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2727
Setting up and cancelling email FORWARDING on the student email system


Please note that you cannot set up automatic forwarding to a non-Sussex address.

The details on this page relate to the Office 365 Outlook email system used by undergraduates and taught postgraduates.  If you are a member of staff or research student, please see FAQ 2581.

  1. Login to your Sussex Office 365 email account.
  2. Click the Settings menu (the cogwheel icon near the top right) then choose Options.  The menu may appear differently, as shown below right, in which case click on Mail in the Settings menu:

    screenshot of the settings cog with Options selected  OR  O365 Mail Settings menu

  3. Click on Forwarding.
  4. Click to select the Start forwarding option, then enter your forwarding address in the box provided. You can choose whether or not to keep copies of forwarded messages:

    screenshot of the options page with the forwarding settings

  5. Click on Save to store the chosen options.
  6. To return to your email, click on the square button in the top left and then choose Mail:

    screenshot of the button to return to Mail

Cancelling forwarding

  1. Simply repeat all the steps described above, but in step 4 click on Stop forwarding instead.

If there is no forwarding arrangement set up as far as you can see, or if emails are still being forwarded after you change this settings, your messages might be redirected due to an Inbox Rule. If so, you can turn that off as follows:

  1. Click on the Inbox rules option on the left and find the rule that is redirecting your messages
  2. Click to select it and then click the trashcan icon to delete it.

    Screenshot showing the Inbox rules screen in Options

 

 Points to consider if you choose to forward your email

  • ENSURE that the forwarding address you use is correct, otherwise your incoming mail will be diverted to the wrong (and possibly nonexistent) address, and could be lost. It's a good idea to test it by sending an email to your Sussex email address and checking that it gets diverted to your forwarding address.
  • NEVER set up forwarding of your email to another person, because the Data Protection Act would be breached if any personal or confidential email is sent to you, and thus be unlawful.  Instead, set up an automatic reply to request senders to email the another person's address if appropriate.
  • Some email services, such as HotMail and Yahoo, have a lower message size limit than the Sussex email system. This means you might lose some mail! The mail will be small enough for IT Services to accept and forward as you have requested but may be too large for Hotmail (etc) to accept. The mail will be returned to the sender and you might never be aware that it was sent. This could mean that you miss important information.
  • Forwarding may cause significant delays in email delivery.
  • Some email senders use anti-spam mechanisms like SPF that will cause third parties to reject email forwarded by us. This is likely to become an increasingly widespread mechanism.
  • Please note that the forwarding mechanism will not forward mail that has already been delivered to your inbox. It only affects new incoming mail.
  • If you set up forwarding so as to keep copies of mail messages in your Sussex email account, remember to regularly tidy up your Sussex inbox and delete messages. Otherwise, if your Inbox gets full, no more mail can be delivered to your Sussex account, and they'll bounce back to the sender, even though they're still delivered to your external account.

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This is question number 2727, which appears in the following categories:

Created by Andy Clews on 22 June 2015 and last updated by Alexander Butler on 11 July 2019