As a Queen's alumni or retiree, you retain access to your Queen's-provisioned email and calendar. Take a read through our guide below as you prepare to leave Queen's.
To learn more about when your other Queen's services will be deprovisioned, please consult the Service Termination Timelines page.
Before You Leave Queen's
Alumni and retirees are eligible for "Email for Life," allowing them to retain access to their Queen's email through Outlook on the web ONLY, provided they maintain a current password as per Queen's Access Control Standard.
If you wish to continue using Microsoft 365 services on your personal device(s), you have several options:
- You can access your Queen’s email using Outlook on the web at no cost
- You can sign up for a free Microsoft 365 account or purchase a basic, personal or family subscription (yearly or monthly) directly through Microsoft, which would provide a license for Office desktop applications, such as Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel.
IMPORTANT WARNING: Do not use your queensu.ca email address as your username for your personal Microsoft account. Use an existing Microsoft account or create a new personal Microsoft account with an outlook.com email address to manage your Microsoft account and to make purchases.
Summary of Microsoft 365 applications and services*
| Queen's Microsoft 365 offerings | Microsoft's Microsoft 365 offerings | |
| Active students, staff and faculty | Alum, Retired staff and faculty | Free | Basic | Personal | Family |
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| * The information in this table is subject to change and is provided for comparison purposes only. Please refer to Queen's Microsoft 365 service pages for specific details on eligibility and availability and Microsoft's offerings for the most up-to-date information on Microsoft free, basic, and personal/family subscriptions. | ||
When you leave Queen's, you will no longer be able to access the Teams, Outlook groups, or Viva Engage Communities that you created. To ensure that your colleagues can continue to work after you've left, take a moment to transfer ownership.
Once you transition from an active student or faculty/staff member to alumni or retired faculty/staff, you will no longer have access to your OneDrive, OneNote, Teams, or other Queen's-based cloud services, except for email. Your OneDrive for Business site will be permanently deleted within 30 days of this transition. To retain any documents or data for personal use, please download and back them up on a private drive or cloud location.
See below for tutorials on how to back up your data:
- Back up your OneNote data
- Download files and folders from OneDrive or SharePoint - Microsoft Support
- Export or delete your Teams data
You can also consider purchasing a personal subscription to Microsoft 365 if you would like to continue using Microsoft 365.
If you’re running a supported version of Windows, you’re probably already set. The latest versions of Windows have Windows Defender pre-installed.
If you have an older version of Windows or a Mac, you should investigate the best antivirus solution for your operating system. Check out the Antivirus page for more information about antivirus and your system.
Phishing emails attempt to defraud users of their personal information. View tips on how to identify phishing emails.
Learn the steps you can take in response to suspicious emails. IT Services strongly recommends reporting phishing, spam, and abusive emails.
NetID
During your time at Queen's, you were assigned a NetID – a unique network identification that allows you to access many of Queen's online services. Your NetID and associated password will continue to be the credentials required to access Queen's services.
You will retain access to your Queen's-provisioned email provided that you log into https://netid.queensu.ca at least once per year. You will be notified by email if you have not done so.
You can manage your NetID and password using Queen's Identity Platform. Note that Queen’s will never ask you for your NetID and password via email or phone.
It is important to never share your NetID and password with anyone.
Manage Your NetIDEmail Access
Retirees and alumni retain access to their Queen's email account in Microsoft 365.
Retirees and alumni can access their Queen's email by signing in from the web and logging in (with NetID and password) at least once per year. Further information for retirees is available on the Retirees Association of Queen's website. Further information for alumni is available on the Alumni Relations site under Email for Alumni Service.
Sign in to Microsoft 365 email