Alumni Email Frequently Asked Questions

General Email FAQ

What is the advantage of claiming my Berkeley.edu email address?

Your Berkeley.edu account is a way of sharing Cal pride with your network of contacts. Plus, you can now send email from your Berkeley.edu address. Your account provides cloud-based tools, including (but not limited to):

  • Inbox (email)
  • Calendar
  • Contacts
  • Drive
  • Groups (bConnected Lists)
  • Google Chat (instant messaging)

In addition to the Core Applications suite, users also have the ability to use many consumer apps through Google Apps (some restrictions apply). Consumer apps include products such as: YouTube, and Google Maps.

Why are certain Google Apps branded with Cal colors or logos?

Be on the lookout for apps branded with Cal colors or logos.  These represent apps by our campus partners that are guaranteed secure and compatible for use with your Berkeley.edu email account.

What is bConnected and why is it branded with Cal colors?

bConnected is a partnership between campus and Google that provides a suite of cloud-based applications. These are accessible through your Berkeley.edu account, when you click on the small, square, grid icon located at the top right corner of your Berkeley.edu Inbox screen.

I'm a current Berkeley employee or student and I have cancelled my account. What will happen?

As long as you are an employee or current student, you will have access to your Berkeley.edu account and bConnected services. When that ends, only alumni or attendees of full time UC Berkeley undergraduate or graduate degree programs with more than 12 completed course hours are eligible for a Berkeley.edu email. In order to continue uninterrupted service and retain all emails and files, alumni should claim their Berkeley email before the grace period expires, retirement, or leaving their position.

If you are a recent Berkeley graduate...

Can I keep my current student email address?

Yes! As long as you are an alumni of a full time UC Berkeley undergraduate or graduate degree program, you can register with @cal after graduation and click the link that reads Claim your Berkeley.edu account!. The address will remain the same, nothing in your account will change, and the process is fast and easy.

What if I don’t claim my email?

If you don’t claim your student account, it will be shut down and attachments, emails, and files are deleted nine months after you graduate. But good news! It is easy and fast to claim your Berkeley.edu account.

How do I keep my attachments, emails and files?

As long as your account is active when you claim your email, there will be no changes to your account and you will retain all attachments, emails, and Google Drive files. Alumni have nine months after graduating to convert their student account to an alumni account. After nine months, alumni may claim their student email address (provided it matches their CalNet ID), but there is no guarantee that attachments, emails, or files will be accessible.

I’m undecided. Can I get a Berkeley.edu account after the deadline?

Sure! You will be able to get your student email address reactivated. Login when you are ready, accept the user policy, and claim you account.

If I am registered with @cal as a student, do I have to register again to claim my alumni email?

Congratulations! If you registered with @cal as a student and claimed your email address in our email service, your email account will be available to you after graduation.

If you graduated in 2015 or before...

Did I miss out on getting a Berkeley.edu address?

Not at all! If you are a full time UC Berkeley undergraduate or graduate degree program alumni or attendee with more than 12 hours of credit on your transcript, you are eligible to claim a Berkeley.edu email address. After you claim it, you’ll have access to the benefits of a standard Berkeley-branded Gmail account.

If you graduated before 2011, once you register via @cal and claim your email account, we create a new Berkeley.edu account for you based on your CalNet ID.

How do I create/claim an alumni email?

It’s fast, free, and easy! If you don’t already have a CalNet ID, register with @cal. Once the registration form has been submitted, you will be asked to accept the user policy for your @cal account. After accepting the user policy, your registration is processed and you can claim your Berkeley.edu address. Allow 24 hours for this new account to be created.

Having trouble registering? Contact @cal Support.

What about my old alumni email forwarding address?

If you previously had an alumni email forwarding account and claimed your new alumni email account before February 28, 2017, the forwarding addresses are delivering mail directly to your Berkeley.edu account. Don’t want your forwarding addresses to deliver to your Berkeley.edu account? Go into the Settings of your Berkeley.edu account and change the target email for that forwarding address to the desired delivery location.

If you did not claim your new account before February 28, 2017, your previous forwarding addresses have been discontinued.

What happens if I didn’t claim my alumni email?

We have ended service to @cal email forwarding addresses on February 28, 2017. You are still eligible to create a new Berkeley.edu email account that is a full Google powered email account and inbox.

Can you tell me how to login to my former email forwarding account, such as cal.berkeley.edu or mba.berkeley.edu email account?

Cal.berkeley.edu, mba.berkeley.edu were just two of the fourteen email forwarding addresses we previously offered. They were solely forwarding addresses. They directed email to the personal account that is associated with them, but were not free-standing email accounts.

If you claimed your free alumni email before February 28, 2017, the forwarding addresses are delivery mail directly to your Berkeley.edu account.

Can I create a CalNet ID similar to my @cal forwarding address?

In most cases, if you do not already have a CalNet ID, you can create one based on a prior Cal forwarding address.

