Frequently Asked Questions

You can set your contact picture by following these instructions:

Select your contact photo

If you think your account may be compromised, perhaps because you clicked a link in a phishing email, you should immediately change your UCSBnetID password at the Identity Manager and notify your local technical support staff.

Then email a report of the incident to security@ucsb.edu.

After doing those 3 things, please follow the instructions found at Gmail Security Tips.  As described there, it is especially important to check your Settings in the Google Web App (GWA) to be sure no unauthorized person has access to your email.

If you would like further assistance, submit a Google Connect Email Question ticket.

Google requires reauthenticating access to the mail.google.com web interface every 14 days.  You will also need to reauthenticate access any time you change your password or sign out of your Connect/Google Workspace account.  You may need to reauthenticate after closing your browser or restarting your computer.

After you enter your Google account name (UCSBnetID@ucsb.edu) in the sign in field, you will be prompted to log in using Single Sign-On (SSO). Enter your UCSBnetID and password and you will then be prompted for Duo MFA. Checking the box on the Duo MFA screen will prevent you being prompted to use Duo for 10 hours.

No. You will not need to sign back into your third-party email client. SSO and Duo MFA are being applied directly to your Connect/Google Workspace account, not your third-party email client.  Modern versions of your third-party email client authenticate access to your account via the OAuth2 authentication method.  Older versions of your third-party email client that do not use the OAuth2 authentication method access your account by 2-Step Verification along with App Passwords.

No. Applying SSO and Duo MFA will not require your third-party email client to download all of your mail.

Each third-party email client can be configured differently. The current versions of most third-party email clients use Google's OAuth2 as the authentication method. Once OAuth2 is in place, the email client's access to your Connect/Google Workspace account has been authorized. Your third-party email client's access to your Connect/Google Workspace will remain in place until the OAuth2 token expires. For older third-party email client versions, Google's 2-Step Verification and App Passwords both need to be set up on your Google account. Then enter the 16-digit app password as your third-party email client password.

Yes, if you are an active student, faculty/staff or affiliate, SSO and Duo MFA will be applied to your account.  You will no longer be prompted for Google's 2SV.

Note:  Google's 2SV is required when you are no longer an active student, faculty/staff or affiliate.  To check what's required for your specific affiliation, see "Preparing for UCSB Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)."

UCSB's Multi-Factor Authentication will affect all active students, faculty/staff, and affiliates.  See "Preparing for UCSB Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)" for more information.

No. You will not need to sign back into your cell phone's email client. SSO and Duo MFA are being applied directly to your Connect/Google Workspace account, not your cell phone's email client. Your email client authenticates access to your account via the OAuth2 authentication method or by 2-Step Verification with App Passwords.

Please follow these steps for enabling Google's 2SV.

Please follow these steps for enabling Google's 2SV.

If you are a former student, faculty or staff and you did not enroll in Google's 2-Step Verification, you need to contact the appropriate support desk:

• Former Students & Alumni:  help@lsit.ucsb.edu or (805) 893-HELP (x4357) (hours of operation: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST weekdays)
• Former Faculty & Staff:  For assistance, please contact the Service Desk at 805-893-5000 or x5000.

When creating meetings, if a person has more than one address, ALWAYS select their @ucsb.edu address. If a person has more than one @ucsb.edu address, either will work.

How To: Duplicating an event (keeps all attendees):

1. Edit the event that you wish to duplicate. This time look for the More Actions option from the select list and click on it.
    
2. Select Duplicate Event from the drop-down

    

3. Choose a new time. Note that all of your guests are still included in this duplicated event saving you time from having to re-invite them all. You can change any of the details of this meeting such as the title.

   

4. Click Save

   

5. You may also be prompted if you want to send updates to invitees on this meeting. This will trigger an email being sent to them so it's up to you if you want that to happen. In the case of a duplicated event it's probably best to send the invitations.

