Student Email

Crimson Email is Powered by Microsoft

The University of Alabama email is supported by Microsoft 365.

Accessing Crimson Email

Current students have three options for accessing email in the Microsoft 365 environment: on the web, desktop apps or mobile apps. Alumni may access their email on the web or through the Outlook mobile app. Note – two-factor authentication is required. (Duo for students, Microsoft multi-factor for alumni). If you experience any issues accessing your Crimson email account in 365, please change your password.

Outlook Best Practices

Get familiar with your email environment! View our tips, tricks and best practices for using the Outlook application.

Google Apps and Google Mail for crimson.ua.edu

OIT no longer provides or supports Google services, including Mail, YouTube, or other Google services for crimson.ua.edu accounts. To comply with changes in the Google service offering, crimson Google accounts and their content have been removed and are no longer accessible.

Get to know Microsoft 365!

365 is more than Outlook. UA students have access to must-have apps like Word, PowerPoint and Excel, but also fun collaboration apps like Microsoft Teams and OneDrive. Check out the resources below to learn more.

• Visit the OIT Software Catalog to download the full suite of tools.
• OneDrive is Microsoft’s cloud storage platform, get started storing content in OneDrive today!
• Microsoft Teams offers unlimited video meetings, threaded chats and file storage all within one app.

Hosting email in Microsoft 365 presents many benefits.

• Cybersecurity Protection

  • Hosting mail in the Microsoft environment provides opportunities for enhanced cybersecurity measures. With Crimson email in the Microsoft cloud, OIT’s security team has better ability to block malicious activity, preventing a greater number of phishing emails from reaching student inboxes.
  • Multi-factor authentication is required for all Crimson 365 email accounts. For students and applicants, Duo is required to access student 365 mail accounts. Microsoft multi-factor is required for alumni accounts.
  • All emails external to UA are marked with [EXTERNAL] in the subject line to help UA students better spot phishing emails.

• Cohesive Directory

  • With student, faculty and staff email hosted within the same Microsoft environment, individuals can easily find the email address of fellow UA students, faculty and staff in a common directory.

• Increased Collaboration

  • Hosting student mail in the Microsoft cloud increases functionality with other Microsoft 365 tools including OneDrive Cloud Storage and Microsoft Teams. Hosting mail alongside these collaboration tools provides the opportunity for seamless integration and user experience. Check out our Google/Microsoft tool comparison chart to get to know the 365 suite of tools.

• Prepare UA Students for Workforce

  • 95% of Fortune 500 companies use the Microsoft Cloud environment. Recent grads are faced with learning Outlook, Teams, OneDrive and other Microsoft tools when starting their careers. Introducing UA students to the Microsoft environment during their higher education experience will better equip students to be workforce ready.

FAQs

I am having issues logging in, what should I do?
If you experience any issues accessing your Crimson email account in O365, please change your password. After you’ve changed your password, refresh your browser then log in.

How do I access my email?
Check out the three options listed above: web, mobile + desktop apps. To download Microsoft 365 software for free, visit the OIT software catalog. Because alumni are not licensed for 365 software, alumni can access mail on mobile devices or web browsers only.

Can I add my email to my phone?
Yes! View our instructions to add your Crimson email account to a mobile device.

Can I make my calendar items private in O365?
You sure can. We have instructions on how to change calendar permissions.

Will I be able to keep my email account after graduation? 
Yes, upon graduation student accounts are converted to a 50 GB alumni account. You will keep access to your mail account online, but you will not be able to keep access to 365 applications, including information stored in OneDrive. You’ll want to move any content you wish to keep to another location. After graduation, you can continue to access your email account at outlook.office.com with Microsoft multi-factor authentication. Accounts that are not accessed at least once each calendar year will be suspended.

Can I forward my Crimson email to another email account?
Certainly. Graduating students may choose to forward their Crimson mail to another email account. You can do so by following these instructions.