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Changes to accessing your university emails on personal devices

Access to your university email on personal devices is changing from Saturday 1 October 2022

23rd September 2022

Due to Microsoft security updates from Saturday 1 October, to access your university email on your mobile device or personal computer we recommend you either install the Microsoft Outlook mobile app or access it via the Outlook Web App or for students, the MySolent App. 

Email auto-forwarding for students, from university accounts to personal accounts, will also stop from Tuesday 1 November.  

This means that from October, non-Microsoft email applications (for example Gmail and Apple Mail) will no longer be able to access your university email account and you will need to remove your university email account from those apps.

Email platform images

What do I need to do?

  • Check you can access your email via the web or mobile apps. You will need to sign into your university account to access your email, and you may need to use multi-factor authentication, so check out these pages for more information.
  • Delete your university account from any 3rd party email apps (like Gmail or Apple Mail).
  • Students – Turn off email auto-forwarding (if you have it set up), to stop any error messages. Forwarding will just stop when it is deactivated, so be ready to check your university email regularly. 

Why is it changing?

There are several reasons for this decision:

  • From October 2022, Microsoft will remove access to their services via legacy authentication methods.
  • Auto-forwarding does not protect you or the University. Emails automatically forwarded to an external account are not able to be protected by Safe Links or Safe Attachments, so malicious emails are more likely to get through, therefore it is being switched off. 
  • Older, legacy versions of Microsoft Office (2013 and older), plus most 3rd party email/calendar apps are not able to use security protections available to modern authentication methods, such as multi-factor authentication and conditional access.
  • Hackers are increasingly targeting these older methods of access, called legacy authentication methods, to compromise accounts. (Used by older versions of Microsoft Office and protocols such as IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Exchange ActiveSync, and MAPI.)
  • The University’s Email and Instant Messaging Policy states that both staff and students must use their university email account to conduct university-related correspondence.
  • The University has a legal requirement to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018. This requires organisations to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, taking into account ‘the state of the art’. Continuing to support legacy authentication methods and allowing use of 3rd party email/calendar apps where the university can’t enforce security controls to protect the university’s data would not be compliant with this legal requirement.

If you are experiencing issues accessing your email account via the mobile or web apps, please contact:

Students

Please email: ltu@solent.ac.uk and supply your:

  • Username
  • Student ID
  • Date of birth
  • Course name
  • Screenshot of the error
  • An alternative email address  

Staff

Please log a ticket with unity.solent.ac.uk