Staff tips for the new campus wide Google-based system.
January 16th @5pm was the official switchover date.
New Mail
By now your new account should be setup within Apple Mail and Apple Calendar, NO new messages will appear. At least none directed at your @as.ucsb.edu address. Please don’t send emails from this account. It exists only so that you can move messages to your new and shiny google based account.
Old Mail
Your old email is still perfectly safe. But you will want to move over old messages that you want to keep. Here are the steps from within Apple Mail in MacOS:
- Disable all the RULES within your Apple Mail client. A poorly formed rule could result in your migrated messages being rerouted to the wrong folder, cause your client to crash or outright delete the messages.
- Create your new folders on the Google side. You can’t move over folders, just messages. If you want to recreate your current structure, make those new folders on the Google side first.
- Open up your folder on the AS side. Select your messages and drag them over to the new Google version of that folder. (Important: Only move over around 2000 messages per hour. Anything more and your speed will be throttled.)
- Repeat this as necessary until you’ve moved over all of the messages that you wish to keep. This includes things in your current AS inbox.
This process will MOVE your messages from one account to the other. You can move everything or nothing. If you have messages that are important for reference or are something you might reply to, please move it over.
If you attempt to move a message that has an attachment larger than 25MB, it won’t work. The message will be moved to a new “Recovered Messages” folder. Copy the message (or just the attachment) to your computer for reference. You could even store it in Drive if it is important to you.
Also be aware that “Important” is not a real folder within Google. It’s just a tag they use to guess what messages you really care about. So don’t go around deleting messages in there unless you really want them gone. You can disable this feature entirely within the web based google mail site. Settings :: Inbox :: Importance Markers
The old server will be decommissioned in March, so getting a jump start on moving things over is a good idea.
Copy vs Move
For most, moving messages will be sufficient. If you worry about messages vanishing or just like a copy of everything, then you can Copy your messages instead of moving them.
Select your messages, go the menu item “Message” :: Copy To :: and then select your new account or one of its mailboxes. That’s it.
Mobile
If you want to link your new account to your mobile device, it’s the same as any other google account:
On the iPhone – Settings :: Accounts & Passwords :: Add Account :: Google. Name – your NetID@ucsb.edu
Mailing Lists
If you send to a list that you are on, you will not receive that email. It still went through, so don’t worry.
Apple Mail
In order to better transition, please make the following changes:
Goto Apple Mail :: Preferences :: Accounts :: (select your new google account) :: Account Information. Click “Email address” and change your netid@ucsb.edu address to your real email@as.ucsb.edu instead.
Now click on Accounts and select your old AS one. Click “Email address” and change it to email@SERVERX.as.ucsb.edu and change your name to something else. Also, change the name to OLD EMAIL or something equally obvious.
This should help you easily tell the difference between accounts.
If you only have your AS email attached to Apple Mail, then also goto Mail :: Preferences :: Composing and change “Send new messages from” to your new account. Done. Otherwise leave it as “Automatically select best account”.
From this point on, your only use of the OLD account is to move/copy messages out of it.
You may also need to train your Junk filter in Apple Mail. Be sure to check the Junk box a couple times a day over the next few weeks. There may be false positives in this initial period.
iOS Mail
To ensure your FROM address is correct, goto Settings :: Accounts & Passwords :: {select your AS account} :: Tap on your account name. Now select “Email” and make sure it is your correct @as.ucsb.edu address. Tap DONE.
Rules/Signatures
You will need to rewrite/edit many of your Rules. Goto Mail :: Preferences :: Rules. This is especially true if you have rules that automatically move a message into a folder. Make sure the rules point to the correct new folder name/location.
You will have to create a new signature in Mail :: Preferences :: Signatures for this new account. A copy/paste from the old one should be fine. Just one of those often overlooked details.
Webmail
The new webmail interface is at https://mail.google.com/a/ucsb.edu (or connect.ucsb.edu if you want something easy to say out loud). It looks exactly like Gmail, if you’re familiar with that product.
If you prefer to use the webmail interface, that is acceptable. Just know that some things (advanced tagging/labeling for example) don’t transfer properly if you go back to the Apple Mail client.
The vacation autoresponder is now accessible under “Settings” (that gear icon in the upper right). Google calls it “Vacation responder” and it’s fairly straightforward.
How you log into Webmail is a little bit of an adventure.
Once you’re on the login page, you’ll need to use your NetID to login. Only it’s your NetID@ucsb.edu
Let’s say your netID is bobsmith
To log into webmail, use the login name: bobsmith@ucsb.edu
This is just your login name. Your email address remains the same. If you sign in with your phone or desktop, you will have to use this new login as well (but after the first time, you’ll never have to think about it again). It’s merely using your NetID for authentication now.
All emails will still go to (and come from) your @as.ucsb.edu email address.
Default Account
To make sure you are sending from your @as.ucsb.edu address, you’ll need to make one last change.
Goto https://mail.google.com/a/ucsb.edu Click the Gear settings icon in the upper right corner. Select Settings. Goto Accounts.
In the “Send mail as” section, click “Add another email address”. Type out your full name@as.ucsb.edu address (leave “treat as an alias” checked). Click “Next step”.
Back on the Accounts screen, select “make default” next to your @as.ucsb.edu address.
Calendars
Your new Google account also has calendaring functions. When tied into the Apple Calendar application (formerly iCal), it’s indistinguishable from the old AS calendar.
