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FAQ - Student email

Accessing student email

Common email problems

Transferring large files

Computer viruses and email spam

Accessing student email

What is my student email account?
All UniKey email accounts have a central email account for them which all have the same address format of UniKey@usyd.edu.au.

For example, if your UniKey is: fsur1234
Your student email address will be: fsur1234@usyd.edu.au

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I don’t like my email address. Can I change it?
While you can not change the login to your email account, you can set an alias for your email address to something that is easier to remember. Aliases are alternate email addresses which are sent to the same account.

E.g. Original student email: fsur1234@usyd.edu.au
Alias: f.surname@ usyd.edu.au or firstname.s@student.usyd.edu.au

You can do this by visiting "Email Aliases" under the "Student Email" section in this site.
Just remember that you still need to use your original UniKey to access you email, even if you’ve changed the alias.

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How do I access my email?
You can check your UniKey email using the University webmail service from anywhere with an internet connection and the ability to surf to our website. From the USyd website browse to "Current students" and click "University Email Services" under the login menu on the left.

If you're already logged into MyUni you can log into the webmail service from there.

Alternately you can configure an email client (like Outlook or Entourage) to check your email on a machine that you use regularly.

You will need to login using your UniKey and password.

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Can I keep my email address after I leave the University?
This mail account will ONLY be available for the length of your enrolment or employment with the University.
You can, however, apply for an alumni email address but this will be completely different to your current student account.

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Do I have to check my student email even if I’ve listed another email address in my contact details?
Some official university correspondence is only sent to your student email address, so make sure you check it on a regular basis.
If you don't want to check your University email account, you can forward your university email to another email address by visiting "Email forwarding" in the "Student email" section of the site.

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Common email problems

How do get my student email forwarded to my personal email account (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail etc.)
You can forward your university email to another email address by visiting "Email forwarding" in the "Student email" section of the site.

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I keep getting email from the University saying I’m over my mail quota.
The mail folder quota is 2MB by default. If you receive emails from the University this means that the volume of mail stored in your mail folders is larger than your mail folder quota. This quota only affects mail stored in folders, including the Trash folder. It ignores the emails stored in your Inbox.

You can check how close you are to your quota by clicking on the "Get Disk Quota Information" link, immediately below the mail toolbar in the University's webmail.

One way of dealing with being over your mail quota is to delete some of the emails from your folders. The "over email quota" emails that you have been receiving explain which folders contain the most email.

Alternately, you can increase your mail quota to accommodate all the emails in your folders.

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How do I change the inbox quota in my student email account?
This is done my changing your UniKey account options. Visit the "Add/remove account options" page under the "UniKey management" section of the site. Remember that this increase of your inbox quota may incur a monthly fee and you will be charged the pro-rata monthly fee as soon as you add the option.

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I try to delete email from my UniKey Webmail but it doesn’t delete
The most likely cause of being unable to delete messages is being over the mail folder quota.

If you are either already over your quota, or moving an email into a folder which would put you over your quota, the mail system will not allow you to move messages into any folders, including the "Trash" folder. Please follow the instructions below for deleting message. A PDF version can also be found here.

To delete specific email messages from your account:

  1. Log into the mail server at https://www-mail.usyd.edu.au
  2. Click on the "Options" icon on the toolbar.
  3. In the central column choose the option "Deleting and Moving Messages".
  4. Untick "When deleting messages, move them to your Trash folder instead of marking them as deleted".
  5. Click "Save Options".
  6. Click the drop down menu beside the "Open Folder" icon at the top right of the webpage and choose the folder you wish to delete messages from. You will be presented with the list of messages in that folder.
  7. Select the messages you wish to delete by individually ticking the checkboxes on their left. You can also make multiple selections using the "Select" drop-down menu at the top of the list.
  8. Click "Delete" at the top left of the list of messages. The selected messages will now appear in grey with a line through them.