   

6. That's it, you're done.

1. Disable free/busy sharing with UCSB Connect
2. Share "See All Event Details" with those whom you want to see your event details
3. Share "Make Changes & Manage Sharing" with your Delegated Scheduler
4. Delegated Scheduler should enable notifications for the shared Delegator's calendar (they must log into their own Google Calendar, click on the delegated calendar's drop-down menu, and choose Edit Notifications)
5. Share "Make Changes to Events" with anyone who needs to put events on your calendar, but not manage sharing rights
6. Go to Calendar Settings --> and change the following:
   • Show events you have declined: No
   • Automatically add invitations to my calendar: No, only show invitations to which I have responded

Yes, you can "share" your Connect Calendar with anyone who has an @gmail.com address. You can even allow them to "make changes" to your primary calendar. NOTE: although you can assign "make changes" for a custom calendar you created on your account or for a resource, the @gmail.com account will be able to view but not create or modify events on these types of calendar.

Google Calendar has added Trash functionality to its web client, providing an easy way for users to view, permanently delete, or restore individual and recurring deleted calendar events. This functionality is available for both primary calendars and secondary calendars to which people have edit rights. Trash is accessible from each calendar's dropdown menu in the "My calendars" section as well as from Calendar Settings.

To restore deleted events, check the box of each event to be restored and click on the "Restore selected events" button. IMPORTANT: restoring an event will re-invite all its guests and they will need to RSVP to it again. After 30 days in the Trash folder, an event is automatically, permanently deleted and cannot be restored. 

Click the 3 vertical dots to the right of the resource (room) calendar name under "My calendars," select "Display this only." Select the view (eg, "Week") at the top of the window. Click the the gear icon to the right of the views, and select "Print."

1. File menu/tab
2. Click Options
3. Click Mail
4. Scroll down to Tracking section
5. disable: Automatically process meeting requests and responses to meeting requests and polls

   

This is a new feature from Google that must be disabled so that events do not get automatically added to your calendar.

1. Open Google Calendar
2. Click on the settings gear button  in the top right side.
3. In the drop-down box, select Settings.
4. In the General tab, scroll down to the Events from Gmail section.
5. Uncheck Add automatically.
6. Click Save.

The UCSB Holiday calendar is published in Google Calendar. Here is how you can add this to your calendar view.

1.     Open the Google Calendar App
2.     Click on the down arrow to the right of "Other calendars"
3.     Click on "Browse Resources"
4.     Scroll down to UCSB
5.     Scroll down to UCSB-Holidays and check the box to subscribe
6.     Click the left arrow at the left top to exit the resource calendar list
7.     Under "Other calendars," "ucsb-holidays" will be active.

This happens because the event creator invited you using your old Connect address, <oldnetid>@ucsb.edu. If they have used the old address to invite you in the past, it still exists in their Contacts and was available to select in the "Add: Guests" field. The invitation you receive is non-functioning because you are logged into Connect as <newnetid>@ucsb.edu. For more infomation, please see Changing My UCSBnetID.

You can use Google's App Passwords to sign in.

No. Disabling Less secure apps will not affect App Passwords. In fact, App Passwords are required in order to use third-party mail clients not using OAuth2 and with MFA applied to the mail account.

Outlook versions 2016 and newer.

No, not entirely.  The current version of Thunderbird supports POP3 using OAuth2 on the client-side.

Under Server Settings, change the Authentication Method from Normal Password to OAuth2.  Please refer step 8 in the Thunderbird Connect User Guide.

If your application does not support OAuth2 or allow you to "Sign in with Google", you either need to update your application or create an App password for your application or device.

We suggest signing up all printers, copiers, and scanners for the MTA service.

Like any email system, Connect will sometimes put a non-spam message into your Spam folder. Spam decisions depend heavily on reports from users, who can mark and unmark messages as spam or not. Connect learns from user corrections and over time automatically adjusts the classification to match users’ preferences. There are several options when using the Connect web interface to "teach" Connect what is spam and what isn't:

Unmark it- If you find any message wrongly classified as spam, you can simply unmark the message: Just select the message, and click the Not Spam button at the top of your current view. Unmarking a message will automatically move it to your Inbox and add the sender to your Contacts list.

Add the email address to your Contacts- Connect will deliver messages from members of your Contacts list to your Inbox. To add a Contact using the Google Web App: In the Mail drop-down menu in the upper left, select Contacts, click on the New Contact button, and fill in the information. The new Contact is saved automatically.

Create a filter- This will ensure that the messages are never sent to Spam. Learn how to create a filter.

If you're sending to Connect end-users and are seeing your messages marked as spam, please contact your local email support. If you are experiencing issues with spam, we recommend that you ask your CDA to submit a Help Request.

Great question! To find out more about why a particular message was marked as spam, see Google’s web page: Why messages are marked as Spam.

