365 team strongly encourages everyone to familiarize themselves with phishing concepts and review available resources on how to protect yourself from phishing. Another great starting point is the UT Austin Information Security Office guide on how to detect a phishing email.

Why is email delivery slow?

Slow delivery of email originating from external sources is typically caused by a large demand on the Mail Filtering Service. If inbound emails are delayed, service administrators will address the issue to ensure prompt delivery of messages. Delays generally do not last longer than an hour.

Mail between internal services take a separate path through the Mail Filtering Service and will be unaffected by inbound delays.

• Email between Microsoft 365 mailboxes will be unaffected by inbound delays.

• UTmail is considered an external service for purposes of email routing and will be affected by inbound delays.

Updating Your Official University Email Address

Since email is an official method of receiving university and course communications, it is important that your email address on file with the university is kept up-to-date.

Students

Students can set their Microsoft 365 account (eid@my.utexas.edu) as their official university email address:

1. Go to Update of Addresses and Email (EID required) in UT Direct.

2. Locate the E-mail Address field at the bottom of the form, and type in your email address (e.g. eid@my.utexas.edu).

3. Click Save Changes.

Employees

Employees can update their email address in Workday.

1. Log into Workday and click Personal Information

2. Under Change, click Contact Information

3. Click Edit at the top and scroll down to Primary Email under Work Contact Information (not Home Contact Information)

4. Click Edit (pencil icon), enter your preferred email, and click Save (checkmark icon)

5. Click Submit at the bottom of the page

Your updated email address will start receiving university email communications within one or two business days.

Tips for Managing Your Inbox

An inbox full of unsorted, unmanaged emails can clog the system and slow down access to your messages. There are three things you can do to manage your email, whether you use Webmail or a desktop email program: clean, organize, and filter.

Cleaning

• Delete what you won’t use - Stockpiling messages in your inbox slows you down in two ways; you spend time searching through large quantities of email and it makes the server work harder.

• Empty trash and spam folders - Many email programs keep emails you've deleted in the trash folder. This takes up space on your account, so remember to empty your trash regularly and delete the contents of your spam folder.

• Manage your sent-mail folder - If you automatically save copies of sent messages, remember to delete ones you don't need. Email conversations frequently include your original message.

• Archive old messages - If you want to archive old messages, create storage folders on your local computer and compress and save old emails there.

  Caution

  Archiving messages to your local computer does not guarantee the preservation of your files. Make sure to regularly back up your hard drive to preserve your archived messages.

Organizing

• Create and use folders - Create and use folders to sort and store information you want to keep. This not only helps organize your information so you can find things more quickly, but it also it helps your inbox stay at a manageable size.

• Download attachments - Since email attachments take up a lot of space, it's a good idea to save attachments to your local computer and then delete the message from your inbox. If you need to save both the email message and the attachment, save them both to your computer and delete them from the server.

• Unsubscribe from all those advertisements - When you purchase something online, you are often automatically signed up for that company's mailing list. In no time, you'll be getting dozens of unwanted advertisements per day. Each of them should have an unsubscribe link at the bottom — follow that link to remove yourself from those mailing lists.

Filtering

• Automatically filter your messages - Your inbox may become overloaded with messages if you leave it untended. Set up filters to automatically sort incoming messages into specific folders instead of your inbox. Check your email program's help on how to set up preferences or rules for email filters.

Outlook (Calendar)

How do I change my calendar's time interval?

Typically, Outlook defaults to a 30-minute time scale.  If you'd like to change this, please visit Change the calendar time scale in Outlook for instructions

How do I change the default meeting reminder time?

When you schedule a meeting, Outlook sets a 15-minute reminder by default.

You can change the reminder time when setting up a specific meeting, but if you'd like to change the reminder time for all future meetings, please visit Change the default reminder time for instructions.

How do I change which day is the first day of the week?

By default, the Outlook calendar defaults to Sunday as the start of the week. To customize this, please review the examples at Change how you view your Outlook calendar.

Why do calendar invites I receive disappear after I respond?

Outlook usually sends meeting requests to the Deleted Items folder when you respond to a meeting request. To change this setting and keep your meeting requests:

• Click the File tab, then Options, and then select Mail.

• Under the Send messages heading, make sure the Delete meeting requests and notifications from Inbox after responding checkbox is not selected.

• Click the OK button to close the dialog box.

Updating Your Official University Email Address

Faculty and Staff can update their official university email address in Workday:

1. Log into Workday using multi-factor authentication.

2. Click on Personal Information.

3. Under Change, click on Contact Information.

4. At the top of the page click Edit.

5. Click the pencil icon to edit. Update your primary email address under the Work Contact Information section. Click the checkmark icon to save.

6. Click Submit.

Your updated email address will start receiving university email communications within one business day.