Changes to U of A Accounts

Starting January 2023, due to changes with Google’s unlimited storage accounts for post-secondaries, the University of Alberta is changing how U of A email accounts are managed. These changes will also align with best practices for data management and file storage.

Depending on your relationship to the university, U of A account access, storage and features may be reduced and, in some circumstances, deactivated.

Please select your relationship to the U of A to learn more about any changes to your account:

Current Students

If you are currently studying at the U of A, your account will not change until you end or complete your studies. At that time:

• If you graduate with a degree, your current student account will become an alumni account. See the alumni section for more information.
• If you graduate with a diploma or certificate, your account will transition to Bear Tracks and Gmail (with 100 MB of email storage) after the last day of the term. View tips for downloading your files for more information.
• If you took a few courses (but were not enrolled in a program) or transferred or paused your studies, your account will transition to Bear Tracks and Gmail (with 100 MB of email storage) after the last day of the term. View tips for downloading your files for more information.

Current Faculty and Staff

If you are currently working at the U of A, your account will not change. Once your employment with U of A ends, your account will be off-boarded following the standard U of A process. At that time:

• If you are academic teaching staff with an appointment with a defined end date, your account will be granted a 10-month grace period after your contract ends to retain your employee qualification. This extended access allows you to continue utilizing resources and materials related to your teaching responsibilities for a subsequent appointment.
• If you are a current student, you will be provided with a student account.
• If you have graduated with a degree from U of A, you will be provided an alumni account. See the alumni section for information on your account.
• If you have not graduated with a degree from the U of A, you will retain access to Bear Tracks for approximately 18 months after your last day, so you can access employee and tax documentation.
• If you have an adjunct or clinical academic appointment, when your relationship with the university expires, your account will be treated the same as an outgoing employee and you will lose access to your account and all data. If you need access to Bear Tracks after you leave you may be issued an account for approximately 18 months so you can access employee and tax documentation.
• If you are a professor emeritus, your account will not change and you will continue to have the same functionality as an employee account.

Alumni

If you graduated with a degree from U of A, your existing U of A account will be reduced after your status is transitioned to Alumni. At that time, you will have access to Bear Tracks and Gmail (with 100 MB of email storage) but will no longer have access to other Google apps (such as Google Drive, Calendar, Photos, Doc, Google Play, Youtube, etc.), U of A computer labs or Andrew File Storage (AFS). Please note that the removal of access to Google Play and YouTube includes paid purchases and subscriptions to apps, movies, music and more.

If you are a current student, faculty or staff as well as a grad, you likely will not experience any changes to your account. Select your relationship to the U of A for more information.

Other

There are a number of other roles and titles for U of A community members, such as:

• Associate alumni
• Academic visitors
• Former continuing education students
• Former diploma or certificate students

For adjunct or clinical academic appointment or professor emeritus, view information under faculty and staff.

If you are not a current student, faculty, staff or grad with a degree but still have an account, your account will be deactivated. Please download items stored in Google Drive, Google Photos or other Google Apps. View tips for downloading files for more information.

If eligible to retrieve tax forms, you will retain temporary access to a 100MB Gmail account that has access to Beartracks.

Secondary U of A accounts and assigned aliases

Secondary U of A accounts (sometimes called secondary CCIDs) will not be impacted by these changes. Assigned account aliases will also not be affected.

Take action before your account changes

If your U of A account is being affected based on the information above, please use Google Takeout to export your stored data.

Using Google Takeout

To export and download a copy of all your data stored in Google Drive (including emails from Gmail and files from Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites and more), use Google Takeout. View How to download your Google data — Google Support for more information.