At UCSB, common reasons why particular messages may go into spam are: Sending from a tool like Constant Contact using certain words that are suspicious, or configuring filters or settings in the Google Web App or a mail client (such as Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail).

In addition, everybody should train their Connect account as to what is spam and what is not. Here’s how:

1. Login to Connect via the Google Web App.

2. Follow the steps in the Using Connect article, Managing Spam/Junk Mail in Google Apps

If you need assistance, contact your Tier 1 support personnel.

You should mark these messages as Spam! Here’s how: In the Google Web App, select the message you'd like to report. Click the Report Spam button in the toolbar above your message list. And don’t worry: if you marked it as Spam, in some email clients you can also immediately click Undo afterwards to recover the message.

This is indeed frustrating. Here are some ways to help avoid your messages going into another person’s Spam folder:

1. Avoid using Spam Triggers in the subject line of your email. This means avoiding specific words like Free, Guarantee, Opportunity, or Buy Now and never using ALL CAPS.

2. Communicate with the recipient and ask them to Mark As Not Spam the messages you send. Professors: always recommend to your students that they Allow Sender (eg., add your email addresses to their Contacts) or create a filter so messages are never sent to Spam.

“Legitimate” email that might be marked as spam includes: newsletters, non-UCSB lists/mass-marketing emails, and solicitations

If you need assistance, contact your Tier 1 support personnel or ask your CDA to submit a Connect Help ticket here.

Inbound email messages are sent through several security and hygiene processes before being rejected or accepted. One of these processes is a rigorous anti-spam screening, which assigns a “spam score” to each message based on a number of message attributes. If high enough, the score causes that message to be delivered to your Spam folder instead of your Inbox. Since the amount and kinds of spam vary over time, the scoring system's effectiveness also varies somewhat and must sometimes be re-calibrated to the latest spam. In addition, a message may be considered spam by one person but not by another. For these reasons and others, there is no perfect scoring system that identifies spam correctly for everyone.

The basic email standards unfortunately do not include a check of whether or not someone is allowed to use an address on the From line when sending an email. This means that messages with spoofed From addresses fall into the broad category of spam and are subject to all the imperfections and difficulties of spam classification. There are a few technical things your department could consider doing to make spoofing easier to detect and stop. Please have your department technical support check the Email Spoofiing Counter Measures page for more information.

Phishing is when people try to steal your personal information, such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, and passwords by pretending to be a credible source.  Phishers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and Connect is working hard to protect our community by identifying and deleting these messages before they get to your Inbox.  Just as we do our part, we ask that you do yours:

Never give out your personal information.  Always be wary of any message that asks for your personal information or messages that refer you to a web page asking for personal information.

Never put your password in the subject line.

Do not click on unknown links.

Be very wary of links that look almost accurate but have a few words off.

See Prevent & report phishing attacks for more details on how to protect yourself from phishing.  If you aren’t sure if something is a phishing attempt, err on the side of caution and the SOC at security@ucsb.edu.

Taking the time to report them helps our staff stay one step ahead of phishers. Select the message you'd like to report. Click on the "More" drop-down arrow next to the Reply button and choose Report Phishing. If you realize that you just accidentally replied to a phishing email, don’t worry: in the GWA you can also immediately click "Undo" afterwards to recover the message.

While this is not a common occurrence, there are a couple of circumstances where this might happen.

It's possible that you've configured a message "filter" that is moving the mail. Filters can be found in several different locations, depending on if you are using a desktop client or the web interface. If you might have created a filter, simply remove or edit it.

Alternately, it could be that you have configured an email client for access via the older POP (either a desktop client, phone, or remote from another account) protocol. POP is a one-way communication path, which means that your client will pull data from the server but not put it back.  If it's possible that you're using a client that's been configured for POP access, you’ll need to switch to IMAP. You can do it yourself using our client configuration details or alternately contact your local support personnel for help.

Connect functional accounts are for University business or the activities of a department rather than a specific person. A functional account has all the same tools as a personal Connect account, enabling many more uses for the account than just email. And a department can have more than one functional account. A functional account is initiated by a sponsor (a UCSB career employee, not a student) who is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the account and ensuring it is used for academic and administrative purposes only. See Using the Connect Admin Portal for information on creating functional accounts. The account owner may also delegate access to other users -- see delegation instructions.

