What is an Email Alias?
Your UI email alias is a polished address to give to people to use that is easy to remember and lets people know who you are. The alias address is typically your first and last names, separated by a hyphen, and followed by "@uiowa.edu" (e.g., jane-doe@uiowa.edu; jane-k-doe@uiowa.edu, jane-doe-2@uiowa.edu). All university-wide, hospital-wide and departmental mass mailings are sent to your alias address, so you must have a valid routing address in order to receive the messages. Your email alias always remains the same, even if you change your routing to a different email provider like Google or Yahoo when you leave the UI.
Your HawkID@uiowa.edu is also a valid email address that you can give out to users. Both the first-last@uiowa.edu and HawkID@uiowa.edu will route to the same mailbox. . For more information about your HawkID and HawkID@uiowa.edu see What is a HawkID? The HawkID and HawkID@uiowa.edu are your personal identification used along with your HawkID password to access most online services at the University of Iowa.
What is a Routing Address?
The routing address is a pointer to the destination email account that your email alias delivers your messages. Senders do not need to know the routing address as it is really only for the email servers to know where to deliver your email.
Why have both an alias and routing address?
Having both the alias and routing address provides some advantages.
- One advantage is that by using your official University email address (first-last@uiowa.edu), recipients of your email will be able to tell who you are and that you are affiliated with The University of Iowa. The email alias is a more polished and professional-looking email address than the routing address.
- Another advantage is that your published email address (e.g., first-last@uiowa.edu) will rarely if ever, change. You can give out your UI email address to others and never have to tell anyone to change their contacts if you change email account providers. For example, when you leave the UI, you can still use your UI email alias, but you can have it route to another email account (Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.) and continue to receive emails sent to your UI email address.
Important Information about Changing Your Routing Address - Not allowed if you are a current student, faculty or staff**.
RETIREES: since you are eligible for a mailbox, you won't be able to change your address yourself. You will need to contact the ITS Help Desk to update it.
WARNING: If you choose to change your routing address away from your Microsoft 365 account to another email account (e.g., Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.), your Microsoft 365 account will be closed immediately, including OneDrive
Be aware that when the Microsoft 365 account is closed any existing email, calendar items, contacts, notes, and tasks on the Microsoft 365 server will be deleted and you will no longer be able to send email from your Microsoft 365 email account. Please see My Microsoft 365 Email Account is Closing - What Do I Do Checklist for information on moving your email to a personal email account.
***Students can change their routing e-mail address when they leave the University through MyUI by:
- Clicking Email Tools and selecting Update Email Routing / Forwarding Address
- In the "Route To:" field, select Other Email Provider (e.g., Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.) and type the address of your personal email account (e.g., jane-doe@hotmail.com)
- Click Update Email Routing Address to save changes.
***University or Health Care faculty and staff can change their routing address when they leave the University in HR Self-Service by
- Clicking the My Self Service tab and clicking on Email Routing
- In the "Route To:" field, select Other Email Provider (e.g., Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.) and type the address of your personal email account (e.g., jane-doe@hotmail.com)
- Click Update Email Routing Address to save changes.
**As of 2/2/2022, routing to an off-campus personal email account is not allowed if you are a current faculty, staff or student.