If you already have a CalNet ID, your Berkeley.edu email will be created to match it.

I have a CalNet ID but can’t remember it.

Not a problem! Just visit the CalNet ID Reminder page and type in the email associated with your CalNet ID. If you do not receive an email, please contact atcal@alumni.berkeley.edu for help

Troubleshooting

I do not have a CalNet ID. How do I register?

A CalNet ID is what students use to login to campus networks and what alumni use to login to @cal. It is also what is used to create your free alumni email address. During your @cal registration, you'll create your CalNet ID. Begin your registration now:

  1. Visit https://cal.berkeley.edu/registration to fill out and submit the registration form.
  2. If you are unable to register, go to the Contact Us form and request our assistance.
  3. We will send you a registration link and instructions specific to you. Follow the instructions to fill out the registration form and you'll create your unique CalNet ID and passphrase. Your CalNet ID will also be used to create your Berkeley.edu email address so choose carefully. For example, an alum with the CalNet ID oski will have the address oski@berkeley.edu.

I have a CalNet ID but can’t remember it.

Not a problem! Just visit the CalNet ID Reminder page and type in the email associated with your CalNet ID. If you do not receive an email, please contact atcal@alumni.berkeley.edu for help.

Can you tell me how to login to my former email forwarding account, such as cal.berkeley.edu or mba.berkeley.edu email account?

Cal.berkeley.edu and mba.berkeley.edu were just two of the fourteen email forwarding addresses we previously offered. They were solely forwarding addresses. They directed email to the personal account that is associated with them, but they were not free-standing email accounts.

If you claimed your new alumni email account before February 28, 2017, the forwarding addresses are delivering mail directly to your Berkeley.edu account.

How do I forward my mail from a Berkeley.edu account to a personal email address?

  1. Open the Berkeley.edu account you intend to forward from
  2. Click the gear icon in the top right of the email screen
  3. Select Settings from the drop-down menu
  4. Select the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab
  5. Click Add a Forwarding Address in the “Forwarding” section
  6. Enter the email address that will receive forwarded mail
  7. For your security, a confirmation email is sent to the address receiving forwarded mail. Open the non-Berkeley.edu account and find the confirmation message. Click the verification link in that email (if you’re having trouble finding the confirmation email, check your “Spam” folder)
  8. Back in your Berkeley.edu account, reload the page in your web browser by clicking on the circular “Reload” icon
  9. On the same Forwarding and POP/IMAP page in Settings, check that “Forward a Copy of Incoming Mail” is selected and your non-Berkeley.edu address is in the drop-down menu
  10. In the second drop-down menu, choose what you want your Berkeley.edu account to do with your messages once they are forwarded. This includes such options as keeping the email copy in the Inbox of your Berkeley.edu account (recommended) or archiving the email to a folder
  11. Click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page

If you want to forward emails INTO your Berkeley.edu account, you’ll have to change your settings in the non-Berkeley account. Visit the help center for your other email provider or access the Settings menu to find out if automatic forwarding is available and how to set it up.

For more information, check out Google Support: Automatically Forward Emails to Another Account

Why can’t I receive or send my Berkeley.edu messages with my Outlook/Thunderbird/Apple Mail/Windows Mail clients? I get an error message.

Gmail has begun enforcing higher security sign in procedures that no longer use OAuth as the default access method. While Google has announced this change, not all email clients and apps have been updated to use the new protocol.

To allow your email client apps to continue to sign in to Gmail the old way, you need to turn on access for these “Less secure Apps” in your Gmail security settings.

For more information, check out Google Support: Allowing less secure apps to access your account

Can I check my Berkeley.edu account on my phone and tablet?

It’s easy to check your new email on multiple mobile devices, across all formats.

  1. If you haven’t already, download Google’s Gmail app from your device’s app store.
  2. Go to Add account, select Google, and enter your Berkeley.edu email
  3. The app will take you to your CalNet login screen. Login using your CalNet ID and passphrase (note: your CalNet ID is the local part of your email address, without the “@berkeley.edu”)

If you wish to use a browser instead:

  1. Open a browser on your device
  2. Go to bmail.berkeley.edu
  3. Login using your CalNet ID and passphrase

Get information on how to access your Berkeley.edu account on your desktop or mobile device.

Can I recover deleted messages?

Maybe. The answer depends on when (less or more than 30 days) and why (by you or due to a compromised account) the messages were deleted.

For more information, check out Google Support: Recovering Messages or Contacts

Can you extend my grace period?

You will have nine months after graduation to transition your student account to an alumni account. After nine months, you can still claim your old Berkeley.edu address; unfortunately, there is no guarantee that attachments and other student work will be available.

My account is closed. Can it be reopened so I can get an important email?

If you did NOT claim your alumni email within the deadline period, or have old email forwarding addresses that are no longer are working, please contact @cal Support.