Use a different browser to log in. Every internet browser (Explorer, Chrome, Firefox) stores login information — called cookies — that automatically directs the browser to the previously-used login page. Since the login page for a functional account is different from the one used for personal accounts, it’s often best to use different browsers to log in to a functional account and your own account.

Yes -- most email services limit the size of a message. On Connect this limit is 25 megabytes (MB), which is the de-facto standard across modern email services.

Yes, you can send up to 2,000 messages per day. Outgoing messages must also conform to the limits of 10,000 total recipients per day (including the To, CC, and BCC fields) and 100 recipients per message. A large number of recipients can best be managed by creating a Google Group (mailing list) that contains those recipients and sending to its single address. For more information on limits, see: https://support.google.com/a/answer/166852?hl=en.

In Outlook if you wish to send the entire contents of a message, including all e-mail addresses and the header, you need to forward the message as an attachment.

1. Click Home
2. Click Forward as Attachments

   OR use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+F.

If you have tried everything else and Outlook's Auto-Complete still proposes an unwanted address, you may want to clear the Auto-Complete list.

WARNING: to re-train Auto-Complete, you will have to type the complete address, or use Check Names, for every address.

Click on the File tab
Click on Options
Click on Mail
In the Send messages section, click on the Empty Auto-Complete List button.

To configure your device to send messages, you'll need a Message Transfer Agent (MTA). This is a dedicated SMTP service that allows your device to connect and send messages. Fortunately Connect provides such a service. ;) For details, see MTA Service instructions.

First, you'll want to verify that you've configured your device to use our Message Transfer Agent (MTA) service. If you haven't done so yet, make sure you've followed our instructions on MTA service configuration.

Second, you'll need to ensure the message is being sent from a valid From address. Meaning, the address from which messages are sent must be a valid address that you yourself can send a message to. If you don't have a suitable address already, you can create either an Delivery Alias or Functional Account using the Connect Admin Portal. Once you have an address, you'll need to configure the device to send from this address.

The default behavior may be for your iOS device to Archive messages instead of delete them. You can adjust the settings using Apple's guide @ https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202067

How to Remove an Old Outlook Profile in Windows 7:

1. Open the Windows Start Menu and left click Control Panel.

2. What you see here depends on how you have viewing Control Panel configured:

a. If you have Icon view, select Mail (32-bit)

b. If you have Category view, choose User Accounts and then Mail (32-bit).

3. Select “Show Profiles…”

4. Select and highlight the name of the profile you wish to remove.  Most people will have two, Outlook and Google Apps, but more is possible and the names could be different.  This is a destructive process, please make sure you want to lose all data in the highlighted profile before selecting “Remove”.

5. Confirm removing the profile by selecting “Yes”.

6. Alternative method:  If you want to keep your profile data but skip the prompt when you start Outlook, you can alternatively select “Always use this profile” having it show your Google Apps profile, and hit OK.  This preserves any data but allows Outlook to load without the prompt.

Sometimes you want to change the "From" address when sending email, but the address is not available. You can add an address that you own using the Google Web App. Log in and click on the gear icon in the upper right. Select Settings and then the Accounts tab. In the "Send mail as" section, first look to see if the address is already there. If it is, simply click on make default to the right of it and it will become your default "From" address.

If the additional address is not there, click on Add another email address. Enter your name and the address you want to send from. Click Next Step. If needed, enter the SMTP server (for example, smtp.domain.com) and the username and password on that account. Click Add Account. To confirm that you own that address, log into that account, open the confirmation message, and click the link.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook with GASMO/GSSMO, the new address will be synced to Outlook by restarting Outlook and/or by waiting for 10-15 minutes.

On Mac OS X, when you click on an email ("mailto") link, by default Apple Mail opens the new message window. What if you want the Connect Google Web App to open and send the new message?

To change the default email client from Apple Mail to the Google Web App (GWA) in Google Chrome, you need to do 2 things:

1) In Apple Mail, set Google Chrome as the default email reader:
- open Apple Mail and select Preferences from the Mail menu
- on the General tab, find Default email reader and click on the drop-down menu
- click Select... 
- in the "Applications" list, click Google Chrome
- click the Select button
- close the Preferences window

2) Allow mail.google.com to open all email links:
- open the Google Chrome browser and log into your Connect account using the GWA
- click the Handler icon (2 overlapping diamonds) near the right end of the address bar at the top of the window
- click Allow to the question "Allow mail.google.com to open all email links?"
- click Done

Now, clicking "mailto" links will automatically open the email draft in GWA if you are logged into GWA using Chrome. If you are not logged into GWA/Chrome, Chrome will open and ask you to log into GWA.

