Faculty of Arts Migration to Gmail

Request to migrate to Gmail

For those ready to make the switch to Gmail, we ask you to complete a short form. On this form, you’ll also be able to request a migration of your historic arts emails, appointments and contacts. We will follow up with you with a few final instructions and to confirm a migration date for when your Arts email account will be automatically migrated over to your TMU Gmail.

Note this form requires you to authenticate with your TMU username and password. If you can not access the form, please log out of any personal gmail accounts (@gmail.com) you may still be logged into. 

For those of you who manage generic arts accounts or lab accounts and wish to request migrating these account(s) over to Gmail  (google form) please complete this form (external link)  specifically for generic accounts.

Preparing for migration

Your existing Outlook messages may not transfer over to Gmail as you expect. The following are a few tips that can help make the transfer more successful.

Tips for a successful migration

1. All messages in your Trash folder will migrate directly into the Trash folder on Gmail, which gets automatically permanently deleted after 30 days. 
   • If you want to preserve your Trashed messages, we suggest copying those messages into a separate folder on your Arts account first, e.g., "Arts_Trash"
2. Delete what you no longer need. 
   • To help shorten your migration time, we encourage you to delete messages and contacts that are outdated or no longer relevant. These might include system-generated notifications, outdated newsletters or other emails that are not critical. If there’s a high volume of content, it could take several days for your email messages, personal addresses, contacts and groups to appear in your TMU Gmail.
3. Check your folder names and update if needed.
   • Folder names containing special characters may cause problems, these include anything that is not a letter or number, for example @, #, *, & the migration splits up the folder into so you may wish to review and rename your folders before the migration. 
   • Sub-folders you have set-up in your Gmail, will become nested labels in Gmail. With a display limit of 225 characters, it’s a good idea to keep folder names as short as possible to keep them visible.

What do I have to do before the migration starts?

When your migration date and time have been communicated to you, we recommend that you do the following prior to your migration:

1. Stop sending or receiving mail in Outlook and start accessing your email through your TMU Gmail account. 
2. You should also remove your Arts account from any devices you may have set up as well. You can reset up your TMU Gmail on your mobile devices.
3. You should make sure to disable your mail forwarding (instructions below)  
   • Logon to http://gmail.ryerson.ca 
   • Click on the cog wheel in the top right  and select Settings
   • Click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP
   • Click Disable forwarding
          
   • Click Save Changes.
   • We will confirm these steps with you when you are ready to make the switch to Gmail and  (google form) complete the request form (external link) 

Once your migration begins, when you log in to your TMU Gmail account you will see your older arts email start to appear in your TMU Gmail account. This migration may take several days to complete and you may notice you do not immediately have access to all of your historic Arts email and calendar appointments but know they are coming!

What will and will not migrate to Gmail?

All of your Arts email, calendar appointments and contacts will automatically be migrated for you from Outlook over to Gmail on your scheduled migration date. There are some exceptions that will not migrate to Gmail and they are listed below.

Nine things that will not migrate to Gmail

The following will not migrate to Gmail, however, they can be recreated once you’ve made the switch to the Gmail system.

1. Your Junk Email folder will not be migrated.
2. The Deleted Items folder in Outlook does not migrate (as Gmail does not allow Trash for more than 30-days).  To keep this  folder create a new folder called Arts_Trash and drag the entire contents of your deleted items folder into the newly created folder. Note: After dragging the contents - make sure to wait until the folder is updated on the Arts side. It is ready when Outlook reads All folders are up to date at the bottom of the Outlook window.
3. The Notes you have stored on the Arts server are not moved over – please copy and save anything you need before the migration
4. Your Email signature will not migrate, however, you can learn how to create a Gmail signature. (external link) 
5. Vacation messages will not migrate, however, you can learn how to set up a vacation reply in Gmail (external link) . Gmail now supports multiple signatures.
6. Forwarding rules will not migrate, however, you can learn how to forward all your emails in Gmail to another address.
7. Email filtering rules will not migrate, however you can learn how to create rules to filter your emails in Gmail (external link) .
8. Messages, including attachments, that are very large (more than 50 MB) in size may not migrate.
9. Emails with password-protected zip file attachments and executable or .exe attachments might have issues migrating. You should consider saving any important attachments of these file types. Executables include the following file types:
   
   "ade", "adp", "bat", "chm", "cmd", "com", "cpl", "exe", "hta", "ins", "isp", "jse", "lib", "mde", "msc", "msp", "mst", "pif", "scr", "sct", "shb", "sys", "vb", "vbe", "vbs", "vxd", “wsc", "wsf", "wsh"

Sign up for Gmail Training

Get training on using Gmail and Google Calendar by registering for one of the upcoming online sessions that will be offered online via Google Meet. Note: while the session will cover the Google Sync for Outlook for those interested in using this, the training will primarily be on how to use Gmail on the web and Google calendar as the recommended way to access your TMU email. 

Register for upcoming sessions on the Learning Events Calendar

Tips for getting acquainted with TMU Gmail

Here are some quick tips to help you get quickly set up with TMU Gmail.

Configuring TMU Gmail on your mobile device

Whether using a mail app that’s included with your phone or downloading the Gmail app, find help setting up TMU Gmail on your mobile device.

Using an email client to manage TMU Gmail

While the Gmail web interface is recommended and the most reliable way to access your email and calendar, as an alternative, you can manage emails on your computer using a mail client instead. Learn how to set up the Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird mail clients. Note: ARTS IT does not recommend using Outlook with Gmail.

Department and generic account management

If you were managing a generic account, similar behaviours can be set up on TMU Gmail. Learn how to delegate access and send messages with or without reference to your personal account on the Generic Accounts page.

Using Gmail labels instead of Outlook folders

Gmail has a "labels" feature that functions similarly to folders in Outlook, but here’s a key difference to note:

• When messages are placed in more than one folder in Outlook, a copy of the message is placed in each folder.
• However, in Gmail, labels are applied to a single copy of a message.
• This means only one copy exists in one location, even though it has multiple labels applied to it. If you delete it, the message will be deleted completely. 

To view all your messages in Gmail regardless of the label applied to it, you can click the All Mail option listed beneath your labels list on the left side of your Inbox.

Questions?

We can assist you with any questions you may have about making the switch to Gmail and the migration process. Please contact the ARTS IT Help Desk at help@arts.ryerson.ca or at extension 552723.