Technology tasks before leaving the University

A checklist to follow before you leave the University

Important

You will lose access to all University of Auckland storage and systems, with the exception of your GMail email account (username@aucklanduni.ac.nz) when you leave the University (as long as you delete all your Google Photos beforehand). If you are leaving temporarily then you still need to follow these steps - do not assume that your files will remain.

Google Drive, Google Photos and GMail

Google Drive

You will first need to arrange and pay for another location for your files. Note that when you leave the University you will also lose access to any shared drives or files that have been shared with you.

Move your Google files to another service

Google Photos

You must remove all your Google Photos.

Google doesn’t provide administrators with any ability to delete photos, so if you don’t delete them, the administrators will be forced to delete your entire account - email,drive, photos and all. To avoid this, it's important that you delete your photos.

The easiest solution is to purchase a Google One Plan ($35/year for 100GB or $50/year for 200GB) and then follow these instructions.

GMail

Your GMail address (@aucklanduni.ac.nz) will remain unchanged and open to you when you leave the University. This is currently envisaged to be a permanent offering, but is entirely dependent on Google's service offering to the University remaining unchanged, as long as you delete all your Google Photos. You should add a forwarder to a personal email address using these instructions to ensure you get any future communications from the University. 

Mobile device contacts

If you have connected your phone contacts to your University Google account then you should migrate them before leaving. Instructions will be different for each device and contacts application so check online for guides relevant to your phone and application.

Mobile Device Backup

If you have configured Google Backup to use your University Google account you will need to change this using these instructions:

Android

  1. Open your phone's Settings app
  2. Tap System > Backup. If these steps don't match your phone's settings, try searching your settings app for backup, or get help from your device manufacturer
  3. Tap Backup account
  4. Tap the personal Google account that you want to use for backups.

iPhone

  1. Launch the Google Photos app
  2. Tap on your profile icon at the top right corner
  3. Tap your account name and select Add another account
  4. Enter your personal Google account and password
  5. Make sure that the personal Google account is selected under Backup account

Microsoft 365 (including OneDrive)

Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc.)

You will lose access to Microsoft Office 365 after you leave the University as it will be logging in to your old University account. You will notice that this has occurred as Office applications will show as "unlicensed". You will need to purchase a license from Microsoft directly to continue using these applications.

Microsoft OneDrive

You will need to copy your files from OneDrive to another service. Be aware that any files you may have shared with other people will also need to be moved and re-shared. If you have shared files with someone who is still at the University then you will need to tell them to copy the file you have shared (it can still be within OneDrive) and for them to re-share it. 

We are unable to give you access to your OneDrive once you have left - the files get automatically removed.

Instructions:

Microsoft Teams

Make sure that if you are an owner of a team that you assign someone else as an owner before you leave. Also, if you are an owner of a private channel within a team, make sure you assign another private channel owner.

Home Drive

If you have files on a University Home drive (\\files.auckland.ac.nz\myhome) you will need to copy anything you require before you leave. After you leave all files will be permanently removed.

@auckland.ac.nz email address

If you have an @auckland.ac.nz email address this will be removed when you leave the University. Any contents of the mailbox will be permanently removed 60 days afterwards.

Please setup an out of office assistant for when you leave directing people to colleagues. Note that this will last for a period of 30 days after you leave the University.

Staff who are or who have been Academics can request email forwarding to a personal email account (as often they will have provided their @auckland.ac.nz address on publications) using this link. Note that affiliation will be checked before enabling a forwarder.

Professional staff, Doctoral students, and any other person with an @auckland.ac.nz account are not permitted to have their email forwarded to a personal email account after they leave the University.

Recovery addresses

People often forget that they may have used a University of Auckland email address as a recovery email address for other services (e.g. banking applications, other email services, 2FA, iCloud). Please make sure you change these to using a personal email address.

Email subscriptions, lists and contacts

Update any subscriptions, email lists and external contacts with a personal email address. Make sure that if you have completed a thesis or research that you notify others of your change in email address.