Perhaps you've received an email with multiple recipients and you want to capture that group as a Contact list for meetings, document sharing, or other emails. You don't need to re-enter every name individually. Simply copy the email addresses of all the recipients, open Contacts, and click New Group on the left side. Name your new group and paste the list into group.

1) Using the button "Add to <group>" only autocompletes addresses from "My Contacts" and "Most Contacted" (NOT "Other Contacts" nor "Directory").

2) If your Contacts were imported into Google Apps, you must first use the address in a Gmail interface before autocompletion of it will work. For example, if your Contacts were imported from Exchange, once you use an address to send Google Mail it will autocomplete from then on in Mail, Contacts and other apps.

Below are some links that contain more information on autocompletion and Contacts:

https://support.google.com/a/answer/1628012?hl=en

https://apps.google.com/learning-center/products/contacts/get-started/

Ask meeting or event attendees to add themselves to a Contacts list as they arrive. It's faster than a paper sign-in sheet (campus attendees' names/contact info is already in Connect) and eliminates deciphering handwriting and possible typos later. After the event, emailing follow-up information is simple: just type the Contact list name in the 'Bcc' field in the message. Scheduling a follow-up meeting is simple too: invite all the prior attendees by typing the list name in the Add Guests field when creating an event in the Calendar.

If you are experiencing issues sending email to someone on campus and deleting them from your Auto-Complete list did not help, download a new copy of the Offline Address Book (OAB). For Outlook 2010/2013 here are the instructions:

1. Select the File tab
2. Click the Account Settings button
3. Select Download Address Book
4. Click OK

1. In Outlook 2010/2013 click on Home, then click on Address Book (Ctrl+Shift+B).
   
2. Select More columns
   

It depends on the group's configuration. Most Connect groups are private and only members can post.

Yes, depending on the Group settings. By default, people can become group members only if invited to join by a group manager. However, if the "Join the group" permissions (in Permissions -> Basic Permissions) are set to "anyone in the organization" or "anyone in the organization can ask", Connect account holders can join, or ask to join, the group. For more detailed information about joining a group, including by non-Connect accounts, see this help page.

The message will be in your Sent Mail folder/label, but not your Inbox. Google de-duplicates messages. The following are ways to confirm that your email was posted:

1. Ask another group member.
2. Add another account you can access (personal email or functional account) to the group.
3. Look in the archive of messages on the home page of the group (if archiving is enabled).

Yes. If moderation is turned on, posts from everyone must be moderated.

To find the groups of which you are a member:

1. Log into Connect using the Google Web App: http://www.connect.ucsb.edu/
2. In the Google App launcher ("waffle" icon) in the upper right, click "Groups"
3. Click "My Groups"

Those for which you are a manager will show the word “Manage” in blue font just below the group name.

Please read our quick-start guide for managers here:

http://www.connect.ucsb.edu/usage/connect-mailing-list-service/connect-groups-mailing-lists-quick-start-guide-managers

Groups, by default, do not show the email addresses to any roles other than Owner. To make addresses visible to Managers as well:

1. In My Groups, find your group and click on Manage to view the Group settings.
2. On the left side, expand Permissions and click on Access Permissions.
3. Find View Email Addresses.
4. Expand that drop-down list and click on Managers of the group.
5. Click Save.

Yes, Managers can configure “Delivery” to be “No email”. To do this:

1. Go to “Manage”
2. Click All Members
3. In the row for that manager, click “All email”
4. Change it to “No email”
5. Click Save.

That phrase means all Connect users (NOT everyone at UCSB).

The number of Connect customers that can be added at one time is unlimited. If any members are external to Connect, the number is 10 per session and 100 per day per Group.

No, there is no template function for the Welcome message at this time. The easiest workaround is to copy-paste text from a file into the Welcome message field.

