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FAQs and support materials

The University is implementing changes to the way we manage Macquarie student email accounts. Learn what you need to do to be prepared for these changes.

The University provides student email and storage via the Google Gmail platform. Google have recently imposed a paid subscription model across the entire tertiary education sector, and this has an impact on student email accounts.

Account deactivation

Once you complete your studies your email account and storage will be retained for a period of two years before it is permanently deactivated. All deleted data is unrecoverable.

Enrolled students and students undertaking higher degree research will continue to have access to email and storage.

After graduation or withdrawal, your Macquarie student email account and storage will be fully accessible for a period of two years. This two-year period provides an opportunity to:

  • recover any data (eg. email, storage, photos) that you wish to retain and store in your own repository
  • provide your private email address so you can access Macquarie systems like My eQuals after your student account has been deactivated.

The University will notify you of the planned deactivation during this period.

After two years, your Macquarie student account and any email or storage held in the account will be permanently deleted. Any email forwarding you may have setup will also be deactivated.

Once your Macquarie student account has been deactivated, all email, files and photos held in the account will be permanently deleted.

You will not be able to:

  • log in to your Macquarie student account
  • send or receive emails
  • access, download or recover any files or photos held in your account
  • access My eQuals unless you have updated My eQuals with a private email address.

Note that any email forwarding you may have set up will also be deactivated.

No, you cannot convert your Macquarie student account to a personal account.

However, there are tools available to recover your Gmail, Drive files and photos before your account is deactivated.

You can use:

  • Google’s Takeout to download your data to your device
  • Google’s Transfer your content to transfer data to your private Google account (if you have one).

The University cannot transfer your email, Drive or photos for you.

Read the following to determine actions you may need to take before your Macquarie student email account is deactivated.

  • If you use your student email address to access non-University services, you should update those services with your private email address.  
    Any email forwarding you may have set up will be deactivated.
  • If you want to view or recover contents from your Macquarie student email or storage before it is deactivated, log in to your Macquarie student email account and review your email, Google Drive storage and photos.
    If you wish to recover any of the contents, we recommend you use the Google Takeout service to download your data and move it to your own private storage.
    Once your Macquarie student email account has been deactivated, the data will be permanently deleted.
  • If you wish to retain access to My eQuals to access your digital academic record, you will need to link your private email to your My eQuals account.  
    My eQuals is an online academic record platform used by Macquarie to provide verified official documents such as transcripts digitally to students, who can then share them with third parties such as employers.  
    My eQuals accounts are initially created using your Macquarie student email address. To ensure you maintain access to My eQuals, you should link your personal email address to your My eQuals account.
    • Log in to My eQuals using your existing student credentials.
    • Go to Profile Settings.
    • Choose ‘+ ADD ONE MORE EMAIL’
    • Make your personal email address your primary address.

If you need further assistance, contact Service Connect.

  • If you want to stay connected to the Macquarie alumni community, update your private email address for future alumni communications.  
    If you’re a graduate, you’re a member of our alumni community, and you will have already been automatically added to the Macquarie alumni database with your Macquarie student contact details.
    Once your Macquarie student email account is deactivated, you will not be able to use it to stay connected to the alumni community.
    For more information, read the Macquarie alumni FAQs.
  • If you want to retain access to the Macquarie Library, complete the registration form, making sure you provide your private email address.
    Alumni have access to selected online resources through the Library as part of our extensive Alumni Benefits program.
    Once your Macquarie student email account is deactivated, you cannot use it to access Library services.
    If you need assistance, contact the Library.

Storage and exporting data

Follow these steps to check your storage and delete unwanted content:

  1. Log in to your Macquarie student account. Access login assistance.
  2. Use this guide to understand your storage use and free up space in Google Drive, Gmail and Photos. Note Step 5 ‘Get more storage’ is not applicable to Macquarie student email accounts.

No. Under the commercial arrangements with Google, additional storage cannot be provided.

Yes, there are several options you might consider to download or transfer your Macquarie student account data.

To download your data to your device, you can use:

  1. the file download feature in Google Drive
  2. Google Drive for desktop. Learn how to install and use Google Drive for desktop.
  3. Google’s Takeout. Consider using this when you have large amounts of email, storage and photos.

You can then copy your data from your device to your preferred storage platform.

You can also use Google’s Transfer your content service to transfer your data to your private Google account (if you have one). Be aware that personal Google accounts only have 15 GB of free storage, but you can purchase additional storage from Google.

Google Takeout is the recommended tool to export some or all of your content, including Gmail, Drive storage and photos. It allows you to export and download your Google content to your computer, after which you can load it to your preferred storage.

You can use Takeout to:

  • reduce your Macquarie student account storage by downloading your contents to your private storage platform
  • recover your Macquarie student account contents before your account is deactivated.

Takeout does not move or delete files. Once you have downloaded your files using Takeout and stored them elsewhere, delete the unwanted files and content in your Macquarie student account and empty the Google Trash.

  • Learn how to download data using Takeout
  • Watch a demonstration video

Consider the following before using Takeout:

  • Make sure you are logged into your Macquarie student account and not a personal Google account when using Takeout.
  • Delete any unwanted emails, photos and Google Drive files. Empty the Google Trash. This will reduce the size of the Takeout export and save you time.
  • If you have large amounts of data, we strongly recommended you separate your exports into separate requests eg one Takeout request for email data, another for My Drive data.
  • Your Takeout export request can take a few minutes to several days to process, depending on the type and size of data. You will receive an email when the data is available to be accessed.
  • Takeout may have difficulty transferring large emails eg email messages with large attachments. If you receive a transfer error, this could be one of the reasons why. Before you begin the transfer (or if there is an error when doing the transfer and it does not complete), you may want to review large emails and save the attachments in another way or simply delete these messages.

If you have a personal Google account and want to transfer your Macquarie student content there, Google provide a straightforward Transfer your content tool. If you don’t have a personal Google account, you can create one for free.

Note that personal Google accounts only have 15 GB of free storage, however you can purchase additional space from Google at your own expense.

The Google Transfer Tool feature will automatically transfer your Macquarie student Gmail and Drive files and upload them to your personal Google account.

To transfer your Gmail and Drive files:

  1. Open an incognito/private browsing window or use a different browser than you usually use. This will help to ensure the transfer will start.
  2. Log in to your Macquarie student email account.
  3. Access the tool. Alternatively, from the upper-right corner of the browser window in Google, select the ‘Google Account’ icon, and then select ‘Manage your Google Account.’
  4. From the home page, select ‘Start transfer’ under ‘Transfer your content.’ Then:
    1. enter and verify a destination account
    2. select the content to copy and transfer.
  5. Be patient. According to Google Support, the process may take up to several days to complete, particularly if you have a lot of data to transfer. When the transfer is complete, you will receive a confirmation email.
  6. Once you have confirmed that your files have been successfully transferred, go into your Google Drive and delete those files you have transferred. Do not delete any Google Docs that you wish to keep in Google.