    Click "Purge Deleted" on the top right of the list of messages and the selected messages will be permanently removed.
  9. If you wish to delete more messages, repeat the above steps as necessary.
  10. To reset your account to move messages to trash, rather than marking them deleted, click the "Options" icon.
  11. In the central column choose the option "Deleting and Moving Messages".
  12. Tick "When deleting messages, move them to your Trash folder instead of marking them as deleted".
  13. Click "Save Options".

To delete an entire folder:

  • Log into the mail server at: https://www-mail.usyd.edu.au
  • Click on the "Folders" icon on the toolbar
  • Tick the checkboxes of the folders you want to delete
  • Click on the "Choose Action:" drop-down menu.
  • Select "Delete Folder(s)."
  • If the folder still appears on the Folders screen, delete all the emails from inside it (using the above procedure), then repeat this procedure.

  • Log into the mail server at: https://www-mail.usyd.edu.au
  • Follow the steps above (To delete specific email messages from your account) to ensure you are below your mail quota
  • Click on the “Options” icon Options
  • In the central column “Mail Management” choose the option Deleting and Moving Messages
  • At the bottom of the page is a pop-up box Create a new trash folder
  • Click this and choose a folder from the list that appears. If you don't get a dialog-box appearing saying "Script prompt: Enter the name for your new trash folder" then click the pop-up menu again, and pick Create a new trash folder

    When the prompt appears, type in a name for a Trash folder, such as Trash
  • Click Save Options
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Transferring large files

Why do I need to use the Upload Service? Why can’t I just send large files through email?
Emailing large files can cause a lot of data traffic – it’s like taking up two or more lanes in a motorway instead of just one. Imagine if all the staff students and students kept sending MASSIVE files through email? It’d be the equivalent of Parramatta Rd during peak hour after a few prangs!

The Upload Service allows you to upload a file in one place and allow one (or more) people to access and download the file without taking up lots of bandwidth.

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What’s the size limit on a file if I want to send it via email?

Depending on your connection speed, you may experience a timeout issue if you are trying to send more than 10 MB. To assist you and to help reduce the amount of data traffic on the server, please use the upload service if you plan to send anything above 10MB.

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How do I transfer a large file?
Visit the Upload Service under "Large file transfer" in the "Student Email" section of this site. Just login with your UniKey and follow the guidelines.

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How do I know if my file was uploaded successfully?
Once your file has been uploaded, you will receive an email to your student email account with the subject line "File <> uploaded successfully".

The email will contain the details of your file upload including the Access ID and the URL where the file can be accessed.

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How do I let other people access the file I uploaded?
Simply forward the confirmation email you would have received in your student email inbox (this contains the Access ID and the URL where the file can be accessed) to anyone you wish to access your large file.

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Computer viruses and email spam

How do I know if my student emails are safe from viruses?
Central ICT runs antivirus software on the central mail server, which tags or deletes offending incoming messages according to the University Antivirus Policy.

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I don’t want SPAM in my student email inbox. Help me!
Central ICT run spam filtering software on the central mail server, which tags possible incoming spam messages.

This filter will quarantine spam messages instead of tagging them and passing them on to your INBOX. You will then receive a digest once a day, around midday, with the list of SPAM messages.

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An email that was not SPAM was accidentally quarantined. How do I release it?
You can release an email by sending a new email to the Email Security Administrator with the message ID in the body. You can click on the message ID and it should automatically open a new email with the correct information OR you can reply to the email and DELETE the message IDs or full rows for the messages you do NOT want to release.

It will take approximately 15 minutes for released messages to be delivered to your INBOX.

**WARNING** If you are on a list and the SPAM message was sent to a list, the released message will be sent to everyone on the list.

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I released an email from quarantine but I don’t see it in my inbox. Where is it?
It might take approximately 15 minutes for released messages to be delivered.

Additionally, a released message may still have the old SPAM tagging in the header. If the released message doesn't appear in your INBOX and you have your email client set to filter based on the header information, check for the released message where you would normally find your spam messages (e.g. Junk, Deleted Items, Spam folder)

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How long do SPAM messages stay in quarantine?
Messages can be released for up to 2 weeks, after that they will be deleted.

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