Yes, groups can be nested. This can save the group managers time. If you need to add or remove a member from multiple groups, you just edit the smaller group to which the member belongs. All of the larger groups are updated automatically:
https://support.google.com/a/answer/167100?hl=en

A Google Group may not however be a manager of another group:
https://support.google.com/a/answer/167094?hl=en

Yes. When editing the event, in the "Add guests" box, type the name of the group to invite. After you add the group, to see the full list of group members, click the down arrow to the left of the group name.

To delete a member:

1. go to My Groups
2. click on the word Manage (in blue) for the appropriate group
3. in the Members -> All Members page, click the box to the left of "Display name"
4. under the Actions drop-down menu (at the top), click Remove from Group

There is currently no method for bulk deletion of selected members.

This is a known bug in Groups that Google engineers are working to fix. They will let us know once it is fixed.

If there are archives, most groups by default allow non-Connect group members to access the archives.

5000

Google Drive is part of your Connect account and what's stored there counts toward your individual storage quota.  Beginning in the Fall of 2024, individual Connect accounts are created with a 20GB total storage quota.

Yes. Drive is a place to store and access all your files, while Docs, Sheets, and Slides are types of web-based documents, as are Forms and Drawings. The suite of Google's web-based editors is referred to as Google Docs editors.

With Drive, your data is always backed up or stored in the cloud, so no matter what happens to your devices, your files are safe.

With Drive File Stream, you can make selected Drive files available for offline use.

UCSB’s contract with Google includes access to specific core services: Gmail, Calendar, Drive and Docs, Groups, Hangouts Chat, Keep, Sites, Tasks, Google Chrome Sync, Jamboard and Vault. These services are provided under the G Suite agreement.  Additional Services (like YouTube, Google +, and Maps) are designed for consumer users and can optionally be used with G Suite for Education accounts.
 

Not at all. Because the Google Apps platform is comprised of integrated web tools that work well together there is some convenience to use their web-based tools. But you're welcome to use any of the clients we support for Connect/Google Apps.

To use both your Connect personal and a Connect functional account in the Google Web App (GWA), you can save yourself an extra login by "delegating" access to your functional account to your personal account.

If you are using Outlook as your primary client, see the instructions for delegating access in Outlook.

Logging into both your Connect/Google Apps and personal Gmail accounts at the same time is simple, though not intuitive. To do so, log in to your Connect account first, then follow these directions(link is external). If you need more help, please contact your Tier 1 support personnel.

Google uses labels rather than folders and although they look similar, they have distinct differences.  Remember, you always only have 1 copy of any email in your inbox.  If you want to organize your inbox into different views, you can apply labels to specific groups of messages.  Labels can be created, edited and deleted.  

Note: Labels are different from folders. If you delete a message, it will be erased from every label that it’s attached to and your entire inbox.  If you want to remove an email from a 'folder', you would remove the label on that email.

See Google's own documentation on Using Labels for detailed instructions.

Want to unsend an email message? Add a graphic to an email? How about hiding early morning and evening hours on your calendar? These and many other special functions are previewed in 'Labs' -- Google’s testing ground for experimental features. Warning: Lab features are not as fully tested as the standard features and may cause incompatibilities. Click Settings -> Labs to see a list of recently developed functions, then click Enable to add them to your email or calendar (remember to click 'Save changes' at the bottom of the list).

Connect/Google Apps does limit the amount of mail a user can send. You can review the limits here(link is external), which restrict the number of both messages and recipients per message. After reaching one of these limits, you could get an error message and your account might be suspended for up to 24 hours (you won’t be able to send any mail). If you need to send more mail than these limits allow, please contact your Tier 1 support personnel or open a Help Ticket for information on alternate options.

Open a message in Connect/Google Apps and click More -> Create Event in the menu bar to create a calendar event based on that message. All the people addressed in your email are listed as invitees, and your email content is included in the event description. Set the event time and date, or click Find a Time in the middle of the screen, to see the schedules of all the invitees.

Google is continually updating their web-based tools to improve usability and add new features. Typically new features are first available for preview in the "Labs" section (under the "gear" icon) for many months, which allows for significant testing. Before being released to all Connect customers, they're announced to the Connect  team for further testing so we can adequately answer questions about any changes.

The Google Apps interface for both email and calendar are available in more than 50 languages. For a list of the available languages and instructions on how to set a different language, refer to the Google Email Help Center.