Apple Calendar
To avoid confusion, you’ll want to select a new default calendar.
That’s in Calendar :: Preferences :: General.
Delegation
If you have authorized a coworker/supervisor to see/edit your calendar, all those preferences have been reset.
Follow the instructions at the Connect site.
The short version is: Goto calendar.google.com Click on the three dots next to your calendar and select “Settings and Sharing”. Find “Share with specific people”. Add a person and then select what permissions you want them to have.
Moving Data
In Calendar, select your work calendar, and in the menu, goto File :: Export. Save this copy somewhere.
Now, select your new Google calendar. Goto File :: Import and select that same file. All done.
There might be a few errors due to confusion over invited parties, room reservations, etc. Dismiss as many of these that come up and then double check that your events are still present. Once confirmed, you can disable your old calendar account (simple unclick it for now).
If you run into problems using this method, you can also switch each event (even repeating ones) from the old calendar to the new within Apple Calendar. If you don’t have many for 2018, this can actually be faster.
The iCal server will be disabled on January 26th. Please transition your calendar events as soon as possible.
Invitations
If you’re trying to invite someone to a meeting in the new system, make sure it autocompletes to their @ucsb.edu address. Try typing someone’s NetID or Last name if it doesn’t autocomplete immediately.
With this new system, you can also invite groups to meetings. Just use the email address of the AS group. For example, you can invite as-staff@as.ucsb.edu and it will go to all staff. It works for all the mailing lists that we have.
Meeting Rooms
One significant difference right now is how you add a meeting room to an event. Doing so in Apple Calendar is a bit tricky. Let’s go over the “easy” method first:
Using Google Calendar: Go to edit an event (the pencil icon), then look at the right where it says Guests/Rooms. Click Rooms. You can go to the AS section or start typing one of our three meeting rooms:
as-room-ConferenceRoom
as-room-Annex-Media-Center
as-room-MainOffice
Using Apple Calendar: You will need to invite the meeting room as an “Invitee” instead of using it in the “Location” field. But instead of being a nice name that autocompletes, you’ll need to copy/paste these long addresses:
Main Office – ucsb.edu_61732d726f6f6d2d4d61696e4f6666696365@resource.calendar.google.com
Conf Room – ucsb.edu_61732d726f6f6d2d436f6e666572656e6365526f6f6d@resource.calendar.google.com
Annex Media Center – ucsb.edu_61732d726f6f6d2d416e6e65782d4d656469612d43656e746572@resource.calendar.google.com
It’s not convenient, but it’s the only current workaround if you want to do everything within Apple Calendar.
Resources
To add resources (meeting rooms and things like the Time Off calendar) to your account, there are a few tricks.
- On your computer, open Google Calendar. You can’t add shared calendars from the Apple Calendar app.
- On the left is a box labeled “Add a coworker’s calendar.”
- Click the + arrow next to it and select “Browse calendars of interest”.
- Click Browse resources in the upper left.
- Click on as
- Next to the calendar you want to add, click the checkbox.
- You’ll see the new calendar under “Other calendars.”
Next, to also add resources on Apple Calendar:
- Goto the Calendar App. Preferences
- Select Accounts and your new AS account.
- Click on Delegation.
- Select all the accounts you want to see in the side column. You can always uncheck them later to hide them.
Contacts
If you exclusively use Apple Mail, there’s no need to do anything with regards to your contacts. If you want to use the webmail interface, even part of the time, then migrating over some of your contacts makes sense.
This can be as easy as selecting all the contacts you wish to migrate and dragging them to your new account from within the Contacts application. There’s also the export/import method.
One thing to keep in mind is that, within the webmail/gmail interface, UMail addresses will not autocomplete unless they’re already in your address book. Only other Connect addresses (staff that have already transitioned to the Google service) are included. Your Apple Mail ability to do this kind of autocompletion will not be affected.
Drive/Docs
Sharing files and collaboratively editing documents is now centralized around your new Google-based account.
If you have AS-related documents on your personal gmail account, then please export them and then import them into your university account. This will help with centralization.
Files
You can backup files/folders and more to your drive directory. There is currently no limit, but that might change. You can use this or Box for your file needs. Whatever works best for your workflow.
Collaboration
If you copy over docs/sheets/presentations from another google account, you will need to reshare these new copies.
There is a new level of sharing permissions that allows read/write access to just those within the university.
Moving Files
If you have AS-related files on your personal gmail account, you might want to move them over to your new, university affiliated account instead. The best way to accomplish this is to export the old files (within drive and docs/sheets/etc) and then import them. You can use Google’s handy tool: https://takeout.google.com/
This will export EVERYTHING. If you only want to export individual files, copy them out of Drive one at a time.
Check only the “Drives” section. Then follow the next steps.
To import, you can simple drag all of those documents into your University Drive account. There are additional instructions from Google here.
New Accounts
If you want to set up a new account for your group, or just a new calendar resource (like a joint calendar for all Senators), then please fill out a ticket at help.as.ucsb.edu
You cannot set up an account on your own. It won’t work.
An official AS/UCSB account can replace a generic gmail account. So instead of having cab.ucsb.amazing@gmail.com it can cab.ucsb@as.ucsb.edu which looks a lot more like you’re affiliated with the university and less like you’re trying to scam people.
If you need further assistance, please use the new #google channel on our Slack workspace.
There is also useful information on the UCSB Connect Guide.
