Quick Navigation

E-Mail

Forward NIU Student E-Mail to a Preferred Account

Official University correspondence is sent ONLY to NIU student e-mail accounts. This includes:

  • Statements from Registration and Records and the Bursar’s Office
  • Student Financial Aid notifications
  • Correspondence from NIU faculty sent via BlackBoard

NIU Student E-Mail accounts are 50 Mb

Check your NIU student mailbox regularly to ensure there is space to receive University communication.

  • A copy of every message is maintained in the mailbox even when forwarded
  • When the mailbox is full, ONLY MyNIU mail is received

Instructions for Forwarding

  1. Configure your preferred e-mail account to accept messages from NIU:
    1. Add "niu.edu" as a permitted domain
    2. Add "students.niu.edu" as a permitted host
    3. Add "[Z-ID]@students.niu.edu" as a permitted address
  2. Open a web browser and go to webmail.students.niu.edu
  3. Log in with your Z-ID and password
  4. Get the "Mailbox Used" value as close to zero as possible:
    1. Purge items that you do not need
    2. Purge items marked for deletion
    3. Clean out the Sent Items and Inbox folders
    4. Clean out folders you created
  5. Select the "Options" icon
  6. Select the "Mailbox Management" tab
  7. Set "Forward All New Messages:" to "Yes"
    • Note: The "Keep Copy" function cannot be changed. Setting "Keep Copy" to "No" will not prevent forwarded messages from being retained in your Inbox and counting against your quota.
  8. Enter your preferred e-mail address in the "Forward to:" box
  9. Click on "Save"
  10. Click on "Close"
  11. Test the forwarding:
    1. Send a message from your preferred e-mail account to your [Z-ID]@students.niu.edu address
    2. Under most conditions, you receive your forwarded mail back to your preferred e-mail account within 30 minutes

Troubleshooting

If NIU forwarded e-mail is not received in your preferred e-mail account:

  1. Confirm that your NIU Student E-Mail account has space available to receive messages
  2. Check that mail delivery between NIU and your preferred account is not impaired:
    • Send a message from your NIU Student E-Mail account to your preferred account
      • If this message arrives, the problem is specifically with the forwarding
      • If neither message arrives, there is an issue impacting delivery of mail. Try again later.
  3. Check your preferred e-mail account for spam blocking / junk mail handling that prevents delivery of forwarded mail
  4. Go back to step 8 above. Make sure your preferred e-mail address is correct.
  5. Send another forwarded test message with Internet delivery confirmation turned on. This can help indicate where the problem with delivery is. Contact your preferred account provider for assistance in doing this.