The University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity and access for all members of the University community and to compliance with all applicable federal and state laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. Google has made improvements to the accessibility of Google Apps for Education and continues to work on bettering the accessibility of its products. UCSB is closely tracking these activities. Google provides specifics on the current status of accessibility of its products and its adherence to international standards on its website. For additional information see Accessibility features in Google Apps.

Google Apps has some of the best spam & virus blocking technology around integrated into Google Apps.

Messages Google believes may be spam are delivered to a folder (well, a label) called "Spam". Messages remaining in this folder for more than 30 days are automatically deleted.

Google will learn what you consider spam.  Use the "Report spam" and "Not spam" buttons to train Google spam filters.

Google Apps virus scanning takes action on any messages before allowing a user to download an attachment. Most computer viruses are contained in executable files, so standard virus detectors scan messages for executable files that appear to be viruses. Google Apps helps block viruses in the most direct possible way: by not allowing users to receive executable files (such as files ending in .exe) that could contain damaging executable code -- even if they are sent in a compressed (.zip, .tar, .tgz, .taz, .z, .gz) format.

If you are planning to switch frequently between using a desktop IMAP client and the Google web app (GWA), we recommend the following configuration:

Make sure the All Mail label, which holds Archived messages, is checked for Show in IMAP within your Google Web App "Labels" settings (see configuration guides for more details).

The downside of this configuration is that your client will download and store a duplicate copy of your messages: one for any folder corresponding to any label that's applied to a message, and one for the "All Mail" folder. A ramification of this approach is that it will take longer to sync your messages.

If, on the other hand, you are NOT planning to use the Google Web App, or plan to use it only sparingly, we recommend the following configuration:

Make sure the All Mail label, which holds Archived messages, is NOT checked for Show in IMAP within your Google Web App "Labels" settings.

The downside of this configuration is that any messages that are archived in the rarely-used web client WILL NOT BE VISIBLE within your desktop client. The upside of this is that your client will sync faster, since it will not have to handle duplicate copies of your messages.

You can also disable the Important label from appearing in your desktop IMAP client by UNchecking the Show in IMAP box. The Important label is used by the Google Web App and is not needed for desktop IMAP clients.

Remove the /Users/<my-username>/LIbrary/Application Support/Google directory and re-install Google Drive.

1. Uninstall Google Drive from "Programs and Features" in windows
2. Download https://dl.google.com/drive/1.20.8672.3137/gsync.msi
3. Choose run program or double-click the downloaded .msi to re-install Google Drive
4. Run Google Drive.

Established providers of web-based services have gone to great lengths to protect against threats. They run their data centers using custom hardware running a custom OS and file system. Each of these systems has been optimized for security and performance. They work with external parties to constantly test and enhance security infrastructure to ensure it is impervious to external attackers. And because they control the entire stack running our systems, we are able to quickly respond to any threats or weaknesses that may emerge.

Internally, your data is virtually protected as if it were on its own server. Unauthorized parties cannot access your data. Your competitors cannot access your data, and vice versa. In fact, all user accounts are protected via this virtual lock and key that ensures that one user cannot see another user’s data. This is similar to how customer data is segmented in other shared infrastructures such as online banking applications.

The hosting provider maintains a number of geographically distributed data centers. Their computing clusters are designed with resiliency and redundancy in mind, eliminating single points of failure and minimizing the impact of common equipment failures and environmental risks. Access to our data centers is restricted to authorized personnel.

The hosting provider does not own UCSB account holders' data. Google does not take a position on whether the data belongs to UCSB or the individual user, but they know it doesn’t belong to them. (For specific questions about UC’s intellectual properties and copyright policies, please refer to UCOP’s Copyright Resources.) Specifically, they won’t share your data with others except as noted in their privacy policies. They will keep your data as long as UCSB requires them to keep it. When asked to delete messages and content, the hosting provider makes reasonable efforts to remove deleted information from our systems within a commercially reasonable amount of time.

Our hosting providers will keep your data only as long as UCSB requires them to keep it. When asked to delete messages and content, the hosting provider makes reasonable efforts to remove deleted information from our systems within a commercially reasonable amount of time. 

Each Connect person account is created using an individual’s name as listed in the UCSB Directory and his or her @ucsb.edu email address. No additional information is shared with the hosting provider. In particular, your UCSBnetID passphrase and information about your account is kept solely on campus servers and is not shared with them.

