Preserving Email Content After Leaving SFU

Overview

This article describes how to preserve your email messages as you graduate or transition away from studying or working at the university. It is intended for individuals who are using the new SFU Mail with Exchange Online experience, which is being rolled out to the university gradually. For more information, see We're Upgrading SFU Mail.

 

Details

If you are a student (includes Alumni), staff, or faculty member leaving SFU for any reason other than retirement, your SFU Computing account will be converted into an SFU Limited Access ID account one year after your last active term (student) or end date (staff/faculty). Consequently, your SFU Mail account will be destroyed and its contents will no longer be recoverable. IT Services will send an email reminder 90 days, 45 days and 30 days prior to account expiry.

You can transfer your email messages using an approved email application within this grace period to save them for future reference. Setup instructions have been provided for the Thunderbird email client which is available for free on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

1. Considerations before proceeding
2. Downloading the Thunderbird email client
3. Setting up your account on Thunderbird
4. Determine where you'd like to save your messages
5. Save a copy of your messages
6. Troubleshooting tips

 

1. Considerations before proceeding

If you only have a few emails you'd like to keep, consider forwarding them to another email address. We also recommend cleaning up your inbox to reduce the number of items that need to be downloaded and transferred over.

 

2. Downloading the Thunderbird email client

Visit the Thunderbird website to download the latest version of the Thunderbird email client for your computer.

 

3. Setting up your account on Thunderbird

To set up your SFU account on Thunderbird, see our guide for signing into Thunderbird.

Once all folders are populated, they will continue to sync with your SFU Mail account as messages are sent, received or moved. There is a progress bar at the bottom of the window to indicate how many messages are being downloaded from the email server. If you don't see all your folders, see our troubleshooting tips.

Depending on your internet connection and the number of messages you have, the download process can take upwards of several hours. Allow the downloading of messages to be fully complete before proceeding to the next step.

 

4. Determine if you want to copy your messages to another platform or save them locally on your computer

After setting up your SFU account on Thunderbird and downloading all your messages, you'll need to determine where you'd like to save a copy of your messages for future access:

1. On another email platform, such as Gmail
2. Locally on your computer, in the Local Folders mailbox in Thunderbird

Copying your messages to another email has the benefit of allowing you to access these messages on your preferred platform. However, it can take a significant amount of time for the third-party email server to complete the transfer process.

Copying your messages to the local mailbox on Thunderbird can be done more quickly. However, you'll only be able to access these messages locally on the computer you completed the setup with.

 

5. Save a copy of your messages

We recommend creating a new folder on your third-party email platform or local folders mailbox (right click "Local Folders" > New Folder...) to copy your messages over. Then use the copy function (right click > Copy to > mailbox folder name) to copy messages or folders over to the other mailbox.

After transferring your messages, you may wish to keep Thunderbird installed until your mailbox expires.

 

6. Troubleshooting Tips

If the folders are still not showing, try collapsing and expanding the list using the "arrow" beside the account name (e.g., "demo1@sfu.ca"). When the arrow is clicked again to expand the list, your folders should now be displayed. Note that the folder contents may still be in the process of being transferred, and you may need to click on each folder to ensure that the transfer is still being carried out.

If you have completed the above and are still not seeing your folders show, you may need to subscribe to the mailboxes:

1. Click the Settings icon and navigate to Preferences > Account Settings.
2. Select Synchronization & Storage and click the Advanced... button.
3. Click the arrow beside the account name to expand the list of folders. You will also see a Download column with dots (not downloaded) and checkmarks (downloaded). If needed, click the dots under the Download column for the folders you wish to download. Once done, click OK.

Those folders should now show up under your account in the Mailbox screen.