Your Connect account is managed separately from your personal Gmail account(s), therefore the data and settings from these accounts will remain separate.  Only data that you manually copy between the accounts will be shared (e.g. if you send a personal email to your Connect mail account). 

Whatever account you log into first will be the default account for additional applications in G Suite (Groups, Drive, etc).  If you want to use the same browser to monitor your Connect account and your personal gmail account, be sure to log into your Connect account first.

No. Google will not display any advertising in your Connect account.

UCSB’s contracts with Microsoft and Google put in place stronger protective measures around data stored and transmitted in the UCSB implementation of cloud core services (eg, Connect email) than found in consumer-level cloud services. Data stored in our core services are not scanned for the purpose of displaying ads. Data stored in core services are also not accessible by non-core services, including consumer-level Microsoft and Google services and third party sites.

Using Connect core services protects data. An example of this protection would be if you log into your Connect account, then proceed to Google Search to look for something. Ads displaying in the Google Search results screen (a non-core service) will not be influenced by your data in Connect email (a core service). You can use non-core services from your Connect account knowing your data is protected.

No, the hosting provider’s scanning and indexing procedures are 100% automated and involve no human interaction. Their automated systems will scan and index some user content in order to provide features that will either directly benefit users or help maintain the safety and security of their systems.

For example:

• Email is scanned to perform spam filtering and virus detection.
• There is no ad-related scanning or processing.
• Some user data, such as documents and email messages, are scanned and indexed so users can privately search for information in their own accounts.

Our hosting providers comply with valid legal processes seeking account information, such as search warrants, court orders, or subpoenas. They attempt to notify users before turning over their data whenever possible and legally permissible.

Our hosting providers don't share or reveal private user content such as email or personal information with third parties except as required by law, on request by a user or system administrator, or to protect their systems. These exceptions include requests by users that the hosting provider's support staff access their email messages in order to diagnose problems; when they are required by law to do so; and when they are compelled to disclose personal information because they reasonably believe it's necessary in order to protect the rights, property or safety of their employees, its users and the public.

Both the nature of email and the public character of the University make email less private than users may anticipate. Do not use Connect to store or transmit sensitive data (as outlined in Electronic Communications Policy). Connect email is not encrypted and should not be used for sensitive comunications. Your Connect account is your responsibility: do not share account passwords or access with others, or you may be held responsible for any misuse of your account that occurs as a result. Do not use your campus email for any commercial activity, including publishing your address in association with commercial activities. Unless you are appropriately authorized to do so, please don't use email to give the impression you are representing, giving opinions of, or making statements on behalf of the Campus. Other practices to avoid: sending unsolicited mass mailings without the consent of all addressees, unless authorized on behalf of the campus by an appropriate administrative official; sending chain letters, spam, or harassing email; knowingly forwarding or originating hoaxes, scams, viruses, or other types of fraudulent messages; forging messages or masking the identity of an account intentionally; engaging in practices such as "denial of service attacks" that impede the availability of electronic communications services to other users; or violations of copyright law. If you have questions about whether certain transactions are appropriate for campus email service, please contact policy@ucsb.edu.

Connect has a tiered support model by which direct support for end-users is provided by departmental tech support. We refer to these people as Connect Departmental Administrators (CDA). If you're not sure who your CDA might be check out our CDA Directory.

Your departmental support staff will assist in choosing the "client" option that best meets your and your department's needs. See our Google Apps Client Options for details.

Yes. You will find instructions for a number of clients here, including instructions for mobile devices.

Your Connect account uses the same password as all UCSBnetID-based services. You can update your Connect password using the UCSB Identity Manager.

Most special characters such as the #,/,! and quote marks are not allowed in e-mail addresses. Dashes and underscores are allowed.

The following folders will always appear in your Connect/Google Apps account and cannot be removed.

• Starred
• Sent Mail
• Drafts
• All Mail
• Spam
• Trash

Following the Phase 1 deployment the Connect Governance group will initiate a discussions which additional tools should be deployed and on what timeline.

In the Fall of 2024, new Connect user accounts get a 20GB storage quota.  Prior to the storage project, accounts were put into legacy quotas based on usage.  There are different tier levels for legacy quotas.

In order for Emeriti to have continued access to their Connect account, they will need a 0% assignment in UCPath entered by their Personnel or Payroll department, or they will need an academic affiliation issued by their department's DDE (Delegated Directory Editor or Business Officer).